Drumconrath or Drumcondra (historically ''Drumconra'', from ) is a small village in north
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 ...
. The parish borders
County Louth
County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...
and is also close to the borders of Counties
Monaghan
Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony.
The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...
and
Cavan
Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...
. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 345 people.
The village lies in a parish, Drumconrath and Meath Hill parish, within the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Meath
The Diocese of Meath ( ga, Deoise na Mí) is a diocese of the Catholic Church that is located in the middle part of Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Thomas Deenihan has been bishop of the d ...
.
History
There is evidence of settlement in the area since before 200 BC in the ancient pathways and ringforts at
Corstown and
Drumsilagh. Tuath Conraige of the Mugdorna, an
Airgíalla
Airgíalla (Modern Irish: Oirialla, English: Oriel, Latin: ''Ergallia'') was a medieval Irish over-kingdom and the collective name for the confederation of tribes that formed it. The confederation consisted of nine minor kingdoms, all independe ...
tribe mostly in Monaghan, occupied the area in the early middle ages and gave their name to the area.
During the Late Middle Ages, Drumconrath was literally "Beyond the Pale" being the first
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
Settlement you meet leaving
the Pale
The Pale (Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast st ...
from Ardee. It was a hostile place for the English who left the safety of the Pale and several battles took place in the village. The
battle of Ballyhoe (1539 AD) between the O'Neills and the English, took place nearby. Of this battle, local folklore says that a treasure was thrown into the lake during the battle and when a true Irish Gael on a white horse comes, he will swoop into the lake and take it.
The remains of a monastery on Church Hill, destroyed because of
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's Dissolution of the Monastery Act, overlooks Lough Braken lake. Here there are views of the
Mourne Mountains
The Mourne Mountains ( ; ga, Beanna Boirche), also called the Mournes or Mountains of Mourne, are a granite mountain range in County Down in the south-east of Northern Ireland. They include the highest mountains in Northern Ireland, the high ...
in one direction and the Dublin Mountains in the other.
During the 1798 rebellion, five parishioners were killed by the Louth Militia for refusing to allow them entry to the Church in the village. The area had strong Ribbonmen support and six men from the area were hanged for their part in the infamous burning of the
Wildgoose Lodge Murders nearby.
A number of local men fought in the
Anglo-Irish War
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
and the
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...
with nearby Kingscourt Brigade. It is recorded that this Brigade fired the last shot of the Anglo-Irish War at 11:20 on 11 June 1921, twenty minutes after the truce.
A movie, released in October 2016, was filmed in and near Drumconrath. The movie, "The Wilde Goose Lodge", involved a number of local people and actors.
Amenities
Set in forested
drumlin
A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...
countryside and surrounded by small lakes, the area around Drumconrath is a long-established angling centre with a number of walking areas. The River Dee, Lough Bracken, and the smaller lakes of Corstown and Balrath are situated in this area.
![Muldoons bar and funeral directors Drumconrath](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Muldoons_bar_and_funeral_directors_Drumconrath.jpg)
Village amenities including a doctor's GP practice, post office, hair salon, pharmacy, butchers, primary school, grocery store and a B&B. There are three pubs in the village, The Old Thatch, Fay's Bar and Muldoon's. There is a community centre in the village and a pitch & putt course to the rear. St. Peter & Paul's National School is situated on the Kingscourt road at the end of the village.
There are two churches in the village. Saint Peter's Church of Ireland (now closed) and Saint Peter & Paul's Catholic Church. There are some graves surrounding Saint Peter's Church, and the village has two other cemeteries on the Ardee Road (one Catholic and one Protestant).
The local GAA team, Drumconrath GAA, has facilities on the Navan road in Birdhill. The club also recruits players from the local parish of Meath-Hill to form the team "Drumconrath-Meath-Hill".
References
{{County Meath
Towns and villages in County Meath