Tomhaggard

Tomhaggard
Teach Moshagard
Civil parish
Church of St. Anne and St. James
Interactive map of Tomhaggard
Tomhaggard
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°12′39″N 6°30′19″W / 52.2107°N 6.50516°W / 52.2107; -6.50516
CountryIreland
ProvinceLeinster
CountyCounty Wexford
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))

Tomhaggard (Irish: Teach Moshagard) is a civil parish and townland in County Wexford in the south of Ireland.[1] Tomhaggard townland, which has an area of approximately 10.8 square kilometres (4.2 sq mi),[2] had a population of 73 people as of the 2011 census.[3]

History

Built heritage

The Record of Monuments and Places lists church, ringfort, holy well and church sites within Tomhaggard townland.[4][5] A former parish church at Tomhaggard lies within a enclosed graveyard, with archeological testing shows ditches just north of the ditch outside of the graveyard's walls, with the ditches potentially being a multi-vallate ecclesiastical enclosure.[5][4] The graveyard houses unidentified drowning victims.[6] The townland also contains a mass house built in 1731 that closed in 1813, with the house being restored in 2003.[7] The 1862 edition of The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society mentions a 'manor of Tomhaggard'.[8] The Catholic Telegraph, Volume 57, Number 34, from 23 August 1888 states that a 'St. James' is the patron saint of Tomhaggard.[9]

The village's original Celtic church was originally owned by Saint Mosacer, who died in 650.[10] On Christmas morning 1653, the church was burned down, and local priest Fr. Nicholas Meyler was murdered by Oliver Cromwell's 'red coats' for violating the Penal Laws[11] while celebrating mass in the southern part of Tomhaggard townland, with mass being celebrated there annually to commemorate the event. A small mass rock was rediscovered there c. 1982.[12][10] The rock reads; The mass rock where Fr. Nicholas Mayler P.P. Tacumshane and Tomhaggard was killed on Christmas morning 1653 while celebrating mass.[11]

Several editions of The Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack For the Year of our Lord, (the year of that edition) from the late 1700s and early 1800s record a July fair in Tomhaggard.[13][14][15][a] The parish of Tomhaggard was recorded as having 67 houses in 1807, with Tomhaggard and Kilturk covering 2200 acres combined.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ ſ is an archaic version of lowercase s

References

  1. ^ "Teach Moshagard / Tomhaggard (Civil parish)". logainm.ie. Irish Placenames Commission. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  2. ^ "Civil Parish of Tomhaggard, Co. Wexford". townlands.ie. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 13 January 2026.
  3. ^ "CD173 - Wexford Population by Private Households, Occupied and Vacancy Rate". data.gov.ie. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 13 January 2026. Population [..] Townlands [..] 2011 [..] Tomhaggard, Tomhaggard, Co. Wexford: 37
  4. ^ a b Moore, Michael, ed. (1996). Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford. Dublin: Government Stationery Office. ISBN 9780707623269.
  5. ^ a b "NMS mapping data - WX047-052001". Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com. WX047-052001- : Church : Tomhaggard [..] The parish church of Tomhaggard (WX047-052001) is within a subrectangular graveyard
  6. ^ "Tomhaggard, Tomhaggard, Wexford (15704774)". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  7. ^ "Tomhaggard, Tomhaggard, Wexford (15704775)". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Archived from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  8. ^ F. Hore, Herbert (1862). An Account of the Barony of Forth, in the County of Wexford, Written at the Close of the Seventeenth Century (PDF). Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. p. 76. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. Another branch lived at Tacumshane, and owned the manor of Tomhaggard.
  9. ^ Irish News (PDF). Vol. 57. Catholic Research Resources Alliance. 23 August 1888. p. 2. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. The Pattern of St. Anne's was held on July 25th, when the dressing of the graves was carried out with much religious ferver: St. James is the patron of Tomhaggard, and the celebration of the anniversary was in former times the great event of the year, bat it is now conducted in a much quieter and more commenable manner.
  10. ^ a b "Tomhaggard is 'A Sacred Place'". Irish Independent. 26 July 2002. Archived from the original on 24 May 2026. Retrieved 24 May 2026. The original Celtic church in the village is ascribed to St Mosacer, who died in 650 a.d. This church is not to be confused with the 13th-century ruin which crown the cemetery mound. The tragic consequences of the Cromwellian onslaught on the Catholic religion is well-known in Tomhaggard, where the church was burned and the local priest, Fr Nicholas Mayler, was murdered when clandestinely celebrating Mass in a knock of furze, on Christmas morning 1653
  11. ^ a b Hanagan, Michael; Tilly, Chris (2011). Contention and Trust in Cities and States. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 229–248. ISBN 978-94-007-0755-9. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via SpringerLink. This mass rock, which is quite effectively "hidden" along a fence line on the farm of Tommy Devereaux outside the village of Tomhaggard, County Wexford, in southeastern Ireland, has been "modernized" to commemorate the violent death of an "illegal" priest at the hands of British "red coats" while serving Mass at dawn on [image of rock] Christmas morning in 1653. It is still used annually on Christmas morning for community worship services, rain or shine. Tomhaggard is also home to a simple "penal chapel"—so called because it was constructed to shelter priests serving Mass in the eighteenth century, when local authorities began to relax their repression of Catholic religious practice under the anti-Catholic Penal Laws.
  12. ^ "NMS mapping data - WX047-052002-". Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com. WX047-052002- : Graveyard : Tomhaggard [..] Fr. Nicholas Meyler was murdered on Christmas morning 1653 while celebrating Mass (Grattan Flood 1915, 67), and Mass is celebrated every year at the location on Christmas morning to commemorate the event. The mass-rock, a small stone (dims c. 0.4m x c. 0.3m) with a decoration like a three-pointed leaf cut into one face was re-discovered at the location c. 1982
  13. ^ Watson, Samuel (1778). The Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack, Compiled by Samuel Watson, Bookfeller, For the Year of our Lord, 1773. Being the First after LEAP-YEAR, And the THIRTEENTH YEAR of K. GEORGE III. Reign, till 25 Oct. Containing, Days of the Year and Month: Week-Days: Sun's Riſing and Setting Moon's Age and Changes: a Table of Equation : The Times of High Water, at Dublin-bar. Several Tables, Altered, Renewed, or Continued. The MARRIAGES and DEATHS of the PRINCES of Europe. The Names of The LORD LIEUTENANT, of His Majeſty's Moſt Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL, and of The LORDS and COMMONS of Parliament, (PDF). Houses of the Oireachtas. p. 114. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. The Fairs of Ireland. Collected, every One, either from the Information of Gentlemen and Dealers, or from the Returns made by the Surveyors in their ſeveral Districts, which The Honourable Commiſſioners of His Majesty's Revenue were pleaſed to give the late Mr. John Watson, for the Purpoſe of Printing the Fairs with the greater Correctneſs in this Almanack. Which Original Returns are now in my Cuſtody for Vouchers. SAMUEL WATSON. [..] July [..] Tomhaggard Wex
  14. ^ Watson, Samuel (1778). The Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack, Compiled by Samuel Watson, Bookfeller, For the Year of our Lord, 1778. Being the Second after LEAP-YEAR, And the EIGHTEENTH YEAR of K. GEORGE III. Reign, till 25 Oct. Containing, Days of the Year and Month: Week-Days: Sun's Riſing and Setting Moon's Age and Changes: a Table of Equation : The Times of High Water, at Dublin-bar. Several Tables, Altered, Renewed, or Continued. The MARRIAGES and DEATHS of the PRINCES of Europe. The Names of The LORD LIEUTENANT, of His Majeſty's Moſt Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL, and of The LORDS and COMMONS of Parliament, (PDF). Houses of the Oireachtas. p. 97. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. The Fairs of Ireland. Collected, every One, either from the Information of Gentlemen and Dealers, or from the Returns made by the Surveyors in their ſeveral Districts, which The Honourable Commiſſioners of His Majesty's Revenue were pleaſed to give the late Mr. John Watson, for the Purpoſe of Printing the Fairs with the greater Correctneſs in this Almanack. Which Original Returns are now in my Cuſtody for Vouchers. SAMUEL WATSON. [..] July [..] Tomhaggard Wex
  15. ^ Watson, Samuel (1778). The Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack, Compiled by Samuel Watson, Bookfeller, For the Year of our Lord, 1789. Beingg the First after LEAP-YEAR, And the TWENTY NINTH YEAR of K. GEORGE III. Reign, till 25 Oct. Containing, Days of the Year and Month: Week-Days: Sun's Riſing and Setting Moon's Age and Changes: a Table of Equation : The Times of High Water, at Dublin-bar. Several Tables, Altered, Renewed, or Continued. The MARRIAGES and DEATHS of the PRINCES of Europe. The Names of The LORD LIEUTENANT, of His Majeſty's Moſt Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL, and of The LORDS and COMMONS of Parliament, (PDF). Houses of the Oireachtas. p. 139. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. The Fairs of Ireland. Collected, every One, either from the Information of Gentlemen and Dealers, or from the Returns made by the Surveyors in their ſeveral Districts, which The Honourable Commiſſioners of His Majesty's Revenue were pleaſed to give the late Mr. John Watson, for the Purpoſe of Printing the Fairs with the greater Correctneſs in this Almanack. Which Original Returns are now in my Cuſtody for Vouchers. SAMUEL WATSON. [..] July [..] Tomhaggard Wexf
  16. ^ Frasier, Robert (1807). Statistical survey of the county of Wexford : drawn up for the consideration, and by order of the Dublin Society (PDF). Houses of the Oireachtas. p. 73. Retrieved 24 May 2026 – via JSTOR. Of the County of Wexford; Barony of Bargie; Parishes. Houses. No. of Acres. Tomhaggard, and - 67 Kilturk .... 73 }2200
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