Dromod () is a village in County Leitrim,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. Dromod is a noted

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 ...

beside Bofin and Boderg, which are threaded by the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( ga, Abhainn na Sionainne, ', '), at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of the island of Ireland. The Sh ...

. Built along the River Shannon, this is a Tidy Towns winner with a modern harbour frequented by cruiser traffic. The Bog Oak water feature in the centre of the village, entitled 'The Weeping Tree', and was made by a local craftsman from a piece of bog oak which was found nearby.

Demographics

Between 2006 and 2011, the population of Dromod increased from 210 to 356, an increase of 69.5%.

Dromod railway station

The village has a station on the Dublin-Sligo railway line connecting

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the largest urban cent ...

and

Dublin Connolly Connolly station ( ga, Stáisiún Uí Chonghaile) or Dublin Connolly is one of the busiest railway stations in Dublin and Ireland, and is a focal point in the Irish route network. On the North side of the River Liffey, it provides InterCi ...

long the mainline. Dromod railway station opened on 3 December 1862 and remains in operation, despite closing for goods services on 3 November 1975. Dromod also had a railway station on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

Cavan and Leitrim Railway The Cavan & Leitrim Railway was a narrow gauge railway in the counties of Leitrim and Cavan in northwest Ireland, which ran from 1887 until 1959. Unusually for Ireland, this narrow gauge line survived on coal traffic, from the mine at Arign ...

. It opened on 24 October 1887 and finally closed on 1 April 1959. A short section of narrow gauge line has been reopened at the station as part of preservation efforts.

History

Gaelic Ireland Gaelic Ireland ( ga, Éire Ghaelach) was the Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, that existed in Ireland from the late prehistoric era until the early 17th century. It comprised the whole island before Anglo-Normans ...

the place was called "Dromode mac Shanley" in recognition of the dominant Mac Shanly sept of Muintir Eolais. The town is mentioned once in the Irish Annals- "". An

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

works was established at Dromod .

Pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silica ...

brought to Dromod

Finery forge A finery forge is a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation. Finery ...

was used to produce an malleable iron product, for transportation to Dublin and Limerick. The operation was closed down in the 1790s, due to an exhaustion of forests locally. Through at least the 19th and 20th century, an impressive seven annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

s were held at Dromod- 1 January, 28 March (or 29th), 15 May, 26 June (or 29th), 14 August, 10 October (or 11th), and 11 December.

People

* The 19th-century poet John McDonald lived near Dromod in County Leitrim.

Notes and references

Notes

Primary sources

Secondary sources

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External links

Dromod railway station
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110201135748/http://godromod.com/ {{County Leitrim Towns and villages in County Leitrim