New Inn, County Tipperary

The area around present-day New Inn was a hotbed of agrarian unrest and Whiteboy activity in the late 1700s.

It is not known when the present settlement of New Inn was founded. It is not listed on either Herman Moll's 1714 map of Ireland, nor is it depicted in Taylor and Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland, published in 1778. While New Inn does not appear to have existed in the 18th century, the road now known as the R639 between Cashel and Cahir clearly did.[2][3] At that time the R639 was not the main Dublin to Cork route (it did not exist north of Cashel until 1739, nor south of Cahir to Fermoy until after 1811).[4] It is probable that the present settlement developed after the turnpike road-building drive of the 18th century was substantially complete by the early 19th century, when Charles Bianconi ran regular coach services throughout the region from 1815, establishing several inns along popular routes in the process.

On 22 November 1940 a local woman named Mary McCarthy (known as Moll Carthy) was murdered in a field at Marlhill. An unmarried mother of seven, McCarthy was shot in the face at close range. Her neighbour, a man named Harry Gleeson, who had discovered the body, was arrested, charged and convicted of her murder, and hanged in Dublin. The Murder at Marlhill, as the event has become known, continues to spark controversy both in the local community and historical circles, with many maintaining Gleeson's innocence. A book and two RTÉ television programmes have documented the event.[5]

In March 2015, the Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald granted a pardon to Henry Gleeson and an apology for his hanging after a conviction that was "unsafe".[6][7]

New Inn's association with tennis goes back to the 1890s when Lena Rice of Marlhill House, New Inn came to the fore in the national tennis championships. In 1889 she was narrowly defeated in the final of the singles in Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. She won the mixed doubles that same year, and the following year 1890 she achieved what no other Irish woman has achieved by winning the Wimbledon singles championship.[8]

On 16 June 1991 the Lena Rice Trophy was presented to the club by Fr. Meehan on his own behalf and on behalf of David Joe O’ Neill. Each year the club invites all local clubs to play for the honour of winning this trophy.[9]

An all weather surface was installed on both courts in February 2009. This was made possible by extensive fundraising by club members over several years and by grant aid from Tipperary County Council and National Lottery funding.