placenamesNew Birmingham
Gleann an Ghuail
Sir Vere Hunt’s planned town sought prosperity from the Slieveardagh coalfield but struggled to fulfil its founder’s hopes.
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
- Gleann an Ghuail · Irish · main form · validated name
- New Birmingham · English · main form
Place & story
A new town beside the coalfield
Sir Vere Hunt founded New Birmingham on his Glengoole estate in the early nineteenth century. Arnold Horner's study of Patrick Leahy's maps places the beginning around 1803 and describes the Leahy family's involvement in Hunt's promotion of the settlement. Hunt hoped the nearby coal deposits would support manufacturing. [2] [3]
The village in 1837
Samuel Lewis described New Birmingham in 1837 as a village of about fifty houses. Its markets and fairs had ceased, and he considered it comparatively deserted. Yet it retained a police station, a small prison, a recently erected Catholic chapel and a school serving roughly eighty or ninety children. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Tipperary
- Barony
- Slievardagh
- Civil parish
- Kilcooly
- Coordinates
- 52.61563, -7.64194 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 67237 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — New Birmingham. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Patrick Leahy’s Maps of the Barony of Slieveardagh 1818 and of the Killenaule Coal District 1824, Tipperary Historical Journal 2008 · Arnold Horner
- New Birmingham, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis; reproduced by University of Portsmouth, GB Historical GIS
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-10-21. How this page was prepared.