Raphoe
Encyclopedia
Raphoe is a town in County Donegal
, part of the province of Ulster
in Ireland
. It is the main town in the fertile district of East Donegal known as the Laggan, as well as giving its name to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe
and the Church of Ireland
(or Anglican) Diocese of Derry and Raphoe
.
Ráth Bhoth, which is made up of the words ráth (fort) and both (hut). This likely refers to clay and wattle huts surrounded with a strong fortified mound. It is believed these huts were built by monks in the early Christian period.Dean mc connell is the hardest bastard in raphoe..
. Its name is believed to be linked the Celtic festival of fertility known as 'Beltane
'.
Around 550 AD Columba
(also known as Colmcille), one of the three patron saints of Ireland, founded a monastic settlement in the area. This site was further developed by his kinsman Eunan, who gives his name to the town's cathedral and is patron saint of the Diocese of Raphoe.
In 1198, John de Courcy
, a Norman
knight who had invaded Ulster
in 1177, returned to County Donegal
to devastate Inishowen
and on his way destroyed churches at Ardstraw
, County Tyrone
and Raphoe.
The design of the modern town is traced to the Ulster Plantation of the early 17th century, when the town was granted to English and Scottish settlers. It was these settlers who laid out the town with the 'Diamond' at its centre, in a similar manner to other Plantation towns like Derry
and Donegal
.
, captured by Cromwell's troops
in 1650 and was damaged by supporters of King James II
in 1689.
Although still awaiting restoration, Raphoe Castle is probably the
most impressive castle in Donegal. In 1633, John Leslie
was translated from the Scottish See of the Isles to become the Bishop of Raphoe. Marrying at the age of 67, absorbing the Bishopric of Clogher at the age of 90, Leslie dominated the area until his death, aged 100, in 1671. Feeling threatened in his new location, he built himself a new palace on a hill overlooking the town using stone from an ancient Round Tower in 1637. This proved fortuitous when rebellion broke out in 1641 and the Bishop was forced to shelter in the “castle”, as it has come to be known, until relieved by the Lagganeer army. Eight years later, Leslie, a Royalist was besieged by Cromwellian troops. This time, he was forced to surrender but unlike virtually every other bishop in Ireland, Leslie survived and was returned to his See at the Restoration in 1660. A leading figure in the Established Church, Bishop Leslie was no friend of either Catholic or Non-conformist. In 1664, he ordered four dissenting Presbyterian ministers to appear before his court, and when they failed to appear, had them arrested and imprisoned in Lifford gaol. A century later, in 1798, the castle was attacked again, this time by the United Irishmen, three of whom were killed. The castle was destroyed in an accidental fire in 1838
latest building dates from the 1730’s. The communion plate is also noteworthy.
Notable bishops include George Montgomery, first Protestant bishop 1605-1610, a Scot, who was mainly involved in re-claimingchurch lands, and bishop Andrew Knox 1611-1633, who set about repairing and rebuilding the cathedral. A stone inscribed “And. Knox II. Epi. Cura”, set in the porch, commemorates him. Bishop John Leslie had formerly been a soldier and had his own private army which he led into battle. Bishop Twysden, 1747 – 1753, spent little time in Raphoe but squandered the family fortune in London. Subsequently he was shot whilst in the act of robbing a stage-coach.Sandy Montgomery, a kinsman of Bishop Montgomery lies within the churchyard. His inscription reads, “Here lyeth the Body of Alexander Montgomery Esq., who departed this Life 29th September 1800, aged 78. He Represented this once Independent Country, 32 years”
. Raphoe's status has declined significantly in recent centuries however, with the Anglican diocese being merged with Derry, while the Roman Catholic bishop now has his See in the larger town of Letterkenny
. The Church of Ireland Cathedral, built on the site of Columba's monastery, is named for St Eunan (as is the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Letterkenny).
is non-denominational.
to investigate allegations of corrupt and dishonest policing in the County by the Garda Síochána
. The Tribunal's second report related to Garda attempts to frame a local publican, Frankie McBrearty, for the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
On August 27, 2005, the first Royal Black Preceptory
march in the Republic of Ireland
was held in Raphoe.
Sir Gerrard Jude "Gerry" Robinson is an Irish businessman and Television personality currently living in Raphoe.[1] He is the former non-executive Chairman of Allied Domecq and the ex-Chairman/Chief Executive of Granada. He has a Georgian country house in on the outskirts of Raphoe and he also established a botanical garden with a narrow gauge railway - the Difflin Lake Railway - which is open to the public.
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
, part of the province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
in 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 main town in the fertile district of East Donegal known as the Laggan, as well as giving its name to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe
Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe
The Diocese of Raphoe is a Roman Catholic diocese in north-western Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses which are subject to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh. The current Bishop of Raphoe is The Most Rev. Dr. Philip Boyce, D.D., O.C.D.. He was enthroned as bishop on 1 October...
and the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
(or Anglican) Diocese of Derry and Raphoe
Diocese of Derry and Raphoe
The Diocese of Derry and Raphoe is a diocese of the Church of Ireland located in the north of Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh...
.
Name
Raphoe, historically Raffoe, comes from the IrishIrish 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...
Ráth Bhoth, which is made up of the words ráth (fort) and both (hut). This likely refers to clay and wattle huts surrounded with a strong fortified mound. It is believed these huts were built by monks in the early Christian period.Dean mc connell is the hardest bastard in raphoe..
History
The rich agricultural land around Raphoe has been inhabited and cultivated for thousands of years,and evidence of this can be seen through monuments such as the Beltany stone circle, just outside the town. The stone circle is one of the largest in Ireland with a diameter of 44 metres (165 feet) and made up of more than sixty stones in all. The site is believed to date to around 2000 BC, and that it was originally an enclosed cairnCairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
. Its name is believed to be linked the Celtic festival of fertility known as 'Beltane
Beltane
Beltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine...
'.
Around 550 AD Columba
Columba
Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...
(also known as Colmcille), one of the three patron saints of Ireland, founded a monastic settlement in the area. This site was further developed by his kinsman Eunan, who gives his name to the town's cathedral and is patron saint of the Diocese of Raphoe.
In 1198, John de Courcy
John de Courcy
John de Courcy was a Anglo-Norman knight who arrived in Ireland in 1176. From then until his expulsion in 1204, he conquered a considerable territory, endowed religious establishments, built abbeys for both the Benedictines and the Cistercians and built strongholds at Dundrum Castle in County...
, a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
knight who had invaded Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
in 1177, returned to County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
to devastate Inishowen
Inishowen
Inishowen is a peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. It is also the largest peninsula in all of Ireland. Inishowen is a picturesque location with a rich history...
and on his way destroyed churches at Ardstraw
Ardstraw
Ardstraw is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, three miles northwest of Newtownstewart. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 222 people....
, County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
and Raphoe.
The design of the modern town is traced to the Ulster Plantation of the early 17th century, when the town was granted to English and Scottish settlers. It was these settlers who laid out the town with the 'Diamond' at its centre, in a similar manner to other Plantation towns like Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
and Donegal
Donegal
Donegal or Donegal Town is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. Its name, which was historically written in English as Dunnagall or Dunagall, translates from Irish as "stronghold of the foreigners" ....
.
Raphoe Castle
Built in the 1630s, the castle, which is now nothing more than a shell, was laid siege to during the Irish Rebellion of 1641Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
, captured by Cromwell's troops
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
in 1650 and was damaged by supporters of King James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
in 1689.
Although still awaiting restoration, Raphoe Castle is probably the
most impressive castle in Donegal. In 1633, John Leslie
John Leslie (bishop of Clogher)
John Leslie was a combative Scottish royalist bishop of Clogher, who became known as the "fighting bishop" for his resistance to the Irish rebellion of 1641 and the parliamentarian forces.-Life:...
was translated from the Scottish See of the Isles to become the Bishop of Raphoe. Marrying at the age of 67, absorbing the Bishopric of Clogher at the age of 90, Leslie dominated the area until his death, aged 100, in 1671. Feeling threatened in his new location, he built himself a new palace on a hill overlooking the town using stone from an ancient Round Tower in 1637. This proved fortuitous when rebellion broke out in 1641 and the Bishop was forced to shelter in the “castle”, as it has come to be known, until relieved by the Lagganeer army. Eight years later, Leslie, a Royalist was besieged by Cromwellian troops. This time, he was forced to surrender but unlike virtually every other bishop in Ireland, Leslie survived and was returned to his See at the Restoration in 1660. A leading figure in the Established Church, Bishop Leslie was no friend of either Catholic or Non-conformist. In 1664, he ordered four dissenting Presbyterian ministers to appear before his court, and when they failed to appear, had them arrested and imprisoned in Lifford gaol. A century later, in 1798, the castle was attacked again, this time by the United Irishmen, three of whom were killed. The castle was destroyed in an accidental fire in 1838
Raphoe Cathedral
St. Columcille and St. Eunan, ninth abbot of Iona, had churches at Raphoe in the 5h and 6th centuries. Several 9th century blocks of stone can be found in the porch and in the north wall of the present cathedral. The south-east corner dates from the 12th century. Thelatest building dates from the 1730’s. The communion plate is also noteworthy.
Notable bishops include George Montgomery, first Protestant bishop 1605-1610, a Scot, who was mainly involved in re-claimingchurch lands, and bishop Andrew Knox 1611-1633, who set about repairing and rebuilding the cathedral. A stone inscribed “And. Knox II. Epi. Cura”, set in the porch, commemorates him. Bishop John Leslie had formerly been a soldier and had his own private army which he led into battle. Bishop Twysden, 1747 – 1753, spent little time in Raphoe but squandered the family fortune in London. Subsequently he was shot whilst in the act of robbing a stage-coach.Sandy Montgomery, a kinsman of Bishop Montgomery lies within the churchyard. His inscription reads, “Here lyeth the Body of Alexander Montgomery Esq., who departed this Life 29th September 1800, aged 78. He Represented this once Independent Country, 32 years”
Beltany Stone Circle
On the summit of Beltany Hill, just over a mile from Raphoe there stands one of the finest stone circles in Ireland. Reputedly older than Stonehenge, it consists of 64 standing stones out of an original 80. The stones range in height from 4ft to 9 ft (1.2-2.7 metres) while the diameter of the circle is 145 ft (44.2 metres). To the S E of the circle is a standing stone 6ft (2 metres) high. Beltony is a corruption of Baal tine, the fire of Baal; this suggests that the inhabitants of this area worshipped Baal, the sun god, and ruler of nature. Tradition tells us that the principal ceremonies were performed at the summer solstice; a sacred fire was lit in the centre of the circle of stones, which represented the stars and fire of the sun god Baal.Religion
The town lends its name to both the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland dioceses, which cover most of Donegal, with the exception of InishowenInishowen
Inishowen is a peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. It is also the largest peninsula in all of Ireland. Inishowen is a picturesque location with a rich history...
. Raphoe's status has declined significantly in recent centuries however, with the Anglican diocese being merged with Derry, while the Roman Catholic bishop now has his See in the larger town of Letterkenny
Letterkenny
Letterkenny , with a population of 17,568, is the largest town in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. The town is located on the River Swilly...
. The Church of Ireland Cathedral, built on the site of Columba's monastery, is named for St Eunan (as is the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Letterkenny).
Transport
Raphoe railway station opened on 1 January 1909 and finally closed on 31 January 1959.Education
Raphoe has two secondary schools and two primary schools. The Royal and Prior comprehensive school is of the protestant ethos and Deele CollegeDeele College
-History of Deele College:In 1958, the provision of a school in Raphoe was recommended. This would eventually become Deele College which opened on 29 March 1965 on two acres and on which the school stands today, albeit with a further seven acres added to it on which the school building was...
is non-denominational.
Recent History
In recent years, Raphoe has come under the media spotlight following the establishment of the Morris TribunalMorris Tribunal
The Morris Tribunal is a Public Inquiry to address allegations of the 1990s and early 2000s against the Garda Síochána , the national police force of the Republic of Ireland...
to investigate allegations of corrupt and dishonest policing in the County by the Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
. The Tribunal's second report related to Garda attempts to frame a local publican, Frankie McBrearty, for the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
On August 27, 2005, the first Royal Black Preceptory
Royal Black Preceptory
The Royal Black Institution, also known as the Royal Black Preceptory or The Imperial Grand Black Chapter Of The British Commonwealth or simply as the Black Institution is a Protestant fraternal society....
march in the Republic of 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,...
was held in Raphoe.
Sir Gerrard Jude "Gerry" Robinson is an Irish businessman and Television personality currently living in Raphoe.[1] He is the former non-executive Chairman of Allied Domecq and the ex-Chairman/Chief Executive of Granada. He has a Georgian country house in on the outskirts of Raphoe and he also established a botanical garden with a narrow gauge railway - the Difflin Lake Railway - which is open to the public.
See also
- List of towns and villages in Ireland
- Dunduff Castle, South AyrshireDunduff Castle, South AyrshireDunduff Castle, South Ayrshire is a restored stair-tower situated on the hillside of Brown Carrick Hills above the Drumbane Burn, and overlooking the sea above Dunure, Parish of Maybole, Scotland.-History:...