Ballickmoyler is marked on William Petty's Down Survey map of 1654 as Bealach Maighe (the Highway of the Plain).  Today's bilingual road signs read both Baile Mhic Mhaoilir (Village of the son of Mary) and Ballickmoyler so the meaning of the village's name has changed over time.  Their was a village on this site from the Viking times according to Samuel Lewis.  Regularly burned by one invading force or another through Ireland's history, its location at a major crossroads allowed it to keep thriving.  By the late 1700's it was a major centre with a large marketplace for the surrounding farm community.  In 1798 it was a rallying point for pikemen gathering to march on the British garrison at Carlow town 5 miles away.  The rebel troops marched to Carlow, found two British cannon defending the bridge to the town and then marched back to Ballickmoyler with the British in pursuit.  Some historians claim that the rebels took out their frustrations on the village while others say that it was burned by the British troops in retaliation for its role in the rebellion.  Perhaps both sides burned some portions of Ballickmoyler but in any case it never again recovered as a major trade centre after that. 

See Ballickmoyler in the United Irish Rebellion of 1798 for a more complete history of those events.

See Some Folk Tales From The Rushes Near Ballickmoyler

As were most other villages in Ireland it was owned by one large landowner after another.  In the 1500's to 1600's land in co. Laois was passed back and forth from Irish Catholic to English Catholic to English Protestant hands.  The Cooper family of Newtown, co. Carlow acquiring Ballickmoyler and it's surrounding farmland in about 1700 and remained as major landowners until the 1950's.  My Bowles ancestors probably were also originally tenants at Newtown or somewhere close by and came to Ballickmoyler with the Coopers.  

See Griffith's Valuation of Ballickmoyler for a townland map and a listing of the occupants of Ballickmoyler and their landlords in 1858-1860.

Today Ballickmoyler is a village of several old houses, the occasional very old stone house and mostly closed shops except for Kelly's pub. Photos of Ballickmoyler Today 

Other Related Pages

Samuel Lewis' account of Ballickmoyler in 1837

Michael Brennan's excellent Ballickmoyler page in his local history section of his family web site.

My own account of The Bowles of Ballickmoyler, co. Laois and The Bowles of Ballickmoyler and the Coopers of Cooperhill Demesne

See The Bowles of Dunleckney for more on the Bowles connection to The Coopers

Castletown, a few miles up the road from Ballickmoyler, was a thriving market town under the Anglo-Norman occupation in the 12th to the 14th centuries with the castle having been constructed in 1182.  The village seems to have declined in the 15th century and today consists of Castletown House and it's farm, another farm based in the converted corn mill and the Church of Ireland church.  Castletown was important to the Bowles and other Protestants of Ballickmoyler as it was their closest place of worship.  There may have been an earlier Protestant church or a small chaple in Ballickmoyler or at  Castletown but if so it had been destroyed possibly in the rebellion of 1798.  The church at Castletown was built in 1801 and opened in 1802 with the Bowles family very active in its founding and operation.

See The Bowles of Ballickmoyler and the Church at Castletown

See The Early History of Castletown