Rathfriland

Template:Infobox Irish Place Rathfriland (in Irish: Ráth Fraoileann, ie Fraoile’s Fort) is a small market town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a hilltop Plantation of Ulster town between the Mourne Mountains, Slieve Croob and Banbridge and is in the barony of Upper Iveagh. It had a population of 2,079 people in the 2001 Census. It is within the Banbridge District Council area.

The town was once owned by John Percy Meade, (1847-1919), (see his great-grandmother: Theodosia Hawkins-Magill), who was the lineal descendant of Alderman Hawkins of London, who received the site and a considerable tract of the country from Charles II for services provided during the Parliamentary Wars.

Although the history of the town began with Ald. Hawkins, the high hill upon which it stands was famous long before his time as the natural fortress upon which the Magennises maintained their strongest castle. At the summit of the hill are the remains of the castle. There is a large water tower on the top of the hill which can be seen from many miles around.

Rathfriland was originally spelt with a y instead of an i.

The town square is located on top of the hill, and a market house (erected around 1764), which dominates the main square, was built for the linen market by Theodosia Hawkins-Magill. A clock-faced war memorial stands in the square on the south eastern side.

People

Patrick Brunty, the father of the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) was born in 1777 in a cottage close to Loughbrickland, where he lived until a local vicar paid his way to Cambridge University in 1802. While studying at Cambridge, he changed his name to Brontë. He preached and taught at Drumballyroney Church and School House, between Rathfriland and Moneyslane. The Brontë Homeland Interpretative Centre is at Drumballyroney.

George W Bush, the 43rd President of The United States of America. One of president's five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, Co Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811-12.

Catherine O'Hare, mother of the first European child born west of the Rockies was herself born in Rathfriland in 1835. She and her husband, Augustus Schubert, joined 200 Overlanders who went west across Canada in search of gold, and blazed the trail for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Andrew George Scott (alias "Captain Moonlight") was born in Rathfriland in 1842 in a house on Castle Hill. A notorious Australian Bushranger.

Margaret Byers née Morrow was born in Rathfriland in 1832. Margaret Byers was a teacher, a businesswoman, a pioneer of higher education for girls, a philanthropist and a suffragist. She said: 'My aim was to provide for girls an education...as thorough as that which is afforded to boys in the schools of the highest order.' In 1905 she was given an honorary degree by Trinity College, Dublin and in 1908 Queen's University, Belfast, appointed her to its Senate.

Francis Brooks (Bishop) was born in Rathfriland 1924. He is the Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Dromore, Ireland.

Places of Worship

Transport and Communications

Rathfriland was served by Ballyroney Railway Station, three miles away. Goods and passengers were transported from the station to the village. The former GNR (I) line between Banbridge and Newcastle closed in 1955.

Rathfriland's official telephone dialling code, like the rest of Northern Ireland is 028. Local subscriber numbers commence with 4063xxxx. Rathfriland was a sub-exchange of Banbridge, and thus until the 2000 Big Number Change, shared its 018206 area code. Like elsewhere in the former 018206 area (now (028) 406) is still normal to hear local numbers quoted in the old 5-digit format (3xxxx)

Education

Newspapers

The Outlook

2001 Census

Rathfriland is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 1,000 and 2,250 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 2,079 people living in Rathfriland. Of these:

22.6% were aged under 16 years and 21.2% were aged 60 and over
48.2% of the population were male and 51.9% were female
33.5% were from a Roman Catholic background and 63.6% were from a Protestant background
3.2% of people aged 16-74 were unemployed.

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

References

External links

54°15′N 6°10′W / 54.250°N 6.167°W / 54.250; -6.167