It is within the townland of Glengoole (from Irish Gleann an Ghuail, meaning 'glen of the coal'),[4] and is in the barony of Slievardagh.

New Birmingham was founded by Sir Vere Hunt (1761–1818), a wealthy and eccentric Anglo-Irish landowner, with the help of Fr Michael Meighan, the local parish priest, in the early 1800s, for the workers in his coal mine at Glengoole.

Hunt evidently hoped to turn New Birmingham into a major manufacturing centre,[7] with hopes to create a branch of the grand canal in order to transport coal to Dublin,[8] but he failed in this aim, as he did in most of his business ventures, due to not having the financial necessities to build this town.

Historian Gillian Darley has called New Birmingham an "industrial foundation which failed to prosper, [and] remained a straggling hamlet".

[5][clarification needed] The comedian Pat Shortt, from nearby Thurles, was inspired by New Birmingham for material on several occasions.