placenamesBallymitty
Baile Uí Mhitigh
St Peter’s church and the changing school buildings preserve Ballymitty’s nineteenth- and twentieth-century community history.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile Uí Mhitigh · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballymitty · English · main form
Place & story
St Peter’s of 1837
St Peter’s Catholic Church at Ballymitty, in Hilltown townland, is dated 1837. Built under Fr Peter Corish, it has a rectangular nave and a three-stage entrance tower. Its pointed windows and granite details give the otherwise restrained building a Gothic character. The NIAH notes that its nave-and-tower arrangement resembles some contemporary Church of Ireland buildings, a useful reminder that architectural forms crossed denominational boundaries. [2]
Memorials and craftsmanship
Inside St Peter’s, an oval marble monument remembers Fr Edward Murphy, who died in 1830. A timber gallery rests on paired cast-iron supports, and the boarded vaulted ceiling has decorative quatrefoil openings. The elaborate reredos is another conspicuous feature, although its maker is disputed: the NIAH records competing attributions to James Shipley and the Maddock brothers of Bannow. The attribution remains open rather than providing a secure artist’s name. [2]
The school beyond the churchyard
St Joseph’s National School was built in 1950, replacing the older school beside St Peter’s. It began with two classrooms and two teachers, headmaster Paddy Garvey and Mrs Brennan. Its own history records a later amalgamation involving Tullycanna and Hilltown schools in 1969, when pupil numbers reached 182 and a prefabricated classroom helped accommodate them. Further classrooms and a general-purpose room followed in 1982–83, while a three-classroom extension was formally opened in 2013. The successive additions trace the school’s changing role for families across the district. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Wexford
- Barony
- Shelmaliere West
- Civil parish
- Ballymitty
- Within
- Ballymitty
- Coordinates
- 52.27974, -6.71045 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413874 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballymitty. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Saint Peter’s Catholic Church, NIAH15704117 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- History of School · St Joseph’s National School, Ballymitty
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.