Athenry

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View of St. Mary's Church in Athenry
Clareen River in Athenry
Athenry Castle
Market cross

Athenry (pronounced [æθənˈraɪ] , Irish Baile Átha an Rí [bal´ɑːhən̪ˈriː] ) is a city on the Clareen River ( Abhainn an Chláirín ) in southeastern County Galway , Ireland . It has 4445 inhabitants.

Surname

The name of the city goes back to the Irish name Baile Átha an / na Ríogh . This is translated differently, on the one hand as "City of the ford of the king / kings", where "kings" refers to the three ancient Irish kingdoms that meet here. On the other hand, it is interpreted as the “city of the river ford”, whereby Ríogh , like the Rhine , is said to go back to the Indo-European root H 1 reiH- for “flow”. The current official Irish name of the city in modern spelling is Baile Átha an Rí , "City (at) the king's ford", or Áth an Rí for short ( [ɑːhən̪ˈriː] ).

Population development

The population has almost tripled in the last 25 years:

1991 1996 2002 2006 2011 2016
1612 1614 2154 3205 3950 4445

The proportion of foreigners among the residents is almost 20%.

history

One found dead near Athenry shield from the Bronze Age puts a settlement near already 3,000 years ago. The antiquarian James Ware suspected in the 17th century that Athenry was the headquarters of the O'Hynes because of the ford and the convenient proximity to the three kingdoms Hy-Many of the O'Kellys, Hy-Briuin Seola of the O'Flahertys and Hy-Fiachrach of the O'Hynes Auterii was. The tribe of Auterii were by Claudius Ptolemy in the Geographike hyphegesis mentioned.

At the beginning of the 12th century Connacht was under the control of the Irish King Cathal Crovderg O'Conor , who had submitted to the English crown and had held Connacht as a fief since 1215 for an annual payment of 300 marks . When he died in 1224, his son Aedh saw himself as his successor in accordance with English law, but was not accepted by Irish followers in accordance with Irish law, which knew no primogeniture . Aedh initially received support from the English against the uprisings, but in 1226 the decision was made to confiscate Connacht and give Richard de Burgh as a fief, who had been pushing for it for some time. In 1235, the troops, led by Richard de Burgh, along with other barons from the de Berminghams, De Lacys and Fitzgerald families, crossed the Shannon and quickly brought most of Connacht under their control. This was achieved despite the numerical superiority of the Irish through better equipment, the use of Welsh archers and the use of knights, who were supported by Flemish foot soldiers . After the conquest, bases were established in strategically important locations. In addition to Athenry, Dunmore , Loughrea and Galway were also included.

The medieval agriculturally important place was mentioned for the first time in 1238. In 1316 the Battle of Athenry took place here, in which Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster defeated the King of Connacht .

Attractions

There are still several medieval buildings and monuments in the city.

  • The Athenry Castle , built in 1235–1240 .
  • The city wall with five gates. The course and the northern gate can still be seen today.
  • In addition, there were six towers along the city wall, some of which are still well preserved. Since they are not fully integrated into the wall, it can be assumed that they are later additions.
  • The Dominican monastery was built in 1241–1261. Today only the ruins of the monastery church still exist here.
  • St. Mary's Church. The original collegiate monastery was built around 1485. In 1574 it was destroyed and burned down. Parts of the original nave and transept have been preserved and integrated into the Church of Ireland , built in 1828 . Today the building houses the local Heritage Center .
  • In the center of the city there is a late Gothic market cross in the tabernacle or lantern style on the market square .
  • To the southeast of the city is also the Wedge Tomb of Lissalondoon near the road R349 from Loughrea to Athenry.

Transport links

train

Athenry has a train station on the Dublin to Galway line with trains in each direction approximately every 2 hours. In addition, the Western Corridor from Ennis to Athenry was reopened in 2010 after it was closed and shut down over 40 years ago. It again enables a direct rail link between Limerick and Galway.

Highways

The M6 motorway from Dublin to Galway passes Athenry to the south.

A few kilometers to the west there is a motorway junction where the M6 crosses the M18 motorway leading to Limerick in the south and the M17 motorway leading to Tuam in the north . The motorway junction was opened in September 2013.

Others

The place became famous for the Irish song The Fields of Athenry , which deals with the situation during the Irish famine between 1846 and 1849.

Personalities

literature

Web links

Commons : Athenry  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b See Spellissy, p. 169.
  2. ↑ See Discovery Series . tape 46 . Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Dublin 1998, ISBN 1-901496-35-X . And Deirdre Flanagan , Laurence Flanagan : Irish Place Names . Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1994, ISBN 0-7171-2066-X , pp. 168 .
  3. ↑ https://www.citypopulation.de/php/ireland.php?cityid=0040 population development. Retrieved January 29, 2019
  4. ↑ See Spellissy, p. 169.
  5. ↑ Cf. Spellissy, p. 169. A map created by Nicolaus Germanus based on the information given by Ptolemy in 1467 is available here .
  6. ↑ See Goddard Henry Orpen: Ireland under the Normans 1169-1333 . tape 3 . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2005, ISBN 1-85182-715-3 , pp. 158–163 (first edition: 1920).
  7. ↑ See Spellissy, pp. 169-170.
  8. ^ "The medieval town of Athenry" Archeology Ireland Heritage Guide No. February 60, 2013. ISSN  0790-982X . Information about the buildings in town.
  9. ↑ http://www.irishrail.ie/ Timetables. Retrieved January 29, 2019
  10. ↑ http://www.theaa.ie/blog/galway-m17-m18-motorway/ Autobahn. Retrieved January 29, 2019

Coordinates: 53 ° 18 ′  N , 8 ° 45 ′  W