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Bilboa Church, Co Carlow c2006
- Image supplied by Carloman
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Bilboa Church, Co Carlow c2006
- Image from 'LAOIS
An Environmental History'.
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Bilboa -
The Mining Village
(This village is located on the Borders of Carlow and Laois and the River
Dinin)
The
abandoned urban settlements of the Normans are not the only class of deserted
villages in Laois. The mining settlements, which date to the last century and
the early part of this are another group of villages which have left almost as
little trace in the contemporary landscape. There were three of them in
particular: Newtown, Bilboa and Moscow. Newtown was the earliest of the three,
laid out in the old townland of Boulavoneen by the Grand Canal Company in the
later part of the eighteenth century on a regular, grid-like pattern of
streets. The modern hamlet of Crettyard, a cluster of houses along the
Athy-Castlecomer road which ran along the northern edge of Newtown, is all
that survives of this miniature Johannesburg, whose straight streets have
vanished among hedgerows and crofts.
Bilboa lay at the extreme southern tip of the county, in a bleak and
beautiful and forgotten part of the plateau that forms a sort of no-man’s-land
between Kilkenny, Carlow and Laois. Without coal there would have been little
settlement at Bilboa, but at the time of writing the little cluster of
families in this beautiful area struggles to maintain its identity, and to
survive as a distinct localised community, proud of its individuality and its
tradition. Of the early mining village, only the church remains.
Not a trace remains of Moscow, which was situated north-eastwards from
Newtown Cross. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the growth
in many parts of industrial Britain - particularly in mining districts of
villages which became little bastions of militant socialism. These came to be
known popularly as Little Moscows, and Moscow in Laois is one of the very few
Irish examples - perhaps the only one? The early twentieth century miners were
perhaps the only proletarian community in Laois with a developed class
consciousness: among them the early seeds of socialism germinated and
flourished, and the Revolution of 1917 filled them with hope of the dawning of
a new age.
Source: 'LAOIS An Environmental History'.
1983. by John Feehan.
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- Bilboa National School
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- Bilboa Police Station
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- Bilboa Post Office
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Bilboa Church of Ireland Church, Bilboa, County Carlow |
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Bilboa C of I Church
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Bilboa C of I Church
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- Boolyvannanan wood nr Bilboa
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Bilboa C of I Church
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Church and Graveyard Holy Trinity C of I
church at Bilboa, Copyright kevin
higgins
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Road sign on approach to Bilboa taken
byKevin Higgins
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Images curtsey of Mr William Muldowney. Feb 2007,
Kevin Higgins, OSI
maps & Google Earth Maps
Bilboa is located on the boundaries of County
Laois, Co. Carlow and Co. Kilkenny.
The little settlement at Bilboa was
originally based around coal and coal mining. Of the early mining
village, only the church remains. Bilboá's Anglican church is a detached
three-bay Tudor Revival Church of Ireland church, built 1846, with
crenellated entrance tower and granite dressings including clasping
buttresses on octagonal plans having pinnacles and hood mouldings to
openings. Interior retains original pews.
The origins of the name Bilboa are reputedly
recorded in several small extracts on the origins of the village. A
bridge, a short distance from the village and built c.1800, is
known as the 'Three Counties Bridge". The
passages were taken from the old school house in the village (now
Brennens shop).
The general story suggests that a Colonel John Staunton
Rochford 1802-1844 returned from fighting in the British army in the
Napoleonic wars. He was credited with some act of valour while fighting
around the Spanish city of Bilboa. Hence he became known as Rochford of
Bilboa, where, as his family before him, where the Rochfords of
Clogrennene. Later members of his family seem to have being involved in
some capacity with the building of Bilboa Church c.1850. Since then the
area has been known as Bilboa.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilboa
Please report any links or images which do not open to
mjbrennan30@gmail.com
- The information
contained in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of
sharing with others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
- © 2001 County Carlow
Genealogy IGP
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