Bellewstown () is a village located 8 km south of

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

, on the Hill of Crockafotha in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It takes its name from the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

Bellew family, who were the dominant local landowners from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.

Bellewstown village

Amenities in Bellewstown include a primary school,

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, pub, GAA grounds, racecourse, and golf course.

Bellewstown Races

In 1780, George Tandy, a former mayor of

and brother of

James Napper Tandy James Napper Tandy (February 1739 – 24 August 1803) was a United Irishmen, United Irishman who experienced exile, first in the United States and then in republic of France, France, for his role in attempting to advance a republican insurrectio ...

, persuaded

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

to sponsor a race at Bellewstown. The race was called His Majesty's Plate and was valued at £100. The tradition of summer horse racing at Bellewstown Racecourse dates back centuries. The first record of racing here appears in the August edition of the ''

Dublin Gazette ''The Dublin Gazette'' was the gazette, or official newspaper, of the Irish Executive, Britain's government in Ireland based at Dublin Castle, between 1705 and 1922. It published notices of government business, including Royal Proclamations, the ...

'' and the ''Weekly Courier'' in 1726. There was originally a cricket ground in the middle of the race track. Racing continues to occur on an annual basis, taking place during the course of the summer. There are currently two meetings a year, comprising four days in July and two days in August. The track is a one-mile and one furlong left-handed course, featuring both flat and hurdle racing.

Associations

One of the many

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s used by poet

James Clarence Mangan James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan ( ga, Séamus Ó Mangáin; 1 May 1803, Dublin – 20 June 1849), was an Irish poet. He freely translated works from German, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Irish, with his translations of Goethe gaining sp ...

was 'P.V. M'Guffin, Bellewstown'.John McCall, The life of James Clarence Mangan, (Dublin, 1884)

References

{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Meath

Bellewstown village

Bellewstown Races

Associations

See also

References