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Ennis ( , meaning 'island' or 'river meadow') is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 27,923, making it the 6th largest town, and 11th largest urban settlement, as of the 2022 census. Dating from the 12th century the town's Irish name is short for , deriving from its location between two courses of the River Fergus.
Ennis has had considerable success in the Irish Tidy Towns competition. In 2005 and 2021, the town was named Ireland's tidiest town, and was named Ireland's tidiest large urban centre on multiple occasions.
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When Clare became a county under the rule of Elizabeth I in 1586, Ennis was chosen as its administrative centre and capital because of its central location and its association with the Earls of Thomond. Ennis received a grant to hold fairs and markets in 1610 and later a Charter for a Corporation with a Provost, Free Burgesses, Commonalty and a Town Clerk.
In the colonial period, a number of landmark structures were constructed, including the Mill and Courthouse. The town contains a number of old military barracks, most notably the Old Military Barracks on the Kilrush road. Many locals served in the British Army in the First World War. The Clare Road and Clonroad areas contain terraced cottages built in the early 20th century to house soldiers. On Station Road, then called Jail Road, a prison once stood.
As its formation was monastic and not defensive, Ennis never had town walls and instead grew as place of commerce and trade. Over the centuries the market town slowly expanded, and eventually developed as a small manufacturing and distribution centre with commodities moved by river to the port at Clarecastle for shipping abroad. Local industries included textile and clothing manufacturing, the milling of corn and flour, as well as brewing of beer and distillation of whiskey with evidence of these industries still present in the town. The 1845 Famine and its aftermath had a substantial effect on the town with the population declining by over 20% because of famine, disease and emigration.
Ennis was governed by a corporation from the early 17th century. It was a parliamentary borough to the Irish House of Commons until 1801, and was given continued representation at Westminster from 1801 to 1885. The borough corporation was dissolved by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. It was later granted town commissioners under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854, which was converted to an urban district under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, and a town council under the Local Government Act 2001. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 dissolved the town council with the creation of Ennis Municipal District under the authority of Clare County Council. Ennis Town Hall is now used as a banqueting suite for the Old Ground Hotel.
Politically, Ennis was long a Fianna Fáil stronghold. However, in the 2009 local elections, the party was reduced to just one member out of nine on Ennis Town Council. A monument to Éamon de Valera, founder of the party and former President of Ireland, stands outside Ennis Courthouse.
The River Fergus runs through the middle of Ennis and is a well-known trout and salmon fishery. At one time, small sailing boats made their way up river from the Shannon and berthed in the centre of the town at Woodquay. This area of the town along with Parnell Street and Mill Road was routinely susceptible to flooding, but the flood defence system put an end to the event in Parnell Street and the Mill Road areas, although in November 2009 other parts of the town experienced severe flooding. A new pedestrian bridge, Harmony Row Bridge, was built over the river Fergus in June 2009.
Ennis is a historically important market town. The market square is still home to on each Saturday throughout the year, although with the rise in the town's commercial retail sector it has shifted from agricultural produce to mainly textiles and home hardware. The market also has an organic farming element.
The town centre consists of medieval narrow streets and laneways, overshadowed by structures built over the last thousand years. Of the main thoroughfares, Parnell Street has been pedestrianised, while the others, O'Connell Street, Bindon Street and Abbey Street, are one-way street. Ennis Cathedral is on the fringe of the old town centre.
Ennis serves as a major regional hub for County Clare. Among its emergency services, it contains the Ennis Hospital, the HQ of the Clare Divisional Garda, the Clare Fire Brigade and Civil Defence. Ennis also includes many relief organisations, such as The Samaritans, Clare Care and St. Vincent De Paul. Among its civil services, it contains Clare County Council, as well as Social and Family affairs.
Ennis has been a centre for Irish Traditional Music, and since 1974 has hosted the Fleadh Nua in late May each year, the second-largest traditional music festival in Ireland. There are other traditional festivals held in the town as well such as the Ennis Trad Festival held annually in November.
Bus services are provided to Shannon Airport, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Dublin and all routes in between and run nearly every hour. Shannon Airport is 15 minutes from Ennis, providing daily flights to European and US destinations.
The M18 motorway was extended from Ennis to Limerick in 2007. The section from Ennis to Gort was opened in 2010.
Ennis was formerly the starting point of the West Clare Railway, a narrow-gauge railway which ran from Ennis to Ennistymon, Milltown Malbay and onwards to the towns and villages along the West Clare coastline. Trains ran from the same railway station which is still used by mainline Irish railway services. The line was CIÉ's last narrow-gauge railway and finally closed in 1961, despite investment in new diesel trains in the early/mid-1950s.
Ennis railway station connects with Galway and with Limerick where onward trains run to Dublin, Cork via Limerick Junction (for connections to Tipperary, Cahir, Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford) and Mallow (for connections to Killarney and Tralee). Ennis is also served by local charity Clare bus which provides a fully wheelchair-accessible bus service around the Clare area.
In 2016 and 2017 Ennis hosted the Fleadh Cheoil music competition. It is the first time that the town has hosted the event since 1977.
The Lees Road Sports and Amenity Park, 1 km from the town centre, is set in of wood and parkland. Among the facilities available are four conventional playing pitches, full size all-weather floodlit playing pitch, a floodlit synthetic running track and a purpose-built cross country running track. There is a children's playground and skateboard park and marked walks and trails throughout the woodland area. Ennis Leisure Centre has a fully equipped gym with a 25m pool, saunas etc. There are a number of hotels around Ennis that have their own leisure facilities including gyms and 15m to 20m pools.
Within the town, there are six adult soccer clubs (Avenue United, Lifford FC, Ennis Town, Turnpike Rovers, Hermitage FC and Ennis Dons FC), two adult GAA clubs (Éire Óg and The Banner GAA), and one rugby club (Ennis RFC).
It is also twinned with the town of Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet in southern France and Langenfeld, Rhineland in Germany.
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