Abbeylara is a village in the easternmost portion of County Longford

County Longford

County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, located about three kilometers east of Granard

Granard

Granard is a town in the north of County Longford, Ireland and has a traceable history going back to 236 A.D.. It is situated just south of the boundary between the watersheds of the Shannon and the Erne, at the point where the N55 national secondary road and the R194 regional road...

 on the R369 regional road

Regional road

A regional road in Ireland is a class of road not forming a major route , but nevertheless forming a link in the national route network. There are over 11,600 kilometres of regional roads. Regional roads are numbered with three digit route numbers, prefixed by "R" A regional road in Ireland is a...

. Its name is derived from a monastery, the great Abbey of Lerha, founded in 1205 by Hiberno-Norman

Hiberno-Norman

The Hiberno-Normans are those Norman lords who settled in Ireland who admitted little if any real fealty to the Anglo-Norman settlers in England, and who soon began to interact and intermarry with the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. The term embraces both their origins as a distinct community with...

 magnate, Risteárd de Tiúit

Risteárd de Tiúit

Risteárd de Tiúit was a member of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke's Irish invasion force, and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland...

, for Cistercian monks. The monastery was dissolved in 1539, although its ruins are still apparent on approach to the village. An ancient earthenwork, the Duncla (Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 Dún-chlaí meaning "fortified ditch") or Black Pig's Dyke

Black Pig's Dyke

The Black Pig's Dyke or Worm's Ditch is a series of discontinuous linear earthworks in southwest Ulster and northeast Connacht, Ireland. Remnants can be found in north County Leitrim, north County Longford, County Cavan and County Monaghan...

, which runs south-eastwards from Lough Gowna

Lough Gowna

Lough Gowna is a fresh water lake which is the uppermost lake on the River Erne. It is located on the border between County Longford and County Cavan, with the largest part of the lake being in County Longford....

 to Lough Kinale, goes through the larger parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Abbeylara, and passes about one kilometre north of the village.

Because of its proximity to Lough Kinale and Lough Derragh, with a plentiful supply of trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

, tench

Tench

The tench or doctor fish is a freshwater and brackish water fish of the cyprinid family found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also found in Lake Baikal...

, bream and pike

Esox

Esox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...

, Abbeylara attracts anglers

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...

 and local angling clubs hold regular competitions.

On 20 April 2000, local man John Carthy

John Carthy

John Carthy was a 27-year-old Irish citizen with known psychiatric illnesses. On Thursday 20 April 2000 he was shot dead in controversial circumstances by the Emergency Response Unit of An Garda Síochána at his home in Toneymore, Abbeylara, County Longford, Ireland after a twenty-five hour...

 was shot dead by the Gardaí (police) in a siege.

Abbeylara is home to the current UK handball open champion, Fintan "McLovin" Creamer (D.O.B. 24.03.1987) who won the 2009 title when the competition was held in London on September 4–7, 2009.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland
• Barr Tribunal
  Barr Tribunal
  The Barr Tribunal was a Public Inquiry in the Republic of Ireland established by Resolutions passed by the Dáil Éireann and the Seanad Éireann on the 17 and 18 April 2002, and by Instrument entitled Tribunals of Inquiry Evidence Acts 1921 Instrument 2002 made by the Minister for Justice, Equality...
  
  - Inquiry into the John Carthy siege and shooting of 2000

Eugebox's Statue = Statue of the great Eugebox Lynch in the village of Abbeylara

External links

• Abbeylara pages on official County Longford site