Castlerea - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Castlerea is located in the west of County Roscommon

County Roscommon

County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon 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,...

. It is the second largest town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

in the county with a population of 3,055 (as of 2011). Roughly translated from Irish, Castlerea can mean Brindled Castle (Caisleán Riabhach) or King's Castle (Caisleán Rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

). The town is built on the River Suck

River Suck

The River Suck is a river in Ireland, approx. in length.It is the main tributary of the River Shannon. It meets the River Swilly a few kilometres north of the village of Shannonbridge to form the Suck-Swilly, which becomes the River Shannon....

and the River Francis, both tributaries of the River Shannon

River Shannon

The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...

History

Clonalis House

Clonalis House, Castlerea, County Roscommon is the ancestral home of the O'Conor Don, who is a direct descendant of the last High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair....

, just west of the town, is the ancestral home of the Clan O'Conor

O'Conor Don

The Ó Conchubhair Donn is the hereditary Prince and Chief of the Name of the Royal Family of Connacht, the Clan Ó Conchubhair.-Overview:...

: the last High Kings of Ireland. The dynasty

Dynasty

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...

gave eleven high kings to Ireland and twenty four kings to Connacht. The family traces back to Feredach the Just in 75 A.D. and is Europe's oldest recorded family. The 45 room mansion was built in 1878 and contains a priceless collection of archival material, illustrating a tradition going back 60 generations.
Castlerea in 1871 had a population of 1,146. It contained, according to Wilson and lawson's Gazetteer of Ireland, 'one long straggling street'. The town at the time (the 1870s) had weekly markets and four annual fairs. Lord Mount Sandford owned the town. He had a considerable amount of land in the sorrounding area; about 19,250 statute acres. (according to Thom's he had 24,410 in 1876; Thoms, Return of owners of land in Ireland (Dublin, 1876), pp.314-19; cited in 'Painful progress', pp.74-5). But Castlerea stood out from the other Roscommon towns mentioned in the Gazetteer in one important way. It did not have the same horrendous problem with housing. Instead, the guide described Castlerea: 'Altogether, Castlerea is a very neat, pleasant and agreeable little town, exhibiting less poverty than other towns in the county'. Slater's directory also praised Castlerea. In 1881 it commented: 'The place is deemed remarkably healthy, has the advantage of excellent water springs and the dwellings being for the most part white-washed, the town altogether exibits a clean and lively aspect'.Slater's Directory 1881 p. 32; cited in 'Painful progress', p. 63>
But the town did have problems. A 'concerned inhabitant' wrote to the Roscommon Messenger (7 Feb. 1891) complaining about the 'neglected and unsanitary state of the roads and footpaths of the town'. It was especially bad during the winter months. The inhabitants had to wade through 'a regular mass of mud and refuge'.<Roscommon Messenger, 7 Feb., 1891> The suggested solution was to form a ratepayers protection and improvement association, to 'get useful works before presentment sessions'.(Roscommon Messenger 7 Feb., 1891). The inhabitants had to pay poor rate and cess, 6s 2d and 5s 4d in the pound. they also had to pay county cess, 91/2 d in the pound (Roscommon Messenger, 7 Feb., 1891)

On the 11 July 1921 an RIC

Royal Irish Constabulary

The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...

man (Sgt. James King) was shot in Patrick St., Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and died of his wounds shortly afterwards. Later that day the July 11 truce was called ending the War of Independence. It was the last shot fired in the Irish War of Independence

Irish War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...

People

The first president of Ireland and founder of the Gaelic League, Dr. Douglas Hyde
Douglas Hyde
Douglas Hyde , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn , was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945...

was born in Castlerea on 17 January 1860.
Castlerea was also the birthplace in 1815 of Sir William Wilde
William Wilde
Sir William Robert Wills Wilde MD, FRCSI, was an Irish eye and ear surgeon, as well as an author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland...

, a noted surgeon and historian and father of the celebrated dramatist and wit, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

.
Dr. Matthew Young
Matthew Young (bishop)
Matthew Young , Bishop of Clonfert, was an eminent Irish mathematician and natural philosopher.-Biography:He was born in County Roscommon in 1750, entered Trinity College in 1766, and was elected Fellow and took orders in 1775. In 1798 the bishopric of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh was most...

, (Church of Ireland) Bishop of Clonfert ca. 1798, an eminent natural philosopher and mathematician, was a native of Castlerea.
The retired Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Killala, Thomas Finnegan, was born in the village of Cloonfellive near Castlerea.
Other notable people from the town include the poet Michael McGovern
Michael McGovern (poet)
Michael McGovern was a working-class poet who gained national recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was widely known as "the Puddler Poet", and his work reflected his support of labor unions....

and the fur trader Andrew McDermot
Andrew McDermot
Andrew McDermot was a Hudson's Bay Company employee who became a prominent independent fur trade merchant and member of the Council of Assiniboia.-McDermot's background and family relations:...

.
The town is the birthplace of Sumo Ireland president John Gunning and Luke 'Ming' Flanagan
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is an Irish independent politician. He was elected as a Teachta Dála for the Roscommon–South Leitrim constituency at the 2011 general election. He was previously a county councillor and Mayor of County Roscommon...

, TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...

.
A qualified accountant Aidan Heavey
Aidan Heavey
Aidan Joseph Heavey is the founder of Tullow Oil, one of Europe's largest oil businesses.-Career:From Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare and at University College, Dublin, Aidan Heavey trained with R. J. Kidney & Co. from 1974 to 1978 when he...

arrived in England from Castlerea in Co Roscommon in 1993 and has since become one of the most influential Irish businessmen in Britain: the chief executive of Tullow Oil
Tullow Oil
Tullow Oil plc is a global oil and gas exploration company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has interests in over 85 licences across 23 countries and in 2010 produced 58,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day...

has taken the publicly-listed company from meagre beginnings to a billion pound enterprise.
John Waters
John Waters (columnist)
John Waters is a columnist with The Irish Times and a former editor of Magill magazine. His career began in 1981 with the Irish political-music magazine Hot Press. He went on to write for the Sunday Tribune and later edited In Dublin magazine and Magill...

, columnist with the The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...

and author of 'Jiving At The Crossroads', was born and raised on Main St. Castlerea.

The Sandfords

Theophilus Sandford in the 17th century was the first Sandford to obtain extensive lands in Castlerea. This was for his services during the civil wars in England. These lands had been taken from the O'Conors. He built Castlerea House c.1640 on the old O'Conor Castle site. Castlerea developed under the Sandfords, and they established a distillery (at its height producing more than 20,000 of gallons of whiskey annually), a brewery and a tannery. His descendants continued to hold their power through the troublesome 19th century, but in the early years of the 20th century they lost ground. The estate was acquired by the Land Commission

Irish Land Commission

The Irish Land Commission was created in 1881 as a rent fixing commission by the Land Law Act 1881, also known as the second Irish Land Act...

and the Congested Districts Board

Congested Districts Board for Ireland

The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was established by the Chief Secretary, Arthur Balfour in 1891 to alleviate poverty and "congested" living conditions in the west of Ireland....

. The Demesne in which it was set survives and the people of Castlerea now enjoy it as a public park.

Sport

In Association Football, Castlerea Celtic were the 2006 Ruby Oil Roscommon and district Premier league and cup champions, having achieved the double for the first time since 1979. In 2009 they became Connaught junior cup champions for the first time, defeating West United from Galway in the final. There has been a large increase in the popularity of soccer in the town in recent years. A fine new clubhouse and Astroturf facility has recently been built by Castlerea Celtic.

Climate

**Climate Table**
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average daily maximum temperature (°C Celsius Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death... )	10	11	12	14	18	20	23	23	19	16	12	11	15.75
Average daily minimum temperature (°C Celsius Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death... )	-3	-2	0	1	4	7	9	8	6	3	0	0	2.75
Mean total rainfall (mm)	80	50	60	50	60	60	60	80	70	80	70	80	800
Source: Yahoo! Weather

Education and industry

Castlerea's major employers include Supervalu , Harmac Medical Products, Colour Communications Europe, Finola Foods.
A Film Production House, Round Edge Films is based in Ballingare in Castlerea.

The schools in the town are all located in one central 'block'. The area includes two primary schools, St. Anne's National School and St. Paul's National School and one secondary school, Castlerea Community School. St. Michael’s Special National School is also located within the central educational 'block'.

Post Leaving Certificate courses are held in Castlerea Community School for school leavers or adults wishing to return to education.

Amenities

Amenities in the town include a nine hole golf course, an outdoor swimming pool (open to public every June, July and August), a soccer pitch, a GAA

Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

pitch and a large public park. The GAA owns a squash court, and a handball court in the town. St. Kevin's is the local Gaelic Football club.

The town also maintains a stock of between fifteen and twenty public houses.

St. Patrick's Church (estd.1896) is the Catholic Church of the town, administered by Canon Joe Fitzgerald and Fr. Michael McManus.

A livestock market is held in Castlerea every Thursday.

Castlerea is twinned with Newark, New Jersey

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

and Soulac Sur Mer, France.

External links

Castlerea Homepage

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