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Arklow ( ; ; ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion. Its proximity to Dublin led to it becoming a commuter town with a population of 13,163 as of the 2016 census. The 2022 census recorded a population of 13,399. The town is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.
Arklow is at the mouth of the River Avoca, the longest river wholly within County Wicklow. The town is divided by the river, which is crossed by the Nineteen Arches Bridge, a stone arch bridge linking the southern or main part of the town with the northern part, called Ferrybank. The Nineteen Arches Bridge is the longest handmade stone bridge in Ireland, and a plaque on the south end of the bridge acknowledges this.
Historically it was a major seafaring town, with both the shipping and fishing industries using the port, with shipbuilding also being a major industry.
One of the first recorded mentions of the Arklow area concerns Palladius, the first bishop of Ireland who was recorded as landing at Arklow in 431.Stalmans, Nathalie and T.M. Charles-Edwards. "Meath, saints of", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
After the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, their leader Theobald Walter, ancestor of the Earls of Ormonde, was granted the town and castle of Arklow by Henry II of England. In 1264 the Dominican Order was granted a large tract of land, now known as Abbeylands, where they built Holy Cross Abbey. Some time after 1416, the Manor of Arklow came into the control of the MacMurrough Kings of Leinster, possibly after the death of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond in 1452. In 1525, Muiris Kavanagh, King of Leinster from 1522 to 1531, returned Arklow and its lands to his nephew Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond.
During the Irish Confederate Wars in November 1649, a skirmish took place outside Arklow when Cavalier soldiers under Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, ambushed English Commonwealth troops marching to reinforce Wexford. The attack was beaten off and an English garrison was installed in Arklow, while an attempt to retake the town by Irish Confederates in January 1650 failed.
In 1714, John Allen of Stillorgan, County Dublin, purchased the Manor of Arklow from James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, shortly before the latter went into exile as a Jacobitism. In 1750, Allen's eldest granddaughter Elizabeth, married John Proby, 1st Baron Carysfort, who came into possession of the Arklow Estate as a result.
In the Battle of Arklow on 9 June 1798, one of the bloodiest events of the 1798 rebellion, a large force of Wexford rebels attacked the town in an attempt to spread the rising to Dublin but were repulsed by the entrenched British forces with many hundreds killed.
Arklow Courthouse served as the local town hall, until the new Arklow library and municipal offices in Main Street were opened in April 2016.
There are four secondary schools within the town, which are St. Mary's College, St.Kevin's C.B.S., Glenart College and Gaelcholáiste na Mara.
In the early part of the 20th century, a large munitions factory, Kynoch, was established on the north side of the town. This factory employed several thousand workers during the First World War but closed shortly after it, all production being moved to South Africa. 17 workers were killed in an explosion at Kynoch in 1917. The town is also historically known for its shipbuilding industry and pottery. The latter was produced at Arklow Pottery, which closed in 1998.
In the 1960s, a state-owned fertiliser factory, Nitrogen Éireann Teoranta, later Irish Fertiliser Industries, was established on the outskirts of the town. This factory complex comprised a number of chemical plants and manufactured a range of fertilisers from basic raw materials. It closed in 2002.
There is still an industrial base in Arklow, with Servier remaining as one of the manufacturing companies in Arklow. Allergan formerly had a plant locally, but this closed in 2009. In 2009, Elavon, a credit card processing company, purchased a new business site at Arklow Business Park. In 2019, planning permission was granted for a data centre at the Avoca River Business Park.
While now more focused on leisure traffic than commercial traffic, Arklow Harbour remains the headquarters of Arklow Shipping, numerically the largest shipping company in Ireland. This company maintains a fleet of 56 cargo ships and a division in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Raw effluent from the town still travels through the drainage system built in the 1930s and 1940s, and enters the River Avoca untreated via several sewage outfall pipes along the river. A sewage treatment plant has long been proposed for the area, and was first awarded planning permission in 1993. Wicklow County Council Planning Enquiry This was challenged unsuccessfully to An Bord Pleanála. However, subsequently no funding arrived from government, Seanad Éireann – Volume 160 – 19 October, 1999 – Adjournment Matter. – Water and Sewerage Schemes and the planning permission lapsed. Further ten-year planning permission was granted in 1999. Wicklow County Council Planning Enquiry This too was unsuccessfully challenged to An Bord Pleanála, with conditional planning approval given in 2005. In 2019, planning permission was again confirmed for a "high-tech" wastewater treatment facility, with construction commencing in August 2021.
A few kilometres into the Irish Sea is the Arklow Bank Wind Park. Opened in 2004, this wind farm consists of seven 106m turbines, with GE 3.6 MW generators. On 19 October 2022, one of the turbines was struck by lightning and severely damaged.
The town's association football clubs include Arklow Town F.C. (founded in 1948), Arklow United F.C. (Ferndale Park), and Arklow Celtic F.C. (Celtic Park).
Arklow RFC plays its home games at The Oval, and Arklow Rowing Club is based on the town's South Quay.
St Benedict Inbhear Mór Athletics Club is registered with Athletics Ireland and based in Arklow. Arklow Lawn Tennis Club, founded in 1922, has three astroturf courts for use by members.
There is an 18-hole links golf course at Arklow Golf Club (founded 1927).
Arklow has been both the birthplace and place of residence for many artists such as George Campbell who was born there, the son of the self-taught artist Gretta Bowen.Kate Newman, Frederick George Campbell (1917–1979) , Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
Lilian Davidson drew sketches and painted scenes of the town and beaches. One such work, The Netter, Arklow depicts a scene of a man repairing a net by the harbourside with the harbour in the background; on the reverse-side of the painting is a sketch of children playing on the south beach.
The first permanent rainbow road crossing in the Republic of Ireland was unveiled in Arklow in December 2021. The pride colours run across the street at the traffic lights on Arklow's main street.
Arklow is also the home town of pop singer and former Moloko member Róisín Murphy.
The Arklow Silver Band were featured on the track Red Hill Mining Town by U2, on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree.
The "Arklow Music Festival" is held in the town annually. It was established in 1970. The festival lasts a week and it involves people coming to compete from all around the country. They compete in solo forms and group forms.
The local electoral area of Arklow, which also contains the surrounding areas, elects six councillors to Wicklow County Council. The electoral divisions in Arklow consists of Arklow No. 1 Urban, Arklow No. 2 Urban, Arklow Rural, Aughrim, Avoca, Ballinaclash, Ballinacor, Ballinderry, Ballyarthur, Cronebane, Dunganstown South, Dunganstown West, Ennereilly, Kilballyowen, Kilbride, Kilpipe, Knockrath, and Rathdrum.
Arklow is part of the Wicklow–Wexford constituency for national elections and referendums, and South for European elections.
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