|Irish: An Baile Úr|
Newtownhamilton shown within Northern Ireland
|Irish grid reference|
|District||Newry & Mourne|
|Sovereign state||United Kingdom|
|Dialling code||028, +44 28|
|EU Parliament||Northern Ireland|
|UK Parliament||Newry & Armagh|
|NI Assembly||Newry & Armagh|
Newtownhamilton (Irish: An Baile Úr), sometimes referred to as Newtown, is a small village and civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Tullyvallan and the barony of Upper Fews. In the 2011 Census it had 2,836 inhabitants.
The village is built around two narrow main streets (Armagh Street and Dundalk Street) and a town square (The Square). Other places include Newry Street, Castleblaney Street (known locally as 'Blaney Hill'), Shambles Lane (known locally as the 'back street') and The Commons. Residential areas are Dungormley Estate, Meadowvale and the Nine Mile Road.
The modern Irish name of Newtownhamilton is An Baile Úr, literally translating as "the new town"; a rarely used alternative is Baile Úr Uí Urmoltaigh ("the new town of Hamilton"). The local authority, Newry and Mourne District Council, has erected bilingual welcome signs (reading Fáilte go dtí An Baile Úr / Welcome to Newtownhamilton) at the town end points on Newry Road and Dundalk Road, both in the perceived nationalist areas of Newtownhamilton, while a sign in English only was erected on Armagh Road, a perceived unionist area of the village. It is not known if this reflects official council policy.
The village takes its name from Alexander Hamilton, a descendant of the John Hamilton from Scotland who founded Hamiltonsbawn in 1619. The parish was created in 1773 out of the neighbouring parish of Creggan.
For more information see The Troubles in Newtownhamilton, which includes a list of incidents in Newtownhamilton during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities.
While the British Army had a major presence in the village during the conflict, this was scaled down and eventually removed entirely following the Good Friday Agreement. In 2006 it was announced that the local police station would be upgraded to full-time status.
- Newtownhamilton High School
- Newtownhamilton Primary School
- St Michael's Primary School
- St. Oliver Plunkett's Primary School (located at Carrickovaddy, about 3 km from Newtownhamilton)
- Cortamlet Primary School (located outside Newtownhamilton)
- St. Paul's High School, Bessbrook
Newtownhamilton is classified as a small village or hamlet by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 500 and 1,000 people).
On Census Day (27 March 2011), in Newtownhamilton Ward, there were 2,836 people living in 956 households, giving an average household size of 2.97.
- 26.09% were aged under 16 years and 10.93% were aged 65 and over;
- 50.74% of the usually resident population were male and 49.26% were female; and
- 32 years was the average (median) age of the population.
- 99.44% were from white (including Irish Traveller) ethnic groups;
- 62.41% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion and 34.77% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion; and
- 30.18% indicated that they had a British national identity, 44.39% had an Irish national identity and 27.82% had a Northern Irish national identity. Respondents could indicate more than one national identity
Of the population aged 3 years old and over:
- 14.99% had some knowledge of Irish;
- 4.71% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots; and
- 2.63% did not have English as their first language.
On Census day 29 April 2001, there were 648 people living in Newtownhamilton. Of these:
- 25.5% were aged under 16 years and 17.0% were aged 60 and over
- 47.1% of the population were male and 52.9% were female
- 71.8% were from a Catholic background and 28.2% were from a Protestant background
- 7.2% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed
For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service
- List of villages in Northern Ireland
- List of towns in Northern Ireland
- List of civil parishes of County Armagh
- Cork Examiner. 22 May 1920.
- FAIR account of Newtownhamilton Barracks attack, 1920[dead link]
- Bradfield, Phillip. "Orde visit seen as farewell to Army". News Letter. 20 October 2006.