Product Code Database
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, Ballyshannon and Donegal Town (to the north).
Clan O'Reilly later built a new castle in the late fourteenth century on Tullymongan Hill, overlooking the town centre. In the 15th century, the local ruler, Bearded Owen O'Reilly, expanded the town marketplace which attracted merchants from Dublin and Drogheda. The phrase "life of Reilly" is believed to derive from the great wealth and power of the Chief of Clan O'Reilly, some of which came from the market. The Chiefs also allowed, however, counterfeit English and Scottish coins to be minted in their territory at this time.
During the Elizabethan era religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, who would be one of the most celebrated of the 24 Irish Catholic Martyrs, was covertly sheltered by Thomas Fleming, 10th Baron Slane at Slane Castle, (2025). 9781851828586, Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781851828586 where the Archbishop was allegedly concealed inside a priest hole, but from whence O'Hurley covertly travelled to and from Cavan to visit with some fellow priests whom he had known while living in Catholic Europe.
Farnham House, located at Farnham, a small rural district to the north-west of Cavan, is one of the largest country houses in the county. It was built for Barry Maxwell, 3rd Lord Farnham (later created, by the second creation, Baron Farnham), head of the Maxwell dynasty, around 1780. The house was designed by James Wyatt. It was extended in 1810 to the design of Francis Johnston, a County Armagh-born, but Dublin-based, architect. It was sold by Diana, Lady Farnham (widow of Barry Maxwell, 12th Lord Farnham), to a local entrepreneur in 2001, and the house and estate has per 2006 been converted into a luxury hotel and leisure complex under the Radisson SAS international hotel group.
Developments in Cavan during the early 19th century saw the building of a new wide street that still bears the name 'Farnham Street'. This was lined with comfortable town houses, public buildings (such as Cavan Courthouse which dates from 1824) and churches. From the mid-19th century, Cavan became an important rail junction for the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) and those of the Great Northern Railway (GNR). Cavan Town Hall was built between 1908 and 1910.
In 1938, work began on the Cavan Cathedral; the original Kilmore cathedral was built c.1455, as the main church of the Catholic Church Diocese of Kilmore located around five kilometres (3 mi) south-west of Cavan Town, on the R198. During the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century, this church became the main Church of Ireland Kilmore Diocese church known as St. Feidhlimidh Cathedral. A new Kilmore Cathedral church was built in 1860 and dedicated to the memory of Bishop William Bedell who died and was buried here in 1642. Bedell was also famously noted for his translation of the old testament Bible into the Irish language. The present Cathedral contains a Hiberno Romanesque doorway dating from c. 1170, in the twelfth century, conjectured locally (but unlikely) originally to have come from Holy Trinity priory located a short distance away upon Trinity Island in Lough Oughter. Holy Trinity priory was built mid-thirteenth century. A short distance from the Kilmore Cathedral is the See House, a late Georgian-style house constructed in the 1830s. This house, designed by William Farrell, was formerly the official residence (or "Bishop's Palace") of the Church of Ireland Bishops of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.
On 23 February 1943, a fire at St Joseph's Orphanage in the town claimed the lives of 35 children and an elderly woman. A public inquiry found no culpability on the part of the nuns who ran the orphanage, but the circumstances surrounding the high death toll in the fire remain controversial to this day. The secretary of the Commission of Enquiry, Brian O'Nolan, is better known to posterity as the writer Flann O'Brien.
The former Cavan Town Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks was demolished in 1968. Its successor stood on the corner of Farnham Street (also known as Casement Street, named after Sir Roger Casement) and Abbey Street. The current Garda Station is further along Farnham Street, just across from the Courthouse.
Adjacent to the Courthouse is the Cavan Central Library building constructed in 2006. The entrance is dominated by an aquarium, with commissioned bog-wood sculptures by local artist Joey Burns that portray Cavan history. An arts feature based on Gulliver's Travels enriches the interior space, and two large paintings by award-winning author PJ Lynch were commissioned by Cavan Library Service, in a lasting tribute to Jonathan Swift and to Cavan where Gulliver's Travels was written.
A branch of the Cavan and Leitrim Railway was also indirectly linked to Cavan town via Belturbet (the C&L terminus) and Ballyhaise on the GNR line. When the Government of Northern Ireland closed the section of the Belfast line from Portadown to Glaslough in 1957, it was found to be uneconomical to keep running the rump section from Monaghan to Cavan. All these lines (including the Cavan and Leitrim Railway) were closed by 1960. The (GNR) Virginia Road Station, from 1863 to 1958 serviced the Drogheda and Navan extension route to Kells and Oldcastle. Cooperation between the Cavan and Westmeath county councils is striving to integrate this into the national and regional development plan. Cavan railway station opened on 8 July 1856, closed for passenger services on 14 October 1957, and finally closed altogether on 1 January 1960.
Leydons Coaches operate route 930 to Enniskillen via Belturbet, Ballyconnell, Bawnboy and Swanlinbar. Leydons Coaches . Leydons Coaches (11 February 2013). Retrieved on 23 July 2013.
Whartons Travel operate a route to Longford railway station via Crossdoney, Arvagh, Drumlish and Longford. Cavan to Longford Bus – Longford to Cavan Bus . Whartons Travel. Retrieved on 23 July 2013.
There are also a number of TFI Local Link routes serving Cavan:
Breifne College is a co-educational Vocational Education School administered by the County Cavan Education and Training Board. Cavan Vocational Educational Committee
Saint Patrick's College and Loreto College are respectively all boys and all girls Catholic voluntary schools, with The Royal School being a co-educational school with a Protestant ethos. These schools are administered by their respective patrons in conjunction with the Department of Education and Science.
The town has a third level college, Cavan Institute (formerly Cavan College of Further Studies), which was founded in 1985 and is the largest provider of FETAC courses in the northeast region. The college offers Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) across its five schools; Business & Humanities, Healthcare, Sport & Education, Beauty Therapy & Hairdressing, Computing, Engineering & Science Design, Performing Arts & Services. Graduates are entitled to exemptions within most third level colleges and usually transfer to study a degree further completing their course by in their chosen field. The majority of students are Cavan locals, with a large proportion of its other students coming from nearby counties such as Leitrim, Roscommon, Monaghan, Meath and Westmeath. The college's main campus is located on Cathedral Road with other sites in the town centre and at the former Army Barracks on the Dublin Road.
|
|
