Historical Background
Burrishoole Newport
The land in the Burrishoole Barony is mostly mountainous and of poor quality, fit only for grazing sheep. Any arable land is acidic and peaty. The mild, damp climate is suitable for growing potatoes and flax, which were the most important crops. The land was barely capable of sustaining the immediate producers. It was not rich enough to support agents, middlemen and landlords. The land tenure system was unfair and unsustainable.
There had been a huge increase in population in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, mainly due to the cultivation of lumper potatoes, which provided a nourishing diet. Any other crops grown and the cottage based linen industry provided the means to pay the rent. The decrease in tillage prices following the Napoleonic Wars and the increased industrialisation of the linen industry led to a decrease in income. Most of the population were impoverished and housing conditions were deplorable. Localised famines had already been endemic in Burrishoole prior to the outbreak of potato blight in 1845. The Barony of Burrishoole was teetering on the edge of disaster prior to the outbreak of potato blight and was completely incapable of coping with the outcome. . Click Here for information on the Origins of Newport Town |
While most towns in Ireland were of Viking or Anglo Norman origin or developed as trading centres, Newport was built as the dream town of Captain John Pratt. He developed the town on a green site at Baile Uí bhFiacháin. He wanted to create a new linen manufacturing town, taking advantage of the region's suitability for growing flax. He hoped to make a fortune for himself and the linen weavers he brought into his new town.
|