Eamhain Mhacha (or Navan Fort), at the western edge of Armagh, was an ancientpagan ritual or ceremonial site. According toIrish mythology it was one of the greatroyal sites ofGaelic Ireland and the capital ofUlster. It appears to have been largely abandoned after the 1st century. In the 3rd century, aditch and bank was dug around the top of Cathedral Hill, the heart of what is now Armagh. Its circular shape matches the modern street layout. Evidence suggests that it was a pagan sanctuary and the successor to Navan.[6] Like Navan, it too was named after thegoddessMacha:Ard Mhacha, meaning "Macha's height". This name was lateranglicised asArdmagh,[7][8] which eventually becameArmagh. Navan and Armagh were linked by an ancient road which passes over Mullacreevie hill.[9]
AfterChristianityspread to Ireland, the pagan sanctuary was converted into a Christian one, and Armagh became the site of an important church andmonastery. According to tradition,Saint Patrick founded his main church there in the year 445, and it eventually became the head church of Ireland.Muirchú writes that a pagan chieftain namedDáire would not let Patrick build a church on the hill of Ard Mhacha, but instead gave him lower ground to the east. One day, Dáire's horses died after grazing on the church land. He told his men to kill Patrick, but was himself struck down with illness. They begged Patrick to heal him, and Patrick's holy water revived both Dáire and his horses. Dáire rewarded Patrick with a great bronze cauldron and gave him the hill of Ard Mhacha to build a church. Dáire has similarities with the Irish godthe Dagda.[10]
By the 7th century, Armagh had become the site of the most important church, monastery andmonastic school in the north of Ireland.[11] TheBook of Armagh was produced in the monastery in the early 9th century and contains some of the oldest surviving specimens ofOld Irish.
Armagh was at the heart of the kingdom of the Airthir, a part of theAirgíalla federation. The church at Armagh looked to both the Airthir and neighbouringUí Néill for patronage.[11] The Uí NéillHigh King,Niall Caille (Niall of the Callan), was buried at Armagh in 846 after drowning in the River Callan. His son, High KingÁed Findliath, had a house at Armagh.[11]
The firstViking raids on Armagh were recorded in 832, with three in one month,[12] and it suffered at least ten Viking raids over the following century. A hoard seemingly lost by Vikings in the River Blackwater shows the high quality of metalwork being made in Armagh at this time.[11]
Brian Boru,High King of Ireland, visited Armagh in 1004, acknowledging it as the head church of Ireland and bestowing it a large sum of gold. Brian was buried at Armagh cathedral after his death at theBattle of Clontarf in 1014.[13] Armagh's claim to being the head church of Ireland was formally acknowledged at theSynod of Ráth Breasail in 1111.[11] The 1171 Council of Armagh freed all Englishmen and women who wereenslaved in Ireland.[14]
ArchbishopMáel Patraic Ua Scannail rebuilt Armagh cathedral in 1268 and founded aFranciscan friary, whose remains can still be seen. There was also a smallCuldee community in Armagh until the 16th century.[11]
During the 16th centuryTudor conquest of Ireland, Armagh suffered greatly in the conflict between the English and theO'Neills. Armagh was strategically important as it lay between theEnglish Pale and the O'Neill heartland ofTyrone, and the town changed hands many times during the wars.[17] In the 1560s, English troops underThomas Radclyffe occupied and fortified the town, which was then attacked and largely destroyed byShane O'Neill. After theBattle of the Yellow Ford in 1598, therouted English army took refuge at Armagh before surrendering toHugh O'Neill.[17] By the end of theNine Years' War, Armagh lay in ruins, as shown on Richard Bartlett's 1601 map.[11]
Following the Nine Years' War, Armagh came under English dominance and the cathedral came under the control of the ProtestantChurch of Ireland. The cathedral was rebuilt under ArchbishopChristopher Hampton and the town began to be settled by Protestants from Britain, as part of thePlantation of Ulster. During theIrish Rebellion of 1641, many British settlers fled to Armagh cathedral for safety. After negotiations with the besieged settlers, Catholic rebels underFelim O'Neill occupied the town. In May 1642, following several rebel defeats and massacres by settlers elsewhere, the rebels in Armagh seized the settlers' property and set fire to the town.[18]
Armagh has been an educational centre since the time of Saint Patrick, and thus it has been referred to as "the city of saints and scholars". The educational tradition continued with the foundation of theRoyal School in 1608, St Patrick's College in 1834 and theArmagh Observatory in 1790. The Observatory was part ofArchbishopLord Rokeby's plan to have a university in the city. This ambition was finally fulfilled, albeit briefly, in the 1990s whenQueen's University of Belfast opened an outreach centre in the former hospital building.
TheCatch-my-Pal Protestant Total Abstinence Union was founded in 1909 in Armagh by the minister of 3rd Armagh (now The Mall) Presbyterian Church, Rev. Robert Patterson. Although relatively short-lived it was very successful for that time, attracting many tens of thousands of members. It was influential in the development of a "two-community" narrative in Ulster which was important in the Ulster Unionist campaign during theHome Rule crisis. Ablue plaque historical marker commemorating Rev. Patterson was erected on The Mall in 2019.
Duringthe Troubles in Armagh, the violence was substantial enough for a stretch of road on the outskirts of the city to be referred to as "Murder Mile".[21] Over the span of 36 years, although mainly concentrated in the years from 1969 until 1994, the small city, including some outlying areas, saw 86 deaths in the Troubles, including those of a number of people from the city who died elsewhere in Troubles-related incidents. Armagh City Hall, which had been built as the Tontine Buildings in 1828[22] and converted into a municipal building in 1910,[23] was badly damaged in a bomb attack on 27 September 1972[24] and subsequently demolished.[25]
As the seat of thePrimate of All Ireland, Armagh was historically regarded as acity, and recognisably had the status by 1226.[26] It had no charter granted but claimed the title byprescription, and was later formerly chartered as a borough in 1613 underJames I;[27] Acts of theParliament of Ireland in 1773 and 1791 refer to the "City of Armagh".[28] Armagh lost the status with the abolition of its city corporation by theMunicipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 after it was deemed ineffective and unrepresentative of its population. From 1953, Armagh began to argue for the restoration of the status lost in 1840,[29] with several applications to the Home Office being made.[30]
The council used the appellation "city" unofficially until 1994 when, at Queen Elizabeth's personal request,[30] Armagh along with the Welsh town ofSt Davids was awarded the status.Charles, Prince of Wales during a visit in July 1994 announced it had been granted to mark the 1,550th anniversary of the traditional date of Armagh's foundation by Saint Patrick,[26] and also "in recognition of [Armagh's and St Davids'] important Christian heritage and their status as cities in the last century".[31]
The award of city status is typically granted to alocal authority body, and theletters patent was initially presented to dignitaries andArmagh District Council by Queen Elizabeth during a visit on 9 March 1995.[32] Following this, it was renamed Armagh City and District Council from 1 October 1995.[33]Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council presently holds the status on behalf of the city as there is no localised council body since the aforementioned districts were merged in 2015 as a result oflocal government reform. Armagh contains the lowest population of all the cities of Northern Ireland, and is sixth physically smallest in the UK. Its urban area covering 3.97 sq mi (10.3 km2), makes it the smallest city by size in Northern Ireland, however several other cities are smaller when the UK is taken as a whole.
Armagh is the site of two cathedrals, both on hills and both named afterSaint Patrick. TheChurch of Ireland cathedral dates back to around 445. The present-day, post-Reformation,Roman Catholic cathedral was constructed during the latter half of the 19th century and features twin 64 m (210 ft)spires, making it the tallest such structure in the county. Armagh is one of the few cities in the world that is home to two cathedrals of the same name.
Armagh has aGeorgian area of heritage importance. Perhaps one of the more well known of the buildings is the former women's prison.[34] The construction ofArmagh Gaol began in 1780 and was extended in the 1840s and 1850s. The front façade of the prison was built in the Georgian style, while the later development, based on the design ofPentonville (HM Prison), is Victorian.[34] For most of its working life it was a women's prison although not exclusively so. Armagh Gaol was the primary women's prison in Northern Ireland. In 1986 the prison closed and its prisoners were transferred to the new prison atMaghaberry.[34]
The city is home to theArmagh Observatory, founded in 1790, and to theArmagh Planetarium, established in 1968 to complement the research work of the Observatory. The palace of the Archbishop of Armagh is now the local council offices and, along with the archbishop's private chapel, is open to the public. The Palace Stables heritage centre is a reconstructedstable block dating from the 18th century, which was once part of the Archbishop's estate.
Among the city's chief glories is Armagh Public Library on Abbey Street. It was founded in 1771 byArchbishop Richard Robinson (later created the firstBaron Rokeby in 1777), using his own library as its nucleus.[35] It is especially rich in 17th- and 18th-century books in English, including DeanJonathan Swift's own copy of the first edition of hisGulliver's Travels with his manuscript corrections.
Armagh Market House was built in 1815 as a two-storey five-bay building, and is currently used as a library.
Armagh County Museum is the oldest county museum in Ireland.[36] The building dates from 1833 and was originally a school house. It was opened as theCounty Museum in 1937.
Armagh is within the civil parish of Armagh. Like the rest of Ireland, this parish is divided intotownlands, whose names mostly come from the Irish language. When these townlands were built upon, they lent their names to various streets, roads and housing estates. In 1830, most of Armagh's urban townlands were amalgamated for administration and became known as Corporation Lands or simply Corporation.[37] The surrounding townlands remained as separate units and they were eventually built upon too. They are listed below alongside their likelyetymologies.[7][38]
On Census day (21 March 2021) there were 16,310 people living in Armagh.[5] Of these:
22.36% were aged under 16, 62.11% were aged between 16 and 65, and 15.52% were aged 66 or over.[43]
51.91% of the usually resident population were female and 48.09% were male.[44]
67.3% (10,977) belong to or were brought up Catholic, 23.76% (3,875) belong to or were brought up 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)', 1.35% belong to other religions and 7.59% have no religious background.[45]
47.93% had an Irish national identity,[46] 20.17% indicated that they had a British national identity,[47] 24.08% had a Northern Irish national identity,[48] and 16.27% had an 'other' national identity.[49] (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).
On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 14,777 people living in Armagh (5871 households), accounting for 0.82% of the NI total,[52] representing an increase of 1.3% on the Census 2001 population of 14,590.[53] Of these:
20.90% were aged under 16 years and 15.44% were aged 65 and over.
52.52% of the usually resident population were female and 47.48% were male.
68.85% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic Christian faith and 26.95% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion.
44.39% had an Irish national identity, 27.18% indicated that they had a British national identity and 26.43% had a Northern Irish national identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).
37 years was the average (median) age of the population;
18.76% had some knowledge of Irish (Gaeilge) and 4.08% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots.
Former houses on Charlemont Place, beside The Mall, now occupied by Education Authority (Southern)
TheEducation Authority (Southern) and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust[54] have their headquarters in the city, which has a long reputation as an administrative centre.
Thepartition of Ireland in 1922 hastened the railways' decline, and the GNR closed theKeady –Castleblayney section of the CKA in 1923.[60] The GNR withdrew passenger trains from the Armagh – Keady section of the CKA in 1922 and closed the Armagh –Markethill section of the N&A in 1933.[60] TheGovernment of Northern Ireland forced the GNR Board to close all remaining lines servingArmagh railway station on 1 October 1957: the goods branch from Armagh to Keady and the main line through Armagh fromPortadown as far as the border atGlaslough on the way to Monaghan.[60][61]
Today Armagh is the only city in Ireland that is not served by rail, however Portadown is the nearest station.NI Railways train services run from Portadown toBelfast Grand Central and the cross-borderEnterprise service runs viaNewry toDublin Connolly.Poyntzpass also has a limited service.
Armagh Athletics Club, which was founded in 1969, organises the annual Armagh International5k Road Race.[citation needed] The race was first organised in 1980.[citation needed]
Only people who are sufficiently notable to have individual entries on Wikipedia have been included in the list and, in each instance, their birth or residence has been verified by citations.
Tom Boyd, Irish professional golfer, was born in Armagh in 1888[65]
Armagh has atemperate maritime climate (Cfb) according to theKöppen climate classification system. The nearestMet Office standard weather station, at Armagh Observatory, provides long term weather data back to 1794.[80][81] The lowest temperature was −15.0 °C (5.0 °F) on 7 February 1895. This is also the coldest temperature on record for February in Northern Ireland.[82][83]Armagh also holds the record for highest daily minimum temperature in Northern Ireland, at 20.6 °C (69.1 °F) on 31 July 1868.[83] The lowest daily maximum temperature on record is −8.0 °C (17.6 °F) which occurred on 20 December 2010.[84]
Climate data for Armagh, elevation: 42 m (138 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1844–present
AI768.3 Repose of Feradach son of Suibne, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI772.2 Suibne, abbot of Ard Macha, [rested].
AI791.1 Kl. Cú Dínisc son of Cú Ásaig, abbot of Ard Macha, rested.
AI793.1 Dub dá Leithe, abbot of Ard Macha, rested.
AI794.1 Kl. Airechtach, abbot of Ard Macha, [rested].
AI795.3 Repose of Faendledach Bec, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI807.1 Kl. Connmach son of Dub dá Leithe, abbot of Ard Macha, rested.
AI808.1 Kl. Taicthech grandson of Tigernán,lector of Ard Macha, rested.
AI834.1 Kl. Eógan, bishop of Ard Macha, rested.
AI845.2 Forannán, abbot of Ard Macha, was carried off by theheathens from Cluain Comarda, and the shrine of Pátraic was broken and carried off by them.
AI852.2 Forannan andDiarmait, abbots of Ard Macha, fell asleep.
AI852.2 Repose of Cathasach, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI874.1 Kl. The thirdferia [Tuesday], ninth of the moon. Féthgna, abbot of Ard Macha, rested in Christ.
AI883.2 Repose of Cathasach, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI888.3 Repose of Mael Coba son of Crunnmael, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI893.1 First afterBissextile. Kl. Repose of Mochta, bishop of Ard Macha.
AI924.2 Muiredach son of Domnall, abbot of Mainister Búiti and tanist-abbot of Ard Macha, rested.
AI927.1 Kl. Repose of Mael Brigte son of Tornán, abbot of Ard Macha and abbot ofÍ Coluim Chille.
AI936.1 Kl. Repose of Ioseph, abbot of Ard Macha; and Mael Pátraic succeeded him in the abbacy.
AI966.2 Repose of Muiredach son of Fergus, abbot of Ard Macha.
AI973.3 Dub dá Leithe,coarb of Patrick, came toMumu and made his visitation; and he and the coarb ofAilbe quarrelled regarding the levy, andMathgamain, king of Mumu, made peace between them, and they agreed upon the perpetual right of [the coarb of] Patrick.
AI996.4 Ard Macha was set on fire by lightning, which did not leave unburnt a steeple therein, nor a house, nor the house of an elder inside the fort.
AI996.5 Dub dá Leithe, coarb of Ard Macha (or, of Patrick) and coarb of Colum Cille, rested in Christ.
AI1001.2 Muirecán, abbot of Ard Macha, was expelled from his abbot's seat, and Mael Maire took the abbacy instead.
AI1020.3 Mael Muire son of Eochaid, coarb of Patrick, rested in Christ.
AI1020.4 Ard Macha was burned, both stone-church and bellhouse, and all the buildings.
AI1026.3 The coarb of Patrick, accompanied by his venerable clerics, and Donnchadh son of Gilla Pátraic, king ofOsraige, [were] in the house of Donnchad, son ofBrian, at Cenn Corad at Eastertide.
^Change of District Name (Armagh) Order (Northern Ireland) 1995. "This order changes the name of the local government district of Armagh... to Armagh City and District from 1st October 1995"."No. 5656".The Belfast Gazette. 15 September 1995. p. 804.
^abcKerr, Robert:Three Gaols: Images of Crumlin Road, Long Kesh and Armagh Prisons, MSF Press, 2011,ISBN978-0-9568069-0-1
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