Edgeworthstown or Mostrim () is a small town in County Longford,

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 town is in the east of the county, near the border with County Westmeath. Nearby towns are Longford 12 km to the west,

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeath ...

26 km to the east, Athlone 40 km to the south and Cavan 42 km to the north.

Name

The area was named Edgeworthstown in the 19th century after the Anglo-Irish Edgeworth family. An estate was built there by

Richard Lovell Edgeworth Richard Lovell Edgeworth (31 May 1744 – 13 June 1817) was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor. Biography Edgeworth was born in Pierrepont Street, Bath, England, son of Richard Edgeworth senior, and great-grandson of Sir Sal ...

. His family—which includes

Honora Sneyd Honora Edgeworth (''née'' Sneyd; 1751 – 1 May 1780) was an eighteenth-century English writer, mainly known for her associations with literary figures of the day particularly Anna Seward and the Lunar Society, and for her work on children's e ...

(his second wife), writer and intellectual

Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...

, botanist

Michael Pakenham Edgeworth Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns, and spent most of his life working in India. He was also a pioneer of photography. Early life and family relations Edge ...

, economist

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (8 February 1845 – 13 February 1926) was an Anglo-Irish philosopher and political economist who made significant contributions to the methods of statistics during the 1880s. From 1891 onward, he was appointed th ...

, and priest

Henry Essex Edgeworth Henry Essex Edgeworth (174522 May 1807), also known as L'Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont, was an Irish Catholic priest and confessor of Louis XVI. Life He was born in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland, the son of Robert Edgeworth, the Church o ...

—lived at the estate. The area's original name was the Irish ''Meathas Troim'' or ''Meathas Truim''. This was anglicized as ''Mastrim'' or ''Mostrim'' and variants. These names continued to be used by the locals. In 1935, at the behest of the local Town Tenants' Association, Longford County Council officially changed the town's name to Mostrim. However, in 1974, a local government order reverted the name to Edgeworthstown. Today, both names are in use.

Infrastructure

The town is located where the N4 Dublin-Sligo/ N5 Dublin-Castlebar road crosses the N55 Cavan-Athlone road. The town also has a railway station on the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

– Sligo

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

. Edgeworthstown railway station opened on 8 November 1855. Edgeworthstown expanded significantly during the first decade of the 21st century with many new housing developments and updated transport infrastructure including a bypass. The N4 National primary route formerly ran along the Main Street until the town centre was bypassed in 2006. The N55 route from Athlone to Cavan still passes through the town centre.

Industry

Industries include animal feed processing and pet food manufacturing, with Paul & Vincent Limited and C & D Foods Limited employing several hundred people in the area. The latter, C & D Foods Limited, reopened a pet food plant in 2014 following an earlier fire.

Sport

The local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...

club is named Mostrim, while the minor section of the club is called

Wolfe Tones GAA Wolfe Tones GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club which comprises an amalgamation of the parishes of Oristown and Kilberry which are situated roughly halfway between the town of Navan and the town of Kells, in County Meath, Ireland. The cl ...

. The club has won three

Longford Senior Football Championship The Longford Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition organised by Longford GAA among the Senior grade Gaelic football clubs in County Longford, Ireland. The winning club qualifies to represent its coun ...

s, in 1974, 1985 and 1992. In Gaelic football, Mostrim won an u-21 championship 2002 and the Wolfe Tones minor team won Minor A Championships in 2002 and in 2006. In hurling, Wolfe Tones has won a record 19

Longford Senior Hurling Championship The Longford Club Hurling Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition organised by Longford GAA among hurling clubs in County Longford, Ireland. The winner qualifies to represent the county in the Leinster Junior Club Hu ...

titles. Hugh Devine Park is the home pitch for both Mostrim and Wolfe Tones. A local soccer club, Mostrim United, previously competed in the Longford & District Schoolboy/girl League. As of 2022, this club had folded.

People

(1768–1849), writer, lived at Edgeworthstown House *

, (1845-1926), Anglo-Irish philosopher. * Bernard A. Maguire (1818–1886), Jesuit who became the president of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

References

External links

St John's Church of Ireland Church, Edgeworthstown (Buildings of Ireland)

Edgeworthstown House
{{County Longford Towns and villages in County Longford Planned communities in the Republic of Ireland