

ARMAGH. 



ARMAGH. 



cot 



me extensive plantations. In the town are several well- 

 built houses, a good inarket*ou*e, and a dispensary. The Presby- 

 terians, Weajeyan Methodist*, Independents, and Quakers have places 

 of worship. The linen manufacture is carried on to a considerable 

 extent Fairs are held on Shrove Tuesday, 26th July, and 15th 

 October. Rich-hill demesne, belonging to the Richardson family, the 

 proprietors of th town, is well wooded : the mansion is a large castel- 

 lated building near the main street In the neighbourhood are many 

 gentlemen's seats. 



Tfuirragrt, population 1496, a market and post-town on the left 

 bank of the river Cusher, about 4 miles E. by 8. from Armagh, is 

 pleasantly situated on an eminence in a well-cultivated district 

 Being within a mile and a quarter of the Newry Canal, it enjoys 

 easy communication with Newry and Belfast The town has a neat 

 appearance, and contains a parish church, chapels for Presbyterians 

 and Wesleyan Methodists, a fever hospital, and a dispensary. Several 

 schools and benevolent institutions are supported by the Dnke of 

 Manchester, who is proprietor of the town. In the vicinity are flour, 

 meal, and flax-mills. Flax, linen, and agricultural produce are sold in 

 considerable quantities at the markets held weekly. Fairs are held on 

 the first Wednesday in May, on 5th July, and 5th November. Petty 

 sessions are held fortnightly. Tandcragee Castle, the seat of the Duke 

 of Manchester, an extensive modern building in the baronial style, 

 occupies the site of a fortified and castellated residence which formerly 

 stood here. 



The following villages may be noticed ; the populations are those of 

 1851 : Acton, population 205, is a neat regularly built village about 

 10 miles E. by S. from Armagh on the west side of the Newry Canal. 

 The situation of the village is very favourable for trade. Blackwatcr- 

 totrn, population 802, on the right bank of the Blackwater River, about 

 4 miles N. by W. from Armagh. Near the village the Blackwater 

 River is made to form a junction with the Ulster Canal, thus affording 

 facilities for trade. In the village is a dispensary of the Armagh 

 Poor-Law Union. A fort was built here in 1584 to command the pass 

 from O'Neill's country into Armagh, and the collisions between the 

 garrison and O'Neill's adherents led eventually to the rising against 

 Queen Elizabeth's authority, one of the most remarkable incidents of 

 which wss a contest at Blackwatertown in 1598, when the English 

 were defeated with the loss of their general and more than 1500 men. 

 The fort was afterwards suffered to go to decay. Forkill, population 

 181, about 7 miles S.S.W. from Newry, near the Louth border, has a 

 barrack, a dispensary of the Newry Poor-Law Union, and some 

 endowed schools. Petty sessions are held on the second Tuesday of 

 each month : fairs on 1st May, 1st August, 29th September, and 8th 

 December. Killylra or KiUyUayh, population 281, about 4 miles 

 W. by 8. from Armagh, consist* chiefly of one long steep street of 

 well-built houses. A fair, principally for horses, is held here on the 

 hut Friday of each month. KILMORE, the seat of a bishopric, is 

 noticed in a separate article. Longhgatt, population 366, about 4 

 miles N. by E. from Armagh, consists of two parts : the higher is the 

 more recently built and presents a neat appearance. There in here 

 the parish church, a small court-house, and a dispensary of the Armagh 

 Union. Petty sessions are held monthly : fairs on the Friday before 

 Christmas (old style), Holy Thursday, 1st July, and 24th September. 

 There are several endowed schools. Middleion, population 515, about 

 7 miles 8.W. from Armagh, has a parish church, a chapel fur Presbyte- 

 rians, and a fever hospital A chapel for Roman Catholics is a short 

 <H*hmo 8.E. from the village. Some manufactures are carried on. 

 Fain are held on the first Thursday in each month and on 28th 

 November; petty sessions on the second Saturday in each month. 

 The Ulster Canal passes a short distance westward from Middleton. 

 About a mile from the village are the ruins of Ardgonnel Castle. 

 Poymttpntt, population 019, on the Down border, about 14 miles S.E. 

 from Armagh, consist* chiefly of one main street and a smaller street 

 firming it In the village mn the parish church, a chapel for Roman 

 Catholics, a dispensary for the Newry Union, and a National school 

 Fairs are held on the first Saturday in each month, when considerable 

 business is transacted in the sale of sheep and cattle. The Newry 

 Canal paeses the village. In the vicinity are numerous good mansions 

 and gentlemen's seat*. 



DMtioni fur Scdaiatlieal and Legal .Purpose*. Armagh returns 

 three member* to the Imperial Parliament, two for the county at 

 largo, and one for Armagh city. The county is hi the North East 

 circuit The sssi* are held at Armagh, where are the county 

 prison, the county infirmary, and the district lunatic asylum, to which 

 the county is entitled to send 60 patient*. Quarter session* are held 

 and there are bridewell* at Armagh, Ballybot, Lurgan, Newton- 

 hwnilton, and MarkrthilL Ferer hospital* are at Armagh, MM 

 and Tandvragee. At Portadown is a loan-fund establishment. There 

 is a savings bank at Armagh, which on i!0th November, 1851, held 

 deposit* to th* amount of 49,081 (. 1. 9rf. The union workhouse* are at 

 Armagh and I.ttrgan. The net yearly value of property rated !> the 

 poor is 3I0.04U The county is in the military district of Belfast, 

 and UMTS are barrack stations at Armagh, Charlement, and Newry. 

 The staff of Uw county militia is stationed at Markethill. The police 

 force of 2 men and officer, has it* head-quarters at Armagh : there 

 are M stations allotted into 6 district*, of which the head-quarters 

 are Armagh, Ballybot, Crosonagtrn, Ncwtonhamilton, and Portadown. 



In December, 1851, there were 111 National schools attended by 

 5500 male and 8968 female children. 



Hittnry. Armagh county formerly constituted a portion of the 

 Irish territory of Orghallia (Oriel), separated from Ulidia (the present 

 Down) by a ditch and rampart extending along the valley of the 

 Newry River. The remains of this iiitrenuhment are still traceable 

 for several miles near Scarva on the line of the Newry Canal ; the 

 dyke is known as the 'Dane's Cast,' and by an Irish name signifying 

 the 'Glen of the Black Pig.' The average breadth of the ' Dane's 

 Cast,' from the edge of the ditch to the top of the rampart, is 70 feet 

 The residence of the native kings of the northern half of Ireland was 

 formerly at Eamania in this county, 2 miles west of the city of 

 Armagh, where the remains of a circular foss and rampart still exist, 

 comprising an area of about 14 statute acres. The destruction of 

 Eamania, at a very early epoch of Irish history, is the subject of one 

 of the characteristic bardic tales of the Irish, called the ' Death of t he 

 Sons of Usnach.' This piece greatly exceeds in antiquity the 

 belitngen Lied,' and possesses considerable dramatic interest The 

 civil history of the county of Armagh commences with the Mibi 

 of Con Oneill, the dynast of thin portion of Ulster, to King Henry V ! 1 1 . 

 in 1542 ; but the English lawn and customs were not finally introduced 

 until the plantation of Ulster in 1608. On this occasion the county 

 was granted out to English and Scottish undertakers, from whom the 

 present proprietary generally descend. In the northern parts of the 

 county a large proportion of the population are of English and K' 

 descent; but throughout the central and southern parts the native 

 Irish predominate, and the Irish language still continues in use in the 

 baronies of Fews and Upper Orior. 



(Statistical Surrey of Armagh; Stuart's Historical Hfemoin of the 

 City of Armagh; Bunting's Collection of frith Mutic; Ordnance 

 Survey of Ireland.) 



ARMAGH, the capital of the county of Armagh, Ireland, in the 

 parish and barony of the same name, a city, the seat of the arehicpis- 

 copal and primatial see of Armagh, a parliamentary borough and the 

 seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated in 64" 20' N. lat., C 89' W. 

 long., distant 85J miles W.S.W. from Belfast by the IMster railway, 

 64 miles N.N.W. from Dublin by road, or 94 miles by the Dundalk 

 and Ennixkillen railway, from the Castle Blayney station of which it 

 is distant north 21 miles. The population in 1 851 was 9806, exclusive 

 of 478 persons in the union workhouse. The lighting, cleansing, and 

 watching the streets are under the management of Town Commis- 

 sioners, under the Act 9 Geo. IV. c. 82. The borough returns one 

 member to the Imperial Parliament Armagh Poor-Law Union com- 

 prises 26 electoral divisions with an area of 154,249 acres, and a 

 population in 1841 of 109,564, in 1851 of 86,766. 



Armagh is situated on the declivities and at the base of a 

 eminence round which the principal streets are disposed concentri- 

 cally. Other elevations rise on the north, east, and south. The 

 central height, from which the town takes its name, Ard-Ma-jlm or 

 Ard-macha, is crowned by the cathedral, which has l>een recently 

 repaired and beautified chiefly at the expense of the present pri 

 Lord J. G. Beresford, D.D. It occupies the site of the original 

 building erected here by St Patrick in the 6th century. The new 

 Roman Catholic cathedral, a fine building in the pointed gothi<- 

 stands on the principal eminence on the north. The palace and 

 demesne of the primate, distinguished by fine timber and a handsome 

 obelisk, occupy the eminence on the south ; and the intermediate 

 heights are occupied by the barracks, the Poor-Law building 

 royal school, and the observatory. A level space between the site of 

 the old city and the eminences on the east is laid out as a public mall. 

 At the southern extremity of this picture ground is the comr 

 an old and inconvenient structure ; on the east side is the c 

 bank, a small but remarkably pretty building ; and at the noi 

 end the county court-house, a modem building with a light but. 

 not well-proportioned portico of six columns. Tip- market li 

 handsome plain edifice, stands in an open space on the southern 

 declivity of the central hill. The library and other buildin; 

 nected with the cathedral are situated on the northern brow of tin- 

 nine eminence. The Hi' 'built .purl of the city 

 occupies the low ground in the neighbourhood of the mall. The 

 building material is the granular limestone raised on the' spot , ; it 

 dresses to a warm gray colour, and gives the city, which is very well 

 and substantially built, an air of strength and elegance which con- 

 trasts i w ih the appearance, of the neighbouring brick-built 

 town*. The cathedral, the only building of the city in which the 

 native marble is not ein | nilt of red-sandstone: it is a low 

 cruciform structure, 184 feet in length by 119 iV.-t in breadth 

 the transept*. A square tower 110 feet high, with a low pyramidal 

 roof, rises over the intersection of the nave and transepts. The body 

 of the building is of the 12th century. Besides the Protestant and 

 Roman Catholic cathedrals, there are a Protestant Episcopal chapel, a 

 Roman Catholic chapel, throe places of worship for Presbyterians, two 

 h'lists, and one for Inde]>endcnts. There are a royal school 

 called the College, a National school, a school for choristers i 

 by the Vicars choral, the district lunatic asylum, i 200 

 men, a fever hospital supported by the primate, a linen hall, a yarn 

 hall, a music hall, and tontine buildings, in which m> .nblio 

 assembly room and a newsroom. There are also various charitable 



