Newbawn, Co. Wexford

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Newbawn · Co. Wexford

A pub, a hill, and the camp the rebels marched out of in 1798.

Newbawn is the kind of place you drive through on the N25 between New Ross and Wexford town without noticing you've done it. A church, a school, a pub, a few houses, and then fields again. Around 184 people. Not a destination - a parish.

But the wooded hill north of the village is Carrigbyrne, and Carrigbyrne is where the 1798 rebels made camp before they walked down to be cut to pieces at New Ross on June 5th. Their captain that morning was John Kelly, twenty-two years old, from Killanne up the road. He was carried back wounded, found in a Wexford bed weeks later, hanged on Wexford bridge, decapitated, his head kicked through the streets. P.J. McCall wrote the song sixty years later. The hill is still there. You can walk the loops through it.

Population

c. 184

Coords

52.3500° N, 6.8000° W

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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 hill

Carrigbyrne, looming north of the village.

A wooded hill on the N25, 13km out of New Ross. In the first days of June 1798, around 10,000 United Irish rebels camped here before marching down to the Battle of New Ross. The clearing is still called Camp Field.

Stories → 02 The pub

Foley's, the village.

A 19th-century roadside pub on the main street. That is the village - a pub, a church, a school, fields. Don't expect more.

The pub → 03 The GAA

St. Abban's - three parishes, one jersey.

In 1969 Adamstown, Newbawn and Raheen merged their GAA clubs under one banner. Senior hurling champions of Wexford eleven times since. The pitch is up at Adamstown.

Stories →

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The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Foley's of Newbawn

Locals, fire, no fuss

Village pub

A 19th-century pub on the main street. Open fire, regulars, the kind of bar where the lounge fills up on a Friday and empties by midnight. Food some evenings - check before you drive out.

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Stories & lore.

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

The camp before the battle

Carrigbyrne, June 1798

For a few days at the start of June, around 10,000 United Irish insurgents camped on Carrigbyrne Hill above the village. They were under the command of Bagenal Harvey, a Protestant landowner who hadn't asked to lead anyone. On the evening of June 4th they marched the eleven kilometres down to New Ross. The next morning they attacked the town. By nightfall hundreds of them were dead in the streets and in the burning buildings around the Three Bullet Gate. The clearing on the hill where they camped is still called Camp Field.

The captain who led the column

Kelly the Boy from Killanne

John Kelly was from Killanne, twenty kilometres north of here, and he was twenty-two. He led the rebel column down off Carrigbyrne and into New Ross on June 5th. He was seriously wounded in the fighting and carried back to Wexford. When Wexford fell to the army on June 21st he was dragged from his sickbed, tried, and hanged on the bridge on June 25th along with seven other leaders. His head was cut off and kicked through the streets before being set on a spike. The ballad - "Tell me who is that giant with the gold curling hair" - was written by P.J. McCall in the 1890s. Luke Kelly's version is the one most people know.

The 1969 merger

St. Abban's, three parishes in one jersey

Until 1969 Adamstown, Newbawn and Raheen ran their own small GAA clubs and couldn't put a senior team together between them. Representatives from the three parishes met, argued, and eventually agreed to play under one name - Naomh Abán Magh Arnaí, St. Abban's Adamstown. Eleven senior hurling county titles since. The pitch is at Adamstown. The catchment includes everyone who grew up between the three villages.

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Things to do outside.

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

Carrigbyrne / Carrickbyrne Hill Coillte forest park on the N25, 13km out of New Ross. Three waymarked Slí na Sláinte loops - yellow (3.6km), blue (4.4km), red (4.5km). Mixed forest, views to Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs on a clear day. The car park is signposted off the main road.

3.6-4.5 km loopsdistance

1-1.5 hourstime

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