Rathfriland
Encyclopedia
Rathfriland is a village
in County Down
, Northern Ireland
. It is a hilltop Plantation of Ulster
settlement between the Mourne Mountains, Slieve Croob
and Banbridge
. It had a population of 2,079 people in the 2001 Census
.
family in ancient times. The ruins (south gable 30 ft x 25 ft) of an old castle may still be seen on the hill upon which Rathfriland sits. It was a square building of 3-4 storeys with a stone barrel vault at the ground floor to lessen the risk of fire. The castle was once much bigger but most of it was pulled-down by Mr. William Hawkins of London, the first Protestant proprietor there after the rebellion of 1641
, and the rest destroyed by General Ireton on Oliver Cromwell
's orders. The stones were used to build the Town Inn (which still stands on the corner of The Square & Newry Street) and other houses in the town. In 1760 the Market House, which dominates the main square, was built for the linen market by Miss Theodosia McGill. An old map of 1776 prepared for the Meade Estate shows streets, lanes, tenements and gardens forming the early town.
A clock-faced war memorial
stands in the square on the southeastern side. To this day the names Meade, Maginess and Hawkins live on in Rathfriland, most notably in Iveagh Primary School where the three surnames are the name of the 'houses' on sports day.
12 July 1849 saw the Battle of Dolly's Brae. Up to 1400 armed Orangemen
marched from Rathfriland to Tollymore Park
near Castlewellan
, County Down
. When 1000 armed Ribbonmen
gathered, shots were fired, Catholic homes were burnt and about 80 Catholics killed..
Rathfriland lies in the county of Down, the baronies
of Iveagh Upper (Lower Half) and Iveagh Upper (Upper Half), the townland of Rathfriland, the district electoral division of Rathfriland, and the civil parishes of Drumballyroney and Drumgath.
Rathfriland's official telephone dialling code
, as in the rest of Northern Ireland, is 028. Local subscriber numbers begin with 4063xxxx. Rathfriland was a sub-exchange of Banbridge, and thus until the 2000 Big Number Change
, shared its 018206 area code. Like elsewhere in the former 018206 area (now (028) 406) is still normal to hear local numbers quoted in the old 5-digit format (3xxxx)
For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. It is a hilltop Plantation of Ulster
Plantation of Ulster
The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...
settlement between the Mourne Mountains, Slieve Croob
Slieve Croob
Slieve Croob is the tallest of a group of peaks in the middle of County Down, Northern Ireland. These peaks lie north of the Mourne Mountains, between the village of Dromara and the town of Castlewellan. Slieve Croob has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
and Banbridge
Banbridge
Banbridge is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road. It was named after a bridge built over the Bann in 1712. The town grew as a coaching stop on the road from Belfast to Dublin and thrived from Irish linen manufacturing...
. It had a population of 2,079 people in the 2001 Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
.
History
Rathfriland was the capital of the ruling MagennisMagennis
Magennis is an Irish surname, derived from or the Sons of Angus, sometimes also spelt as Maginnis. The most famous branch controlled west County Down, particularly the Iveagh baronies, and occasionally Dundrum Castle to the east. The Magennis, Lords of Iveagh, are descendants of the Uí Echach Cobo...
family in ancient times. The ruins (south gable 30 ft x 25 ft) of an old castle may still be seen on the hill upon which Rathfriland sits. It was a square building of 3-4 storeys with a stone barrel vault at the ground floor to lessen the risk of fire. The castle was once much bigger but most of it was pulled-down by Mr. William Hawkins of London, the first Protestant proprietor there after the rebellion of 1641
Irish 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...
, and the rest destroyed by General Ireton on Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's orders. The stones were used to build the Town Inn (which still stands on the corner of The Square & Newry Street) and other houses in the town. In 1760 the Market House, which dominates the main square, was built for the linen market by Miss Theodosia McGill. An old map of 1776 prepared for the Meade Estate shows streets, lanes, tenements and gardens forming the early town.
A clock-faced war memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
stands in the square on the southeastern side. To this day the names Meade, Maginess and Hawkins live on in Rathfriland, most notably in Iveagh Primary School where the three surnames are the name of the 'houses' on sports day.
12 July 1849 saw the Battle of Dolly's Brae. Up to 1400 armed Orangemen
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
marched from Rathfriland to Tollymore Park
Tollymore Forest Park
Tollymore Forest Park was the first state forest park in Northern Ireland, established on the 2 June 1955. It is located at Bryansford, near the town of Newcastle. Covering an area of at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, the forest park offers panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and the...
near Castlewellan
Castlewellan
Castlewellan is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve Croob. It had a population of 2,392 people in the 2001 Census....
, County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
. When 1000 armed Ribbonmen
Ribbonism
Ribbonism, whose adherents were usually called Ribbonmen, was a 19th century popular movement of Catholics in Ireland. It was active against landlords and their agents, and was ideologically and sometimes violently opposed to the Orange Order.-History:...
gathered, shots were fired, Catholic homes were burnt and about 80 Catholics killed..
Rathfriland lies in the county of Down, the baronies
Barony (Ireland)
In Ireland, a barony is a historical subdivision of a county. They were created, like the counties, in the centuries after the Norman invasion, and were analogous to the hundreds into which the counties of England were divided. In early use they were also called cantreds...
of Iveagh Upper (Lower Half) and Iveagh Upper (Upper Half), the townland of Rathfriland, the district electoral division of Rathfriland, and the civil parishes of Drumballyroney and Drumgath.
People
- Theodosia Meade, Countess of Clanwilliam.
- Patrick BrontëPatrick BrontëThe Reverend Patrick Brontë was an Irish Anglican curate and writer, who spent most of his adult life in England and was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, and of Branwell Brontë, his only son....
, the father of the BrontëBrontëThe Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte , Emily , and Anne , are well-known as poets and novelists...
sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) was born in 1777 in a cottage close to Loughbrickland, where he lived until a local vicar paid his way to Cambridge University in 1802. While studying at CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, he changed his name from Brunty to Brontë. He preached and taught at Drumballyroney Church and School House, between Rathfriland and Moneyslane. The Brontë Homeland Interpretative Centre is at Drumballyroney.
- Donal Og Magennis, Lord of Iveagh, founder of the Rathfriland branch of the Magennis family. Surrendered his lands to King Henry VIII, who granted Donal Og Magennis a charter to retain his lands; given a knighthood 1542.
- George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, the 43rd President of The United States of America. One of president's five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, Co Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811–12.
- Catherine O'Hare, mother of the first European child born west of the Rockies, was herself born in Rathfriland in 1835. She and her husband, Augustus Schubert, joined 200 overlanders who went west across CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in search of gold, and blazed the trail for the Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
.
- Andrew George Scott (alias "Captain MoonlightCaptain MoonlightAndrew George Scott , Aka Captain Moonlite, was an Australian bushranger.-Early peregrinations :Scott was born in Rathfriland, Ireland, son of an Anglican clergyman, but of Scottish descent...
") was born in Rathfriland in 1842 in a house on Castle Hill. A notorious Australian BushrangerBushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
.
- Margaret Byers née Morrow was born in Rathfriland in 1832. Margaret Byers was a teacher, a businesswoman, a pioneer of higher education for girls, a philanthropist and a suffragist. She said: 'My aim was to provide for girls an education...as thorough as that which is afforded to boys in the schools of the highest order.' In 1905 she was given an honorary degree by Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
and in 1908 Queen's University, Belfast, appointed her to its Senate.
- Francis Brook was born in Rathfriland 1924. He is the Roman Catholic BishopBishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
EmeritusEmeritusEmeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of the Diocese of DromoreRoman Catholic Diocese of DromoreThe Diocese of Dromore is a Roman Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses which are subject to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh. The present Bishop is the Most Reverend John McAreavey who was enthroned in 1999....
, IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
- William Huston Dodd (1844–1930) was born in Rathfriland, and was educated at the Royal Academical Institution and Queen's College, Belfast. In 1873 he was called to the Bar, and in 1896 he was appointed President of the Statistical and Social Enquiry Society. He served as a High Court judge from 1907 to 1924.
- James McKnight (1801–1876) was born near Rathfriland and was educated in Belfast. In 1826, in the absence of the librarian, McKnight was appointed deputy librarian of the Linen Hall Library. He became editor of the Belfast News Letter in 1827 and when he went to Derry he worked on the Londonderry Standard though for a brief period he returned to Belfast to edit Banner of Ulster. He was an opponent of Repeal, but a strong supporter of the Tenant Right movement, and in 1852 he joined the Tenant League. Among his work is The Ulster Tenants' Claim of Right, published in 1848.
- Charles Read (1841–1878) was born in Sligo. He had a business in Rathfriland, County Down, but went to London as a journalist when it failed. He wrote two much-acclaimed novels Savourneen Dheelish and Aileen Aroon. Only three of the four projected volumes of The Cabinet of Irish Literature were completed before his death. The final volume was edited by T. P. O'Connor. He died in Surrey.
- Patrick SheaPatrick SheaPatrick Shea CB, OBE was a Northern Irish civil servant and the first Catholic since A. N. Bonaparte-Wyse in the 1920s to achieve the rank of Permanent Secretary of a Government Department in Northern Ireland.-Career:...
OBE (1908–1986) was born in County Westmeath and since his father was a policeman, he spent his childhood in Athlone, Clones, County Monaghan, Rathfriland and Newry, County Down. His father served in the Royal Irish ConstabularyRoyal Irish ConstabularyThe 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...
and had various postings until the RIC was disbanded on the Partition of IrelandPartition of IrelandThe partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
in 1922. He later joined the Royal Ulster ConstabularyRoyal Ulster ConstabularyThe Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
, achieving the rank of Head Constable and later Clerk of Petty Sessions in NewryNewryNewry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
. Patrick was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers, The Abbey, Newry. He joined the Northern Ireland civil service and attained the rank of permanent secretary in the Department of Education. He wrote Voices and the Sound of Drums. He was made an honorary member of the Royal Society of Ulster ArchitectsRoyal Society of Ulster ArchitectsThe Royal Society of Ulster Architects is the professional body for registered architects in Northern Ireland. Chartered RIBA members in Northern Ireland are automatically members of the RSUA. RSUA Members use the suffix RSUA and also may use RIBA....
in 1971 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of ArtsRoyal Society of ArtsThe Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
in 1977.
Churches
- The 1st Rathfriland Presbyterian ChurchPresbyterian Church in IrelandThe Presbyterian Church in Ireland , is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland...
- The 2nd Rathfriland Presbyterian Church
- The 3rd Rathfriland Presbyterian Church
- St. John's Church of IrelandChurch of IrelandThe 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...
- St. Mary's Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
- Rathfriland Reformed Presbyterian ChurchReformed Presbyterian Church of IrelandThe Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland is a Presbyterian denomination in Ireland.-History:The denomination's roots date back to the 17th-century Plantation of Ulster by Scots Presbyterian settlers...
(Covenanters) - Rathfriland Baptist ChurchAssociation of Baptist Churches in IrelandThe Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is a Republic of Ireland and a United Kingdom based Baptist Christian denomination. It is a group of 121 autonomous Baptist churches on Ireland working and fellowshipping together in evangelism, training and caring ministries...
- Elim Pentecostal ChurchElim Pentecostal ChurchThe Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination.-History:George Jeffreys , a Welshman, founded the Elim Pentecostal Church in Monaghan, Ireland in 1915. Jeffreys was an evangelist with a Welsh Congregational church background. He was converted at age 15 during the...
Transport and Communications
Rathfriland was served by Ballyroney Railway Station, three miles away. Goods and passengers were transported from the station to the village. The former GNR (I) line between Banbridge and Newcastle was shut in 1955.Rathfriland's official telephone dialling code
Subscriber trunk dialling
Subscriber trunk dialling is a term for a telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance.- Terminology :...
, as in the rest of Northern Ireland, is 028. Local subscriber numbers begin with 4063xxxx. Rathfriland was a sub-exchange of Banbridge, and thus until the 2000 Big Number Change
Big Number Change
The Big Number Change was an update of telephone dialling codes in the UK in response to the rapid late-1990s growth of telecommunications and impending exhaustion of numbers. The change greatly expanded the pool of available numbers while helping to retain 'local dialling'...
, shared its 018206 area code. Like elsewhere in the former 018206 area (now (028) 406) is still normal to hear local numbers quoted in the old 5-digit format (3xxxx)
Education
- Iveagh Primary SchoolIveagh Primary SchoolIveagh Primary School is a primary school located in Rathfriland, County Down, Northern Ireland. It caters for girls and boys aged from 3 to 11 and has 279 pupils. It is within the Southern Education and Library Board area....
- Rathfriland High School
- St Marys Primary School
- St Patricks Primary School
Sport
- Rathfriland Rangers F.C. - Formed in 1962.
- Rathfriland Bowling Club - Level Green Bowls.
- Rathfriland Junior F.C. - Formed in 2002.
- Drumgath G.A.C. - Gealic Athletics
- Rathfriland Angling Club - Game Fishing On Upper Bann & Drumlough Lake.
Demographics
Rathfriland is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 1,000 and 2,250 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 2,079 people living in Rathfriland. Of these:- 22.6% were aged under 16 years and 21.2% were aged 60 and over
- 48.2% of the population were male and 51.9% were female
- 33.5% were from a Roman Catholic background and 63.6% were from a Protestant background
- 3.2% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.
For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service