Granard
| Granard Gránard
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|---|---|
| — Town — | |
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| Motto: Féile, Flúirse, Fáilte | |
 Granard
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| Coordinates: 53°47′N 7°30′W / 53.78°N 7.5°WCoordinates: 53°47′N 7°30′W / 53.78°N 7.5°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| County | County Longford |
| Elevation | 82 m (269 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Urban | 1,233 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | N324814 |
| Website | www.longfordcoco.ie |
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1813 | 2,425 | — |
| 1821 | 2,534 | +4.5% |
| 1831 | 2,069 | −18.4% |
| 1841 | 2,408 | +16.4% |
| 1851 | 1,805 | −25.0% |
| 1861 | 1,671 | −7.4% |
| 1871 | 1,811 | +8.4% |
| 1881 | 1,828 | +0.9% |
| 1891 | 1,834 | +0.3% |
| 1901 | 1,622 | −11.6% |
| 1911 | 1,531 | −5.6% |
| 1926 | 1,269 | −17.1% |
| 1936 | 1,236 | −2.6% |
| 1946 | 1,197 | −3.2% |
| 1951 | 1,150 | −3.9% |
| 1956 | 1,086 | −5.6% |
| 1961 | 1,044 | −3.9% |
| 1966 | 1,045 | +0.1% |
| 1971 | 1,054 | +0.9% |
| 1981 | 1,285 | +21.9% |
| 1986 | 1,338 | +4.1% |
| 1991 | 1,221 | −8.7% |
| 1996 | 1,173 | −3.9% |
| 2002 | 1,013 | −13.6% |
| 2006 | 933 | −7.9% |
| [1][2][3][4][5] | ||
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Look up Longford in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Granard (Irish: Gránard) is a town in the north of County Longford, Ireland and has a traceable history going back to 236 A.D.. It is situated just south of the boundary between the watersheds of the Shannon and the Erne, at the point where the N55 national secondary road and the R194 regional road meet.
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[edit] History
The town has been a centre of population since Celtic times, probably because of its elevated position offering a view over the surrounding countryside. It is mentioned in the ancient Irish epic, the Táin Bó Cuailgne, as being one of the places where Queen Medb and her army stopped on their journey to take the Donn Cuailnge (the Brown Bull of Cooley). The name of the town is itself so ancient as to be unclear even in Irish; the 11th-century writers of the Lebor na hUidre (containing the oldest written version of the Táin) refer to it by means of a gloss as "Gránairud Tethba tuaiscirt .i. Gránard indiu" ("Gránairud of northern Teathbha, i.e. Gránard of today"). According to the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, Patrick appointed Guasacht, a son of his former master Milchú, as first bishop of Granard, but the diocese did not survive as a separate entity. The surname Sheridan was first recorded in Granard in the eighth century.[6]
Granard is known for the motte built by Risteárd de Tiúit. It stands 166 m (543 ft) above sea level, located at the head of the town . Due to the location between the three rivers and near Lough Sheelin, it is also a centre for trout and coarse fishing. The Gaynors were once the Gaelic lords of Granard.
Granard was the location of an annual Harp festival from 1781 to 1785. This had been due to the financial support of James Dungan, an Irish merchant then residing in Copenhagen, and a native of Granard, who had heard of similar events being organised in Scotland. Many of the harpists who won prizes at these festivals, including Charles Fanning, Arthur O'Neill, and Rose Mooney went on to perform at the Belfast Harp Festival in July 1792. There has been a revival of the festival since 1981.
During the Irish War of Independence, on 31st October 1920 a police officer, District-Inspector Philip Kelleher was shot dead by two masked men in the bar of the Greville Arms Hotel, Granard. As a reprisal, a motor convoy of Crown forces entered the town four days later and systematically destroyed the main business premises of the town, including the Greville Arms Hotel.[7]
[edit] People
- Kitty Kiernan (1892–1945) was born in Granard. She was to marry Michael Collins.
- International show jumper Eddie Macken lived in Granard.
- Irish television presenter Brendan O'Reilly was born in Granard.
- Anne Lovett a fifteen year old schoolgirl who died giving birth beside a grotto in 1984.[8]
- Michael Gaffney, who founded of the small town of Gaffney, South Carolina, in 1804, was born in Granard in 1775. His heritage is evident there today with streets named after his wife and children and one also named Granard Street.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Census for post 1821 figures.
- ^ http://www.histpop.org
- ^ http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census
- ^ Lee, JJ (1981). "On the accuracy of the Pre-famine Irish censuses". In Goldstrom, J. M.; Clarkson, L. A.. Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
- ^ Mokyr, Joel; O Grada, Cormac (November 1984). "New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700-1850". The Economic History Review 37 (4): 473–488. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract
- ^ Sheridan Clan (2007). "Clan History". WSI Ballsbridge. http://www.sheridanclan.ie/ClanHistory.aspx. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
- ^ Anglo-Celt, Saturday, November 13, 1920
- ^ Comment: Emily O'Reilly: The unfinished business of Anne Lovett and what we never managed to learn, Emily O'Reilly, The Times, 30 March 2003, retrieved 3 July 2009
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