Qualla: Old Parish

Old Parish: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Typhoon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two famous mayors of Chicago - Richard J. Daley, who ran the city for twenty-one years until his death in 1976, and his son Richard M. Daley, who ran it for twenty-two more - both had grandparents who came from this Irish-speaking corner of County Waterford. The Daleys and the Dunnes left An Sean Phobal during the Great Famine, when the parish's population was shaken loose by hunger and emigration. In Móin na Mín a plaque honours Richard J. Daley, who in 1970 sent a sum of money back to refurbish the local church. The man who built modern Chicago kept faith with the place his grandparents had been forced to leave.

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Typhoon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Old Parish: The Name Stayed Irish

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antairmdearg, CC BY-SA 3.0. Old Parish - An Sean Phobal in Irish, An tSean Phobail in the genitive - is one of the few places in Ireland where the bilingual road signs were deliberately reduced. Both forms appeared on local signs until 2005, when the anglicised "Old Parish" lost its official status. Today t...

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Antairmdearg | CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Parish: A Large, Quiet Parish

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Audrius Janecka, CC BY-SA 4.0. An Sean Phobal covers about 35 square kilometres - the second largest parish in Waterford by area - with roughly eight kilometres of coastline along Muggort's Bay. About 350 people live within its boundaries. It runs west to east from Ardmore and Grange to the neighbouring Gaelta...

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Audrius Janecka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Old Parish: Education Through Irish

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dermot, CC BY-SA 2.5. Every level of education in An Sean Phobal is delivered through Irish. There is one pre-school, Lios na Síog, and one primary school, Scoil Náisiúnta Baile Mhic Airt - a co-educational Gaeltacht national school under the patronage of the Catholic Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. ...

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Dermot | CC BY-SA 2.5

Old Parish: The Castle and the Famine Stone

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert French, Public domain. In Baile Mhic Airt Lower stand a ruined castle and a famine mass stone. Little is known about the castle's earliest history. Local tradition says it was built by a Lord Barron as a hunting lodge. The Buildings of Ireland Survey records the surviving structure as an early-19th-cen...

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Robert French | Public domain

Old Parish: Sport, Drama, and Sondes

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Críostóir Ó Faoláin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cultural life in An Sean Phobal still happens in Irish. The drama group Aisteoirí An tSean Phobail produces plays each year in the local hall. The community development committee Coiste Forbartha an tSean Phobail won recognition in the 2006 An Baile Beo competition. The parish's ...

Read more: Old Parish on Qualla

Image: Críostóir Ó Faoláin | CC BY-SA 4.0