Birdhill ()Placenames Database of Ireland
(see archival records) is a village in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named afte ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is in the barony of Owney and Arra and is part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of ''Newport, Birdhill and Toor'' in the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly The Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly ( ga, Ard-Deoise Chaisil agus Imligh) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in mid-western Ireland and the metropolis o ...

. Its Irish name was historically anglicised as ''Knockan'' or ''Knockaneeneen''.

Location

The village is located at the junction of the

R445 The R445 road is a regional road in Ireland. The route is a non-motorway alternative route to the N7/ M7 motorway between Naas and Limerick, and at 170 km it is one of the longest regional roads in Ireland (longer than most national roads). ...

(formerly N7), the R466, R504 and the R494 about 20 km from

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

. The R494 route connects Birdhill to the M7. Public transport is provided by

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subs ...

who provide hourly bus services to

and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

from Birdhill.

Birdhill railway station Birdhill railway station serves the town of Birdhill in County Tipperary, Ireland. The station opened on 23 July 1860 as an extension from Castleconnell by the Limerick and Castleconnell Railway. The line was extended to Killaloe on 12 April 1 ...

is served by two weekday trains each way on the Limerick–Ballybrophy railway line and a skeleton service on the Limerick to Nenagh Commuter Service.

Railway line

is on the Limerick–Ballybrophy railway line. A January 2012 national newspaper article suggested that Irish Rail was expected to seek permission from the National Transport Authority to close the line. An enhanced timetable was in force during 2012 however the service was again reduced from February 2013.

Economy

Matt Threshers pub, Birdhill (geograph 5533569)

Birdhill is home to the Matt The Threshers Bar & Restaurant in the centre of the village which opened in 1984. Adjacent to the restaurant is the Old Barracks Coffee Roastery, which roasts its own coffee and has an in-house coffee shop, which opened in 2018. Across the road is the Coopers Bar.

Petrogas Applegreen is an Irish company founded in 1992 that operates 620 petrol stations in Ireland, the UK and the US. It is a major petrol retailer in Ireland, and operates convenience stores and motorway service areas. Applegreen's headquarters are ba ...

opened a service area in October 2014 at junction 27 of the M7 at Birdhill. The ''Applegreen'' branded service area contains a

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. ...

and a

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant c ...

franchise. Traffic uses the existing slip roads with westbound traffic then passing over the motorway bridge.

River Shannon to Dublin pipeline

Plans were announced in 2011 for a pipeline from Lough Derg to supply drinking water to Dublin city and region. In 2016 the Parteen Basin at the south of lough was chosen as the proposed site of extraction. Water would be pumped via Birdhill to a break pressure tank at Knockanacree in County Tipperary and gravity fed from there to Peamount in Dublin.

Awards

Birdhill was named the "Tidiest Village" in the Tidy Towns Awards in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2016 and again in 2017. In 2017, the village also took the overall award and was named Ireland's "Tidiest Town".

Sport

Birdhill FC is the local soccer team, which competes in the North Tipperary District League. It fields a number of youth teams and one junior team, which competes in the NTDL Division 2. In February 2019, Birdhill FC won the NTDL Nora Kennedy Cup In July 2021, the men's junior team won the 2020/2021 NTDL Division 2 league title and were promoted up to the NTDL Division 1.

References

Towns and villages in County Tipperary Owney and Arra