Gortnahoe

Gortnahoe (Irish: Gort na hUamha, meaning "Tilled Field of the Cave") is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located on the R689 regional road 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Urlingford, County Kilkenny. It is 3 km (1.9 mi) southeast of the N8 Dublin - Cork road. Gortnahoe, pronounced "Gurt/na/hoo" by the locals, is part of the parish of Gortnahoe-Glengoole.

In the 1960s the Irish name for Gortnahoe was Gort na hUaighe, meaning the ploughed field of the grave. This would seem to be a more accurate name than Gort na hUamha (the ploughed field of the cave). There is no evidence of a cave in Gortnahoe, and it is likely that the name came from the existence of a grave.

When you travel from Gortnahoe to Glengoole you expect to find Glengoole after Ballysloe, but the stranger finds that the sign for the next village reads ‘New Birmingham’. He also finds that the village is neither New nor Birmingham. There must be history here and there is. It takes you back to the beginning of the 19th century, when the local landlord, Vere Hunt, could see great potential for the development of coal mining. The plans were to build a city for coal mining in the Slievardagh Hills. In reality it never got to the stage of full development, so you can find the remains of a gaol which never held a prisoner and the extensive diary of Vere Hunt gives a vivid account of how Glengoole got the name New Birmingham, but failed to reach its full potential. It is not the only place in the parish that got its name from another country. In the townslands of New Park and Bawnleigh we have Palatine Street, called after a province in Germany, which now brings us back to the eighteenth century. It was Sir William Barker, the landlord in Kilcooley, who offered protection and property to some families who left the Palatine on the borders of Germany and France, settled in England and later came to New Park and Bawnlea. In the Griffith Valuations of 1850 we find that there was a Methodist Chapel and a Baptist Chapel in that area. Descendants of those families still farm those areas and form an important part of the parish and of the Church of Ireland. Not far from Palatine Street is the Wellington Monument, with the inscription "Erected in August 1817 in the eightieth year of his age by Sir William Barker, in honour of his grace the duke of Wellington and of his glorious victory over the French at Waterloo on the 15th June 1815." When we stop to think about the placing of our parish on the map of Ireland you notice that it is right on the border between Munster and Leinster and it is at the end of the valley, leading from Kilkenny into the plains of Munster, a gap important for control and protection. This may be the reason why we find the ruins of a constabulary barracks at Longford Pass North or Durrihies. We are now going further back into history, because this was very likely the site of the ancient Celtic Monastery of Doire Mor, the monastery established by St. Colmán, which continued with the other Celtic Monasteries of Liath Mór, Doire na Flan and Derryvilla to serve the religious needs of the people. With the decline of the Celtic Monasteries and the arrival of the Cistercians in Ireland in the 12th century, the Cistercian Monastery of Kilcooley was established by the monks from Jerpoint in 1184. The monastery continued to prosper until the disestablishment of the monasteries by King Henry VIII in 1539. During this time there were also the Church centres of Boulick and Fennor. All the townlands were divided between those three parishes.

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