In the early thirteenth century, an
Anglo-Norman castle was built on the site where St Brigid's Church sits now. In the seventeenth century the wealthy Chetham family from
New Moston,
Lancashire,
England acquired lands here. Although they lived mainly in England, a Chetham daughter married into the powerful Irish
Loftus family. Hacketstown was the scene of two battles during the
1798 rebellion. On 25 May 1798, there were several skirmishes in the town. Later, on 25 June, several thousand rebels including
Michael Dwyer and his followers, tried to capture the military barracks to take the firearms and ammunition. The fighting lasted for the better course of a day. Most of the houses in the village were destroyed and several hundred rebels were killed during the fighting. The military evacuated the barracks and retreated to
Tullow, a nearby town. In 2011, the
US town of
Hackettstown, New Jersey, declared a
sister city relationship with Hacketstown. ==See also==