Omeath (; or ''Uí Meth'') is a village on the Cooley Peninsula in

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, M ...

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 ...

, close to the border with

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

. It is roughly midway between

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 ...

and

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, very near the County Louth and

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

border. As of the 2016 census, Omeath had a population of 603, up from 439 during the 2006 census. It is approximately from Carlingford and about from

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Armagh, Armagh and County Down, Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry ...

. By sea, Omeath's nearest land neighbour is

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint ( ga, An Pointe) is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is bes ...

on the south

coast. Omeath is home to the Cúchulainn Gaels

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

club.

Name

It is named after ''Muireadheach Méith'' (''méith'' meaning 'the fat') and was originally called ''Uí Méith Mara'', by the sea, to distinguish it from another Ó Méith named after the same man.

History

Omeath was a village that sprung up around the old Omeath railway station in 1876. The town attracted day trippers from around

and elsewhere, but unlike nearby

, Omeath never became a major residential center. Smuggling was common, especially around the time of the Emergency (WWII). One mid-19th century source reports that the town had little arable land and residents survived mostly by selling

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

Irish language

Speakers of Irish existed in Omeath until the middle of the 20th century. The last native speaker of Omeath Irish was Anne O'Hanlon, who died in 1960 aged 89. Although the dialect is now extinct, recordings have been made by German linguist Wilhelm Doegen for the Royal Irish Academy.

Transport

The town is located on the R173 regional road. Omeath railway station was on the Dundalk, Newry and Greenore railway, which opened on 1 August 1876 and finally closed on 1 January 1952. A regular bus service runs through the village and links the village with

and

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

town. Bus Éireann Route 161 operates Monday to Friday, and Halpenny Travel operate a service on Sundays with journeys to Dundalk and Newry. In the summer months a regular foot passenger ferry service operates between Omeath and Warrenpoint County Down. Bikes and small motor cycles can also use this service during the summer months.

References

{{County Louth Towns and villages in County Louth

Name

History

Irish language

Transport

See also

References