Newport, County Mayo

Bus Éireann route 440, via Westport and Ireland West Airport Knock, operates once a day in each direction. On Sundays route 440 does not operate however Expressway route 52 provides an evening journey each way to/from Westport and Galway.[4]

The nearest train station is Westport railway station approximately 14 km distant.

In 1719 a community of Quakers came to Newport[6] under a Captain Pratt who established a colony of linen weavers in the town which was known as Ballyvaughan at that time. Quakers, due to their reputation of being honest and hard-working tenants, were sought after by the landlords of estates at the time. Quaker communities usually prospered wherever they went, but the Quakers in Newport were reported to be in poor circumstances, and they needed support and help from other Quakers across Ireland and further afield from whom they were now far removed geographically by their remote location. The nearest community of Quakers was based in Ballymurray, County Roscommon.

The Newport Quakers appear to have had no meeting house, instead meeting for religious worship in each other's homes. With many deaths of their young people occurring within the community in the years after resettling in Mayo, a burial ground had to be established for them in the town. The linen business interests fell on hard times and life was a struggle with constant assistance having to be brought to Newport by visiting Quakers. By 1736 the Newport Quakers started to think about moving from their settlement. They were unable to find suitable marriage partners from within their own community as they were all closely related and this caused them concern. The Newport Quaker community struggled on for a few more years and eventually bought some land in Roscommon where they would be closer to the Quaker community at Ballymurray. During the winter of 1739/1740 the last of the Newport Quakers left their Newport land and homes and moved to County Roscommon where their lives would be less wretched.[6][7] Some Quakers went to America to make new lives for themselves in the years that followed.

The O'Donel family, who took over from the Medlycotts, were Protestant. However, George O'Donel's wife was a Catholic and he donated three acres of land on Barrack Hill to the Sisters of Mercy to build a convent in Newport. It was noted that when the foundations were being dug out for the new convent in 1884, many coins and buttons were unearthed, the buttons bearing the inscription of "Pratt". In 1887 the convent was completed and St. Joseph's Convent National School opened with a roll of 211 girls and 34 boys. The school was a success and numbers continued to grow. The nuns were a popular addition to Newport and local merchants donated gifts to the convent. In 1894, a lace school to train girls in the lacemaking industry opened and provided some industry - until the lace market collapsed after World War II. Due to rationalisation, the sisters vacated the convent in 1977 and took up residence in a rented building in the town. The convent managed Newport secondary school which opened in September 1956.[8] However following the introduction of free education and free transport for second level pupils in the late sixties, the secondary school which had always experienced some difficulties in attracting a sufficiently large number of pupils was finally closed in June 1969.[9] Since 1969 then, Newport pupils again travel to secondary schools in Westport.[10]

In May 1921, the town's coach-building factory - Kilroy Bros - was burnt by the IRA.[11]