placenamesBellfield
Bellefield’s grounds became a home for an amalgamated club and a setting for gatherings beyond Gaelic games.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Bellfield · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Bellfield · English · main form
- Bellefield · English · main form
Place & story
Grounds for a united club
The sporting history of Bellfield, also written Bellefield, is preserved in a GAA oral-history interview recorded in 2011. Club members recalled the Starlights buying the ground from the Portsmouth estate for £17 around 1917. When two football clubs and two hurling clubs later amalgamated as Rapparees-Starlights, the Starlights already owned their ground. The new pavilion was built there, and the interview places the clubhouse opening in 1974. [2]
Beyond the matches
The same testimony remembers Bellefield as an important county match venue in the 1950s and 1960s, with radio commentary delivered from a dray. It also records a broader gathering place: the back field assembled thousands of pikemen for the 1998 Vinegar Hill commemoration, while Fleadh visitors camped on the grounds. Bridge, bingo, dancing and art groups brought people into the clubhouse whose connection to it extended beyond playing or watching sport. [2]
A new community project
A further phase of development began ceremonially in February 2024 under the name McCauley Bellefield Park. Reporter Dan Walsh described investment from the club, Wexford County Council and businessman Sam McCauley. Work on two pitches and a lit walking track was approaching completion, while a redesigned entrance, pedestrian crossing and playground formed part of the next phase. The proposals continued the grounds’ established role as both sporting facilities and a shared neighbourhood space. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Wexford
- Barony
- Scarawalsh
- Civil parish
- Saint Mary's Enniscorthy
- Coordinates
- 52.50735, -6.58014
- Logainm ID
- 1165116 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bellfield. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- GAA Oral History Project, interview report WX/1/33, 16 November 2011 · GAA Oral History Project; interviewer Regina Fitzpatrick
- Sod turned on €1.5m project at McCauley Bellefield Park · Dan Walsh, WexfordLocal.com
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-07-20. How this page was prepared.