Bastardstown

Bastardstown
Baile Bhastaird
Townland
Interactive map of Bastardstown
Bastardstown
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°11′21″N 6°32′34″W / 52.1892°N 6.5428°W / 52.1892; -6.5428
CountryIreland
ProvinceLeinster
CountyCounty Wexford
Civil parishKilmore
Area
 • Total
0.7491 km2 (0.2892 sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))

Bastardstown (Irish: Baile Bhastaird[1]) is a townland and neighbourhood in the civil parish of Kilmore, County Wexford, Ireland.[2][1] Bastardstown townland, which has an area of approximately 75 ha (190 acres),[3] had a population of 36 people as of the 2011 census.[4] The place is often noted for its vulgar name.[5]

In 2008, journalist Tom Galvin visited the townland for his column in the Evening Herald.[6] He wrote that "the only purpose of a visit to Bastardstown is to say you were there".[6] The only confirmation that he was in the townland was a notice on a wall of an application for planning permission.[n 1][6]

Name

The name "Bastardstown" for the place is first recorded in the 1530s, in records of the Dublin Castle administration relating to residents named Richard Caine and William Seyntloo.[1][n 2] "Bastard" was probably the nickname of someone who owned the land after the Norman invasion of Ireland led the barony of Bargy, in which Bastardstown is located,[1] to be heavily settled by Anglo- and Cambro-Norman colonists.[7][8] Many Bargy townlands bear the surname of medieval proprietors.[7] A bastard was a person of illegitimate birth and the surname Bastard developed in medieval times from several founders' personal nicknames. The Irish name is a direct translation of the English—Baile Bhastaird, "town[land] of [person named] Bastard".[n 3]

The word bastard in later centuries became a vulgar general term of abuse. The Irish Mirror,[10] BelfastLive,[11] Irish Star,[12] TheJournal.ie,[5] Irish Parcels[2] and DublinLive[2] consider Bastardstown to be one of Ireland's most vulgar place names, with Irish Parcels making a road trip map of Ireland's most obscene place names with Bastardstown included,[2] and BelfastLive and Irish Mirror putting Bastardstown on the top of their most obscene Irish place names lists.[11][10]

Demographics

Population of Bastardstown at censuses
Year 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 1926 [n 4] 2011 2016
Population 179 164 130 121 115 84 76 75 63 N/a 36 42
References [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

Bastardstown Beach

The townland is coastal and has a beach named Bastardstown Beach or Seaview.

Artist Orla Barry exhibited a set of 1997–1999 photographs of Bastardstown Beach under the title "Findlings". This evokes Findling, a German word which can mean either a glacial erratic, such as are found on the beach, or a foundling, a type of abandoned child recalling the "bastard" of the beach's name.[18]

Like many other beaches in County Wexford, Bastardstown Beach is heavily affected by coastal erosion, with The Irish Times writer Ronan McGreevy considering it to have the worst coastal erosion in County Wexford.[19] In June 2024, the Irish Government gave €668,921 to Wexford County Council to add another layer of large boulders to protect the road and houses near the coast.[20]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Townlands are minor units whose names and boundaries are rarely marked on public signage, but often form part of a property's postal address.
  2. ^ The original documents were destroyed in the Four Courts explosion but had been calendared in the 19th century.
  3. ^ The Irish for "bastard" in sense "illegitimate person" is not Bastard but rather [leanbh] tabhartha or [páiste] suirí.[9]
  4. ^ Data for some censuses was never published at townland level.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Baile Bhastaird/Bastardstown". logainm.ie. Placenames Database of Ireland. Archived from the original on 14 October 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d Cullen, Róisín (21 June 2021). "From Bastardstown to Willyrogue and Ballsbridge to Slutsend, take a tour around the country on Ireland's rudest road trip". DublinLive.ie. Archived from the original on 25 June 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  3. ^ "Bastardstown Townland, Co. Wexford". townlands.ie. Archived from the original on 23 May 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  4. ^ "CD173 - Wexford Population by Private Households, Occupied and Vacancy Rate". data.gov.ie. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 23 May 2026. Population [..] Townlands [..] 2011 [..] Bastardstown, Kilmore, Co. Wexford: 36
  5. ^ a b McLysaught, Emer (2 June 2012). "Bastardstown, Muff, Crazy Corner... welcome to Ireland". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  6. ^ a b c Galvin, Tom (26 June 2008). "Out Of Town". Evening Herald. p. 33. Retrieved 23 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b Bardon, Jonathan (31 October 2008). A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7171-5754-9.
  8. ^ "Bastardstown". Brewers Britain and Ireland. London: Cassell. 2005. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-304-35385-9. Presumably this means what it says: English for property of an illegitimate son.
  9. ^ "bastard". Foclóir Nua Gaeilge. Foras na Gaeilge. Retrieved 28 May 2026.
  10. ^ a b Roberts, Sam (26 September 2020). "15 of the strangest named towns and villages in Ireland from the rude to the confusing". Irish Mirror. Archived from the original on 23 May 2026. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  11. ^ a b Gallagher, Katie (10 August 2023). "Ireland's weirdest and rudest place names - from Slutsend to Bastardstown". BelfastLive. Archived from the original on 20 August 2025. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  12. ^ Gallagher, Katie (7 August 2023). "From Slutsend to Bastardstown - here are the weirdest and rudest place names in Ireland". Irish Star. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  13. ^ "Table VII". Census of Ireland 1871; Part I, Area, Population, and Number of Houses; Occupations, Religion and Education; Volume I, Province of Leinster; No. 11: County of Wexford. Command papers. Vol. Cd. 662—XI. HMSO. 1873. p. 978.
  14. ^ "Table VII". Census Returns of Ireland for 1901; Volume I: Province of Leinster; No. 11: County of Wexford. Command papers. Vol. Cd. 847—X. HMSO. 1902. p. 51.
  15. ^ "Table VII". Census returns for Ireland, 1911; Province of Leinster; County of Wexford. Command papers. Vol. Cd. 6049—XI. London: HMSO. 1912. p. 49.
  16. ^ "Search Results: Townland Bastardstown". Search the Census 1926. National Archives of Ireland. Archived from the original on 25 May 2026. Retrieved 28 May 2026.
  17. ^ "Small Area Population Statistics". Census 2016. Cork: Central Statistics Office. Census 2016 population for 50,117 Townlands. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2026.
  18. ^ Briggs, Patricia (2006). "Review of Dialogues: Women Artists from Ireland". Woman's Art Journal. 27 (2): 67. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 20358100.
  19. ^ McGreevy, Ronan (8 September 2024). "'There are trees falling into the sea': How coastal erosion is changing beach made famous in Saving Private Ryan". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 24 August 2025. Retrieved 23 May 2026. The problem is worst at a place known as Bastardstown beach near Kilmore or by the more polite designation of Seaview. Rock armour – huge boulders – was placed along part of the coast a decade ago to preserve a road into a housing estate. Emergency works were done earlier this year to preserve the roads into the development.
  20. ^ "€668,921 confirmed for Flood Works in Seaview, Bastardstown, Kilmore". South East Radio. 6 June 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
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