Castletown, County Wexford

Castletown Baile an Chaisleáin
Town
Sign outside the Golden Anchor pub
Castletown Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°43′23″N 6°11′20″W / 52.723°N 6.189°WCoordinates: 52°43′23″N 6°11′20″W / 52.723°N 6.189°W
Country	Ireland
Province	Leinster
County	Wexford
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Area code(s)	0402

Castletown, historically called Ballycaslane (Irish: Baile an Chaisleáin),^[1] is a small village in northeast County Wexford, Ireland.

Castletown is in the parish of Kilgorman which is one of the earliest Christian settlements in Ireland. It was founded by St Gorman possibly the same Gorman for whom Loch Garman (Wexford) is named and after whom St German's Cathedral on St Patrick's Isle off the Isle of Man is also named.

Location

Castletown is a small town located between the popular towns of Gorey and Arklow. It lies on the Wicklow/Wexford border and is situated at the foot of Tarahill! it has miles of sandy beach and plenty of facilitys. Such as it local shop, located just 5 minutes up the road in the neighbouring village of Tarahill. Castletown also has a small primary school and a church.

Tourism

Castletown is a popular tourist area. There is plenty of accommodation in the area, such as a small caravan park, Byrnes B&B, Forgertys Caravan Park, Kinsella's Caravan park and Pat Purcell's caravan park. Castletown is close to sandy beaches (Saleen, Clone, Kilpatrick and Kilmichael) and the pub called the "Golden Anchor". It is an hour's drive from Dublin and lies between two major towns in south east (Gorey and Arklow).

Republican involvement

Flag bearers lead proceedings from Golden Anchor to Castletown Cemetery.

Castletown is the Wexford Headquarters of the Irish Republican Army. Its origins date back to the early days of the Irish War of Independence, when IRA fighting columns who had been training near by went for drinks in the Golden Anchor pub. Each year a commemorative rally is held in village to honour those who drank in the Golden Anchor. The Flag bearers lead proceedings from Golden Anchor to Castletown Cemetery. Afterwards they head back to the Anchor for refreshments. The meeting was first held in 1970 and only failed to commence on two occasions in 1984 and 2010 when snow halted processions.

Castletown G.A.A. club

Castletown GAA club is situated in he heart of Castletown just between its local village of Tarahill. Castletown was a football only club up until the 1960's when the decision was made to form a hurling club as wexford had just won an all Ireland title. Records show that football was played around the area since 1887 when a team from Castletown went to play a football match in a field near the Kish. the club was then known as "Castletown" GAA club but is know known as "Castletown Liam Mellows" GAA club as the hurling club was established. After Castletown’s success in 1960 and Wexford winning the All-Ireland Hurling Final, it was decided to form a hurling club. The new Club was called Liam Mellows in honour of the executed Irish Republican. They played their first game in Gorey against Craanford. The Club was very successful, they won the district title in 1963 but were beaten in the County Semi-Final by St. Martins. In 1964, after again winning the Gorey District, Liam Mellows had a great win over Blackwater in the County Semi-Final and on a wet day in Bellfield, history was made when Liam Mellows overcame Na Fianna from Wexford town to win the Junior Championship.^[2]

Woman's sport

Castletown has also in recent years set up both Ladies football and camogie clubs. both clubs have been extremely successful of the last few years. with both teams now playing in "junior A" division, this is a huge success for the girls as the clubs are so young. the clubs have been going from strength to strength and we look forward to there continued success in the future.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

1. Placenames Database of Ireland (see archival records)
2. "Castletown GAA club".