placenamesIrishtown
An Baile Gaelach
Markets and later religious buildings mark the history of New Ross’s Irishtown suburb.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Baile Gaelach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Irishtown · English · main form
Place & story
Outside the Maiden Gate
The 1990 urban archaeological survey identifies Irishtown as a medieval suburb outside New Ross’s walls. It suggests that settlement grew around a market beyond the Maiden Gate in the thirteenth century. A record from 1289 describes the community of Market Street paying for market rights; the survey treats the possibility of a separate borough cautiously. [2]
The convent chapel
The Good Shepherd convent chapel at Irishtown was built in 1891–93. It had a raised basement and a tall nave flanked by lean-to aisles. The interior was renovated in 1934–35, and the chapel was deconsecrated in 1967. Archaeological testing at the Mercy convent site in Irishtown in 2002 uncovered no significant remains in its four trenches. [3] [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Wexford
- Barony
- Bantry
- Civil parish
- Saint Mary's
- Within
- Irishtown
- Coordinates
- 52.38950, -6.89824 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413883 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Irishtown. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Urban Archaeology Survey, Part XI, County Wexford — New Ross suburbs (1990) · John Bradley and Heather King; commissioned by Office of Public Works
- Convent of the Good Shepherd, Irish Town, Irishtown — NIAH15606015 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- 2002:1921 — IRISHTOWN, New Ross, Wexford · Emmet Stafford, Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.