Bun Cloidi

Bunclody is situated in the north-west of Co. Wexford on the borders of Co. Carlow, and it gets its name, Bun Clóidí, from the fact that the little river Clody (Clóidigh) enters the Slaney (Sláine) at that point. The point where it rises on the slopes of Mount Leinster is called Barr Clóidí.

Years ago all the lands around Bunclody belonged to the Caomhánach (Kavanagh) family, descendants of the royal family of Leinster. However after the Cromwellian plantation the Earl of Anglesey was granted these lands along with other vast tracts of land in the country. The Caomhánach family continued to live there until the Williamite confiscation at the end of the seventeenth century. Early in the eighteenth century it had become the property of James Barry whose daughter married John Maxwell in 1719. Barry decided to name the town after himself and called it Newtownbarry. The name was changed to Bunclody in 1950 when the people of the town voted to restore its original name, but used the anglicised version Bunclody and not the old Irish name Bunclóidighe.

It would appear that there was no town or village as such where the town now stands up to the middle of the seventeenth century at least. In the Census of 1659 the places of importance in the area are listed as Carrigduff, Kilmyshal, Ballyphilip and Clohamon. By the end of the seventeenth century some sort of town had begun to grow up at Bunclody. From the beginning of the eighteenth century on, Bunclody continued to grow and by 1841 the population of the town, including Carrigduff, had reached 1680. After the Famine of 1845-1847 the population decreased, as did that of the country as a whole, and reached its lowest figure in 1936 when the population was only 766. A slight increase was recorded in 1946 when the figure was 777. In 1956 the population was 976 but dropped to 891 in the census of 1961.
The built-up area gradually increased until we had the Main Street, Market Square, Irish Street, Church Street and Ryland Street in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then the town has extended in the Carrigduff area, St Mary's Villas, Carraig Bhán, Ryland Wood, and other developments.

The Caomhanaigh

All during the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, the Caomhánaigh were the most important family in Bun Clóidí district. They belonged to the family of the kings of Leinster and had castles at Ferns, Enniscorthy, Clonmullen, Ryland (at Clohamon Cross), and Clohamon. In the late 1500s their principal residence was at Clonmullen, the eldest son and heir living at Ryland Castle. When Clonmullen Castle became too old to live in, the family erected, a new castle at Carrigduff.