Carrick-on-Shannon

Carrick-on-Shannon
Cora Droma Rúisc
Town
The Dock, former courthouse which is now an arts centre.
Carrick-on-Shannon
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 53°56′38″N 8°05′42″W / 53.944°N 8.095°W / 53.944; -8.095Coordinates: 53°56′38″N 8°05′42″W / 53.944°N 8.095°W / 53.944; -8.095
Country Ireland
Province Connacht
County County Leitrim & County Roscommon
Elevation 45 m (148 ft)
Population (2016)[1]
 • Total 4,062
Irish Grid Reference M935996
Website www.carrickonshannon.ie

Carrick-on-Shannon (Irish: Cora Droma Rúisc, meaning "weir of the marshy ridge"[2]) is the county town of County Leitrim in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county of Leitrim and the smallest main county town in the entire country. A smaller part of the town lies in County Roscommon. The population of the town was 5,931 in 2016.[1] It is situated on a strategic crossing point of the River Shannon. The Leitrim part of the town is in the civil parish of Kiltoghert which is in the ancient barony of Leitrim.[2] For ecclesiastical purposes, the town is in the parish of Kiltoghert in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise[3] A Church of Ireland church also lies close to the town centre.

History

Carrick-on-Shannon is situated on a fording point of the Shannon. In the vicinity of Drumsna, on the County Roscommon border, are the remains of an Iron Age fortification. Corryolus townland on the Shannon (Irish: Coraidh-Eoluis, meaning "weir of Eolais") remembers Eolais Mac Biobhsach, ancestor of the Muintir Eolais who were the most famous ancient Leitrim sub-septs in the Barony of Mohill and the Barony of Leitrim.[4][5] Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, a famous Battle of Áth an Chip occurred near Carrick-on-Shannon.

Carrick-on-Shannon was granted a royal charter and named a borough with its own seal in 1607.[6] Throughout at least the 19th and 20th centurys, three annual fairs were held at Carrick on- May 12, August 11, and November 21 (or 22nd).[7][8] Historic buildings are the "Carrick Castle", the Workhouse and Famine Graveyard, Hatley Manor (a restored Georgian period home of the St. George Family), St George's Church of Ireland and the Costello Chapel.

It is considered the gateway to the Shannon–Erne Waterway, Lough Key, Acres Lake and Lough Allen via the villages of Cootehall, Knockvicar, Jamestown, Leitrim Village, Drumshanbo and Keshcarrigan and is only a short distance away from the Glens of North Leitrim.

Local media

Carrick-on-Shannon is served by the Leitrim Observer which is published every Wednesday and the fortnightly free Northwest Express newspapers. The Leitrim Post is now defunct.[9][10][11]

Places of interest

Carrick Bridge and Quay

The Quayside

Until the early 19th Century, the head of the Shannon Navigation was Drumsna. In the 1840s the improvement of the navigation entailed extensive dredging of the river, the cutting of Jamestown Canal, the construction of locks at Drumsna and Knockvicar, and the building of a new bridge and Quays at Carrick-on-Shannon. The new bridge, built in 1846, took the place of a nine arch stone bridge, which in turn replaced a wooden structure.

For over a century, until the closing of the Grand Canal Company in 1960, Carrick was a major depot for river trade; timber, cement, hardware, and especially Guinness stout were all transported here from Dublin, Athlone and Limerick.

Nearby is the clubhouse of Carrick-on-Shannon Rowing Club, which has been one of the foremost in the country since its establishment in 1827.

The annual regatta at the August Holiday was a famed highlight of the festive season in the whole North West. M.J. McManus recalls that he watched...

"In August sunshine, the eights and the fours and the pleasure boats and the turf-cots competing on Carrick's day of days."

Churches

Front Façade - St Mary's Church in Carrick on Shannon, Ireland

St. Mary's Catholic Church, on the Main Street, is built in the Neo-Gothic style. It was designed by W.H. Hague, a Dublin architect. It was dedicated on 19 October 1879. The church is on a plot of elevated ground. Fr. Thomas Fitzgerald, the priest responsible for its construction, is buried within the chancel in front of the Blessed Sacrament Altar.

St George's Church, Church of Ireland

St. George's Church, St. Mary's Close, is the Church of Ireland parish Church. Prior to 1698, the parish church was situated at Kiltoghert. In that year it was transferred to its present site in Carrick. It was re-built in 1829 and the interior reconstructed in the years 1910-1914. Rev. W.A. Percy who was Rector from 1869 to 1886 was grandfather of the famous songwriter Percy French.

"The Priest's Lane" was the old name for the road at the Swan Bar leading to St. Patrick's Park. This was where the Catholic clergy first lived after the relaxation of the Penal Laws. It is also reputed to have been the home of Turlough O'Carolan, the harpist and composer when he came to Carrick as a boy with his family from Nobber, Co. Meath in 1684.[12]

The Carrick Baptist Church was started in September 2012. The church holds its services on Park Lane.

Arts

The Very Small Gallery is located in 'The Bush Craft Yard'.

The Dock is an arts centre housed in the renovated 19th Century courthouse building. It was opened in 2005. The arts centre has a theatre, art galleries, artists' studios, workshop spaces, a coffee shop and theatre bar and The Leitrim Design House. It also holds the "Phase One" festival which is held at the beginning of April every year, a phase dedicated to displaying artists and musicians associated with modern or electronic music, the festival having started in 2013.

Climate

Carrick on Shannon experiences a year-round mild, moist, temperate and changeable climate, due to the prevailing winds of the Gulf Stream. The town experiences a lack of temperature extremes, with temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) and above 30 °C (86 °F) being rare. The town receives an average of 1,147 mm (45.2") of precipitation annually, which is evenly distributed throughout the year. Rain is the most common form of precipitation - hail, sleet and snow are rare in the town, though will sometimes be experienced during particularly cold winters. Carrick-on-Shannon is also consistently humid, with humidity normally ranging from 70% to 100%, and this can lead to heavy showers, and even thunderstorms breaking out when drier east winds, originating in the European continent, clash with this humidity particularly in the late summer.

The average January temperature in the town is 6.8 °C (40.6 °F) and the average July temperature is 16.0 °C (60.8 °F). This means that Carrick-on-Shannon is said to have a maritime temperate climate (Cfb) according to the Köppen climate classification system.

Geography

As its name implies, the town is located on the River Shannon, which is linked to the River Erne via the Shannon–Erne Waterway. The town is located on the N4 National Primary Route, linking Dublin in the east to Sligo in the west. The road is of motorway status for much of its length.

The town is served by the Dublin-Sligo railway line. Carrick-on-Shannon railway station opened on 3 December 1862.[13] This line was originally part of the Midland Great Western Railway. The railway station is approximately 2 kilometres outside town on the Roscommon side of the Shannon. Bus Éireann bus services connect the town to Dublin and Sligo. There is a regularLocallink Bus Service to Ballinamore viia Mohill. Carrick-on-Shannon, while the county town of Leitrim, straddles the river Shannon. That part of the town on the Roscommon side is the townland of Cortober.

The Leitrim part of the town is situated in the townland of Townparks which is part of the extensive civil parish of Kiltoghert, while the Roscommon part is in the parish of Killukin.[2]

Sport

  • Gaelic games - St Mary's GAA Club, based in the parish of Kiltoghert.[14] The club was re-formed in March 1944. For 55 years, the club rented the Show Grounds on the Boyle Road.
  • Golf - Carrick on Shannon Golf Club [15] The townland of Ballinamoney was first the first site for a golf course. In 1936 the club moved to a site nearer the town in Lisnagot. In 1944 it moved to its present location in Woodbrook.
  • Rowing - Carrick on Shannon Rowing Club[16] The club was founded in 1836 and is the oldest rowing club in Ireland as well as one of the oldest in the world.
  • Rugby Carrick on Shannon R.F.C. Est. 1974
  • Soccer - Carrick Town FC was founded in 1976. The home ground is located at the Showgrounds on the Boyle Road.
  • Fishing. The locality has hosted National and International Fishing Competitions.

Notable residents

Twinning

Carrick-on-Shannon is twinned with Cesson-Sévigné in Brittany, France.

See also

References

Primary sources

  1. 1 2 "Sapmap Area - Settlements - Carrick-On-Shannon". Census 2016. CSO. 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Cora Droma Rúisc/Carrick-on-Shannon". Placenames Database of Ireland. Government of Ireland - Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Dublin City University. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise - map of parishes.
  4. ↑ Ó Duígeannáin 1934, pp. 134.
  5. ↑ Joyce 1913, pp. 268.
  6. ↑ Carrick Heritage
  7. ↑ Longman 1819, pp. 405.
  8. ↑ Watsons 1830.
  9. ↑ Leitrim Observer
  10. ↑ Northwest Express - Distribution and Circulation
  11. ↑ RTÉ News - Leitrim Post to Close
  12. ↑ Carrick Heritage - Historical Society
  13. ↑ "Carrick on Shannon station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
  14. ↑ Gaelic games club website Archived 22 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Golf club website
  16. ↑ Rowing club website
  17. ↑ Elections Ireland http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=2960&sort=party&office=yes. Retrieved 1 December 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)

Secondary sources

Historical

  • Longman (2011) [1819]. Traveller's New Guide Through Ireland, Containing a New and Accurate Description of the Roads (digitized from original in Lyon Public Library ed.). Longman.
  • Joyce, P. W. (Patrick Weston) (1913). Irish names of places (PDF). v.3. Dublin : Phoenix.
  • Watsons (1830). The Gentleman's and citizen's almanack ... for the year (PDF). Dublin, Printed for S. Watson [etc.]
  • Ó Duígeannáin, Mícheál (1934). "Notes on the History of the Kingdom of Bréifne". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Volumes 64-65 (Digitized 2008 from original at the University of California ed.). Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland: 113–140. JSTOR 25513764.
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