County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region, it is named after the historic Kingdom of Meath. Meath County Council is the local authority for the county. At the 2016 census, the population of the county was 195,044; the county town of Meath is Navan. Other towns in the county include Trim, Laytown, Ashbourne and Slane, it is one of only two counties outside the west of Ireland to have an official Gaeltacht and the only county in Leinster to have an official Gaeltacht. Meath is drained by the River Boyne; the county is the 14th-largest of Ireland's 32 counties in area, the ninth-largest in terms of population. It is the second-largest of Leinster's 12 counties in size, the third-largest in terms of population; the county town is Navan, where the county hall and government are located, although Trim, the former county town, has historical significance and remains a sitting place of the circuit court. County Meath has the only two Gaeltacht areas in the province of Leinster, at Ráth Chairn and Baile Ghib.
Meath has seven land borders and a small stretch of coastline stretching from Mornington to Gormanston beach. The counties bordering Meath are: Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Monaghan. There are eighteen historic baronies in the county, they include the baronies of Ratoath. While baronies continue to be defined units, they are no longer used for many administrative purposes, their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, where official Irish names of baronies are listed under "Administrative units". There are 40 elected members of Meath County Council. Fine Gael holds 13 seats, Fianna Fáil holds 10, Sinn Féin holds 8, there are 9 independents. There are two Dáil constituencies, Meath West and Meath East, which together return 6 deputies to Dáil Éireann. Fianna Fáil holds 1 seat in each constituency, Fine Gael holds 2 in Meath East and 1 in Meath West, Sinn Féin holds 1 in Meath West. There was only one Meath constituency. Fianna Fáil held three seats out of five in the Meath constituency between 1987 and its abolition in 2007.
Meath East lies within the borders of the county. Part of the county along the Irish Sea coast, known as East Meath, which includes Julianstown and Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington, is included in the Louth constituency; the county is colloquially known by the nickname "The Royal County", owing to its history as the seat of the High King of Ireland. It formed from the eastern part of the former Kingdom of Mide but now forms part of the province of Leinster; the kingdom and its successor territory the Lordship of Meath, included all of counties Meath and Westmeath as well as parts of counties Cavan, Louth and Kildare. The seat of the High King of Ireland was at Tara; the archaeological complex of Brú na Bóinne is 5,000 years old, includes the burial sites of Newgrange and Dowth, in the north-east of the county. It is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site; the Hill of Tara, an ancient historical site - Ard Rí or high king of Ireland. Castles at Trim, Slane and Killeen. Religious ruins at Trim, Slane, Skryne.
2500-year-old mound structures of disputed origin at Teltown. Teltown is home to Ireland's pre-Olympic Games The Tailteann Games, which some records date back to 1869 BCE. Brú na Bóinne Unesco World Heritage Site includes an ancient historical site. Dangan Castle, the family home of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS. Tayto Park, Ireland's only theme park, is located close to Ashbourne. Trim Castle is Ireland's largest Norman castle, was the setting for many Norman-Irish parliaments. Meath is home to Kells, with its round tower and monastic past, Ireland's only inland lighthouse, the 18th century Spire of Lloyd, it is the town in which the famous Book of Kells was purportedly finished and remained for a number of years. The Battle of the Boyne took place in Meath in 1690, close to the modern-day village of Donore. During World War One a British army unit ran a detention camp for prisoners of war outside the town of Oldcastle. In Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With The Wind, it is mentioned that Gerald O'Hara, Scarlett O'Hara's father, was born in County Meath.
Tara is the name of the Georgia plantation. Famous Anglo-Irish MP Charles Stewart Parnell was elected member of parliament for Meath in Westminster in 1875 until 1880. Today he is locally commemorated by a small courtyard in Kells town centre; the population of Co. Meath suffered significant decline between 1861 and 1901 halving; this increase was due to a baby boom locally. The population continued to increase at a constant rate, before increasing at an explosive rate between 1996 and 2002, from 109,732 to 134,005; this is due to economic factors, with the return of residents to live in the county, an echo effect of the 1970s baby boom. The census of 2011 gives a figure of 184,135, including a dramatic increase i
National secondary road
A national secondary road is a category of road in Ireland. These roads form an important part of the national route network, but are secondary to the main arterial routes which are classified as national primary roads. National secondary roads are designated with route numbers higher than those used for primary roads, but with the same "N" prefix. Routes N51 and higher are all national secondary roads. National secondary roads have a default speed limit of 100 km/h as, along with national primary routes, they fall into the speed limit category of national roads. There are 2657 km of national secondary roads in Ireland, making up over 50% of the entire national route network. National secondary routes are more poorly maintained than primary routes, but carry more traffic than regional roads; the entire network of national secondary roads is single carriageway, although there are some short sections of dual carriageway on the Tallaght bypass section of the N81, on the N52 at Dundalk, on the N85 at Ennis, on the N67 at Galway, on the N62 at Athlone, on the N69 at Tralee and on the N71 between Cork and Bandon.
National secondary roads are of a similar standard or higher than regional roads although some are of lower quality than the better sections of regional roads. Many of them have been resurfaced with higher quality pavements in recent years with smooth surfaces and good road markings and signposting. However, road widths and alignments are inadequate, with many narrow and winding sections. In the past, most national secondary roads would have run through the centres of the towns on their routes. For example: The N52 bypasses Nenagh and the centre of Dundalk, as well as forming the now complete N52 bypass of Tullamore; the N55 bypasses Cavan. The N56 forms part of the Donegal bypass; the N61 and the N63 bypass Roscommon. The N69 forms part of the Tralee bypass; the N71 bypasses Skibbereen. The N74 bypasses Cashel; the N76 bypasses Callan. The N77 forms the northern part of the Kilkenny ring road; the N80 bypasses Carlow. The N85 bypasses Ennis; the former N8 bypass of Mitchelstown was re-classified as the N73 when the Fermoy to Kilbehenny section of the M8 was completed.
Most national secondary roads were Trunk Roads under the old system of road classification in Ireland, although some sections of national secondary routes were Link Roads. A large number of less important Trunk Roads became regional roads when the road classification system changed from 1977 onward, including some roads, such as the N72 between Killarney and Killorglin, the N86 and the N87, which were re-classified as regional roads but re-classified again as national secondary routes. In 1994, three national secondary roads were reclassified as national primary roads: the N57 between Swinford and Ballina became the N26, the N64 between Oranmore and Claregalway became part of the N18 and the N79 between New Ross and Enniscorthy became the N30. In addition, a section of the N60 between Castlebar and Westport became part of the N5; some national secondary roads, though not arterial routes between major cities, connect scenic areas to major population centres. For example, the N59 through County Galway and County Mayo, the N70 road through County Kerry and the N71 through West Cork.
For this reason, many national secondary roads are well-traveled by tourists. = Junction with road XXXX, e.g. = Junction with N21 road N57 road – Defunct route designation. Swinford – Ballina route prior to its redesignation as the N26 National primary road. N64 road – Defunct route designation. Oranmore – Claregalway route prior to its redesignation as the N18 National primary road. N79 road – Defunct route designation. Enniscorthy – New Ross route prior to its redesignation as the N30 National primary road. Roads in Ireland Motorways in the Republic of Ireland National primary road Regional road Local Roads in Ireland Atlantic Corridor Dublin Port Tunnel Jack Lynch Tunnel History of Roads in Ireland Trunk Roads in Ireland Transport Infrastructure Ireland Road signs in the Republic of Ireland Road speed limits in the Republic of Ireland Vehicle registration plates of Ireland Northern Irish Vehicle Registration Plates Transport in Ireland List of Ireland-related topics S. I. No. 209/1994: Roads Act, 1993 Order, 1994 Roads Act 1993 Order 2006 – Department of Transport - National Roads Authority: National Route Lengths 2007
Enfield, County Meath
Enfield or Innfield is a town in south County Meath, situated between Kilcock and Kinnegad and close to the border with County Kildare. The town is on the Dublin-Sligo railway line, it is located on the R148 regional road the N4 national primary road connecting Dublin to Connacht. In 2016, Enfield had a population of a few hundred rural counterparts. In the past 20 years, the village has grown due to its ideal location on the commuter belt to Dublin. To many other dormitory towns in this vicinity, numerous housing estates have been constructed, an influx of migrants from all around Ireland have settled here, its Irish name An Bóthar Buí came about due to the cattle markets that were traditionally held in the town. This left the main street of the village covered in yellow hay. Enfield's phased growth is paralleled with the various phases of transport history throughout south County Meath. Going back to Ancient Times, prior to and during the early part of the first millennium A. D. the Enfield area is believed to have been situated on one of the main roads to Tara, the coronation site and seat of the high Kings of Ireland from the 3rd century until 1022.
From the great heart and centre of the Irish Kingdom, five great arteries or roads radiated from Tara to the various parts of the country, the Slighe Cualann, which ran toward the present County Wicklow, the Slighe Mór, the great Western road, which ran via Dublin to Galway, the Slighe Asail, which ran near the present Mullingar, the Slighe Dala, which ran southwest, the Slighe Midluachra, the Northern road. During Norman times under the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare, a road was built from Maynooth Castle to Courtown House in Kilcock, to the Windmill on Cappagh Hill, to Cloncurry over to Johnstown House, from there on to Newcastle and Balyna House; when the Stage Coach was used as a form of transport in Ireland, this road took a different route to include the area, now known as Enfield. The road between Dublin and Mullingar running through Enfield was built in 1735. A livery stable and courtyard existed opposite the old postoffice building at the east end of the town, to service people travelling on this road.
Fresh teams of horses were available for hire at the livery stable when the coaches stopped at the postoffice. The building provided some stopover accommodation; some of the remains of the original livery courtyard could be seen adjacent to the Supervalu supermarket and car park. These sites were protected once by the Office of Public Works, but have made way for redevelopment in 2014; the first postal deliveries by stage coach, in the area, occurred around 1740, during the time of Robert Fitzgerald, 19th Earl of Kildare. In the 1790s, maps denote the site as "A New Inn" "The New Inn" and Innfield; this derives from a mail-coach inn on the 18th century Dublin to Mullingar coach route called "The Royal Oak Inn", estimated to have been where the Bridge House Inn now stands. The Royal Canal passed through Innfield, with the arrival of the Midland Great Western Railway, the name became anglicised to Enfield; the name Innfield became Enfield towards the end of the 19th Century when a new postmaster came from Enfield, Middlesex and decided to use the same name for the area.
The N4, the main road to the west from Dublin, passed through Enfield and plagued it with traffic problems. In December 2005, a new stretch of the M4 motorway opened and most traffic now bypasses the town; the section of the N4, bypassed has been redesignated as the R148. In 2013 St. Mary's National School was redeveloped and opened by Enda Kenny the Taoiseach at the time and Bishop Michael Smith of the Meath Diocese; the Royal Canal construction began in Dublin in 1790 and signaled the end of the stage coach era, as the canals were a cheaper and more efficient means of transport. The stretch from Dublin to Mullingar opened as a trade route around 1807 and the canal reached the Shannon in 1817, though the company was in debt; the decision by the Duke of Leinster to build a spur from the canal to his country residence at Carton House was one of the contributing factors which broke the company. Though rail travel was much quicker, the canal continued to carry traffic until the 1950s, it is only now that the potential of the canal for tourism and as a natural amenity is being realised.
The Office of Public Works took charge of it in 1986, subsequent investment and significant restoration means it has great prospects of becoming popular again as a means of leisurely transport. The railway reached Enfield in 1847, when the Midland Great Western Railway opened between Broadstone Station in Dublin and Enfield railway station. Upon the opening of the railway, canal boats ceased all passenger traffic between Dublin and Enfield, passengers travelling west using the train to Enfield and transferring to the canal in the town. With the canal and the railway had stop over points in Enfield, this contributed to the development of the area; the line was extended to Hill of Down by the end of 1847 and to Mullingar in October 1848. In 1877, a branch line from Nesbitt Junction to Edenderry was opened; the Edenderry branch line and Enfield station closed in 1963, although there had been no regular passenger service to Edenderry since 1931. Passenger services from Enfield resumed in 1988. Enfield is located on the Sligo to Dublin rail line with termini at Sligo Mac Diarmada and Dublin Connolly, operated by Irish Rail
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region, it is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county which has a population of 222,504. Kildare is the 24th-largest of Ireland's 32 counties in area and seventh largest in terms of population, it is the eighth largest of Leinster's twelve counties in size, second largest in terms of population. It is bordered by the counties of Carlow, Meath, Offaly and Wicklow; as an inland county, Kildare is a lowland region. The county's highest points are the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains bordering to the east; the highest point in Kildare is Cupidstown Hill on the border with Dublin, with the better known Hill of Allen in central Kildare. The county has three major rivers running through it: the Liffey and the Boyne; the Grand Canal crosses the county from Lyons on the east to Monasterevin on the west. A southern branch joins the Barrow navigation at Athy; the Royal Canal stretches across the north of the county along the border with Meath.
Pollardstown Fen is the largest remaining calcareous fen in Ireland, covering an area of 220 hectares and is recognised as an internationally important fen ecosystem with unique and endangered plant communities, declared a National Nature Reserve in 1986. The Bog of Allen is a large bog that extends across 958 km2 and into County Kildare, County Meath, County Offaly, County Laois, County Westmeath. Kildare has 243 km2 of bog located in the south-west and north-west, a majority of this being Raised Bog, it is habitat to over 185 animal species. There are 8,472 hectares of Forested land in Kildare, accounting for 5% of the county's total land area. 4,056 hectares of this is Coniferous, while there is 2,963 hectares of Broadleaf and the remaining area are Unclassified Species. Coillte and Dúchas own 47% of the forestry. Coillte run Donadea Forest Park, in North-Central Kildare; the forest is the largest forest park in Kildare. Kildare was shired in 1297 and assumed its present borders in 1832, following amendments to remove a number of enclaves and exclaves.
The county was the home of the powerful Fitzgerald family. Parts of the county were part of the Pale area around Dublin. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county; the Local Electoral Areas of Kildare are Athy, Celbridge - Leixlip, Kildare - Newbridge and Naas. The Council has 40 members; the current council was elected in May 2013. Under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 the towns of Leixlip, Naas and Athy ceased to have separate town councils and were absorbed into their corresponding local electoral area. For elections to Dáil Éireann, there are two constituencies in the area of the county. In the Irish general election, 2016, Kildare North returned Catherine Murphy, James Lawless, Frank O'Rourke and Bernard Durkan, while Martin Heydon, Fiona O'Loughlin and Sean O Fearghail were returned for Kildare South; as part of the Mid-East Region, it is within the purview of the Mid-East Regional Authority. For elections to the European Parliament, it is part of the Midlands North-West constituency which returns four MEPs.
The county's population has nearly doubled to some 186,000 in 1990-2005. The north eastern region of Kildare had the highest average per-capita income in Ireland outside County Dublin in 2003. East Kildare's population has increased for example the amount of housing in the Naas suburb of Sallins has increased sixfold since the mid-1990s; as of 2016 the population of the county was 222,504. Ethnically, the 2016 census recorded County Kildare as 84% white Irish, 9% other white ethnicities, 2% black, 2% Asian, 1% of other ethnicity, 2% not stated. For religion, the census recorded a population, 80% Catholic, 9% of other stated religions, 10% with no religion and 2% not stated. Kildare contains the European base of electronics firms and Hewlett Packard, two of the largest employers in this sector in the entire island. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has its European Manufacturing base in Newbridge, with another plant in nearby Newcastle in County Dublin. Major pizza-making, soft drinks, frozen food enterprises are located in Naas.
Large supermarket distribution centres are located in Naas and Kilcock. Kerry Group has developed a Global Innovation Centre in Millennium Park in Naas and employs over 1,000 people across 3 developments. Further developments including a new Education Campus are to be constructed in Millennium Park in the future; the Irish Army's largest military base containing its command headquarters and training centre is located at the Curragh. Kildare is the centre of the Irish horse industry. Kildare has more stud farms than any other county in Ireland. Several prominent international breeders have substantial stud farms in Kildare, including many from the Arab world. Racecourses The Irish National Stud farm The National Equestrian Centre Equine auction centre. County Kildare is the richest county in Ireland outside of Dublin and has the lowest unemployment rates in Ireland, throughout the economic recession of the 1980s. House prices in the county but in the North East of the county e.g. Naas and Maynooth have always been higher than the other counties in the country outside Dubl
R158 road (Ireland)
The R158 road is a regional road in Ireland, linking Trim in County Meath to Kilcock in County Kildare. The road, single-carriageway throughout, has been extensively realigned in recent years at a cost of €22m, the section between Kilcock and Summerhill having been completed by Fallon Construction in August 2008; the road runs in a south-southeasterly direction from a junction with the R161 in Trim by way of Summerhill to a junction with the R148 in Kilcock. Roads in Ireland National primary road National secondary road Roads Act 1993 Order 2006 – Department of Transport
Roads in Ireland
The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways; the major routes were established before Irish independence and take little cognisance of the border other than a change of identification number and street furniture. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, has a well-developed network of primary and local routes; the Republic started work on its motorway network in the early 1980s. However, the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an influx of European Union structural funding, saw national roads and regional roads in the Republic come up to international standard quite quickly. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to a network of motorways, dual carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan.
Road construction in Northern Ireland now tends to proceed at a slower pace than in the Republic, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have been completed or are about to begin. Roads in Northern Ireland are classified as either Highways, motorways, A-roads, B-roads and other roads. There are two types of A-roads: non-primary. Roads in the Republic are classified as either motorways, national roads, regional roads and local roads. There are two types of national roads: national secondary routes. Distance signposts in Northern Ireland show distances in miles, while all signposts placed in the Republic since the 1990s use kilometres; the Republic's road signs are bilingual, using both official languages and English. However, signs in the Gaeltacht use only Irish; the Irish language names are written in the English in capitals. Signs in Northern Ireland are in English only. Warning signs in the Republic have a yellow background and are diamond-shaped, those in Northern Ireland are triangle-shaped and have a white background with a red border.
Speed limits in Northern Ireland are specified in miles per hour. Those in the Republic use kilometres per hour, a change introduced on 20 January 2005; this involved the provision of 58,000 new metric speed limit signs and supplementing 35,000 imperial signs. There have been routes and trackways in Ireland connecting settlements and facilitating trade since ancient times. Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire and, Roman roads were not built in Ireland. However, an Iron Age road with a stone surface has been excavated in Munster and togher roads, a type of causeway built through bogs, were found in many areas of the country. According to an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters for AD 123, there were five principal highways leading to Tara in Early Medieval Ireland. Early medieval law-tracts set out five types of road including the highway, the' main road', the'connecting road', the'side road' which could be tolled, the'cow road'. Bóthar is the most common term for'road' in modern Irish: its diminutive form, bóithrín, is used as a term for narrow, rural roads.
The development of roads in Ireland seemed to have stagnated until the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries. However, in the 18th century, a network of turnpike roads was built: "a turnpike was a primitive form of turnstile – a gate across the road, opened on payment of a toll; the average length of a turnpike road was 30 miles". Routes to and from Dublin were developed and the network spread throughout the country. Turnpikes operated between 1729 and 1858 when the extensive railway network made them unpopular. Specialist routes to facilitate the butter trade, which centred on Cork, were built in Munster; the first butter road was commissioned in 1748 and was built by John Murphy of Castleisland in County Kerry. In other areas, notably in County Wicklow, military roads were built to help secure British military control over remote areas; the Military Road through County Wicklow was begun in 1800 and completed in 1809. The R115 is part of the Military Road for its entire length. Railways became the dominant form of land transport from the mid-19th century.
This situation persisted until the first half of the 20th century when motorised road transport began to take over from railways as the most important form of land transport. Pre-independence legislation laid the foundation for the regulation of the modern system of public roads in Ireland; the Act gave the Minister for Local Government the power to classify roads: Trunk Road Funds were used to enable local councils to improve major roads and road surfacing was undertaken throughout the 1920s, 1930s and beyond. By the 1950s an established system of road classification and numbering with Trunk Roads and Link Roads had long been developed; the present system of road classification and numberi
