POSTED FROM

KILLANNE

CO. WEXFORD · IE

Killanne
Cill Anna, Co. Wexford

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Cill Anna · Co. Wexford

A crossroads, a church, and the boy from the ballad.

Killanne is a small rural parish in the west of Wexford, in the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains, a few miles north of New Ross. It has a church, a graveyard, a school, and a name that travels further than the place itself. The reason for that is a man called John Kelly.

Kelly was born in Killanne in 1772 and died at the end of a rope on Wexford Bridge on 25 June 1798. He was twenty-six. He had led a column of pikemen at New Ross on 5 June and taken a leg wound that put him out of the fighting. He was carried into Wexford town to recover; the rebellion collapsed; the yeomanry found him in bed. They hanged him with the other captured leaders and spiked his head over the courthouse.

A hundred years later, in 1898, the Dublin poet P.J. McCall wrote 'Kelly, the Boy from Killanne' for the centenary of the Rising. It went into the songbooks and never came out. That's most of why anyone outside west Wexford knows the village name. Come for the song, stay for the mountain - Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs ridge fill the western sky, and the lanes around the parish are some of the quietest in the county.

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The ballad

Kelly, the boy from Killanne.

P.J. McCall wrote it in 1898, a hundred years after Kelly died. It's still sung at every Wexford session worth the name.

Stories & lore → 02 The mountain

Mount Leinster sits at the back door.

The Blackstairs run along the western horizon. The summit road climbs to a TV mast you can see from half the county.

Walks & outings → 03 The parish

Rathnure-Killanne, joined at the hip.

Two names, one community, one GAA club. Most things called Killanne happen in Rathnure these days. The church is the giveaway.

About Killanne →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

1772-1798

John Kelly

Born in Killanne, the son of a small farmer. Tall, strong, and by all accounts a natural leader. When the Wexford rising broke out at the end of May 1798 he raised a column from the parish and marched them to New Ross. He was wounded in the leg in the assault on the town on 5 June and carried back to Wexford to be nursed. When Crown forces retook the town three weeks later they found him in his sickbed. He was hanged on Wexford Bridge on 25 June 1798 with seven other rebel leaders. His head was set on a spike over the courthouse. He was twenty-six.

P.J. McCall, 1898

The ballad

Patrick Joseph McCall, a Dublin poet of Wexford parentage, wrote 'Kelly, the Boy from Killanne' for the 1798 centenary commemorations. It's a marching song in the voice of a man asking news of the rebellion - 'What's the news, what's the news, O my bold Shelmalier?' - and the answer is Kelly riding down from the mountain at the head of seven hundred men. The historical Kelly probably commanded fewer. The song doesn't mind. McCall also wrote 'Boolavogue' and 'Follow Me Up to Carlow.' Three ballads, three rebellions, one songbook.

From Killanne to Wexford Bridge

The 1798 path

The rebellion that swallowed Kelly began in late May 1798 and was effectively over by the end of June. In between, the rebels held most of Wexford for three weeks. The defeats - New Ross on 5 June, Vinegar Hill on 21 June - are the dates that survived. Boolavogue, where Father Murphy raised his pikemen, is twenty miles east of here. Vinegar Hill is at Enniscorthy. The whole rising fits inside a small triangle of south Leinster, and Killanne sits on the western edge of it.

A statue and a stone

What's left

There's a stone monument to Kelly at the crossroads in the village and a larger statue in nearby Rathnure that goes up in lights at commemoration time. The Catholic church holds the parish records. The grave is in St Anne's, the old churchyard the parish takes its Irish name from. Most years there's a 1798 commemoration in late June. It's quiet, local, and not aimed at tourists.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Mount Leinster summit road The 795m summit of the Blackstairs range, shared with Carlow. There's a tarred service road to the TV mast on top - you can drive it in summer or walk it for the legs. View on a clear day takes in five counties and the Wicklow hills.

8 km return from the car parkdistance

2-3 hours on foot, 20 min by cartime

The Blackstairs ridge Proper hill day. From Mount Leinster south along the ridge to Blackstairs Mountain (735m) and down towards Kiltealy. Map, compass, and a friend with a second car at the far end. Not waymarked.

Variable - 12 km full traversedistance

5-6 hourstime

The parish lanes The byroads between Killanne, Rathnure and Kiltealy are good slow walking. Hedges, hay sheds, no traffic. The mountain is always to your west.

5-8 km loopsdistance

1-2 hourstime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Gorse on the Blackstairs, lambs in every field. The summit road opens up properly by April.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings on the mountain. The 1798 commemorations land in late June if that interests you.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Heather and bracken turning. Quietest time on the hills.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The summit road ices over. Cloud sits on the ridge for days. Stay low or go properly equipped.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming just for "the village"

There isn't really one - Killanne is a church, a school, a crossroads and a monument. The houses are spread across the parish. Pair it with Mount Leinster, Enniscorthy or New Ross or you'll be back in the car in ten minutes.

Looking for a Kelly pub or Kelly museum

Neither exists. The ballad is the museum. The monument at the crossroads is the exhibit. That's the lot.

The summit road in low cloud

The view is the entire point. If the top of the mountain is in the cloud - and it often is - drive somewhere else and come back another day.