Ardee-Cedar Herald Index

Ardee (; , ) is a town and townland in County Louth, Ireland. It is located at the intersection of the N2, N52, and N33 roads. The town shows evidence of development from the thirteenth century onward but as a result of the continued development of the town since then much of the fabric of the medieval town has been removed.

Ardee is on the banks of the River Dee and is equidistant between the county's two biggest towns - approximately from Dundalk and Drogheda, while it is also close to Slane and Carrickmacross.

Ardee

In the 20 years between the 1996 and 2016 census, the population of Ardee increased by approximately 30%, from 3,791 to 4,928 inhabitants.

Ardee

History

Origins

Originally called Atherdee, the towns name is from (the Ford of Ferdia) which itself is derived from the fabled four-day battle between Cúchulainn and Ferdia, for the defence of Ulster from Queen Maeve of Connacht. It is said Ferdia fell after four days of battle, and is buried on the southern banks of the river alongside the Riverside Walk. A depiction of the pair is located on Bridge Street in the town as a bronze statue.

Ardee

Ardee is an example of a medieval "walled town", a number of which can be found across Ireland. The town itself is situated in the southern part of the ancient territory known as the Plain of Muirheimhne. The town lies along the 15th-century Pale frontier between Dundalk and Kells.

The town comprises the townlands or town parks – the greater portion of which is made up of Ardee bog, and a small portion of Dawson's Demesne, which takes in the southeastern quadrant of the town on the northern side of the River Dee.

Ardee received its royal charter from King Henry V in 1414.

Smith schools

A philanthropic trust founded by Erasmus Smith in the 17th century funded the establishment of a boys' school in 1806 and a girls' school in 1817. Both Protestant and Catholic children were allowed to attend. At the time there were other schools but in 1824 they became the sole schools in the area. The Smith schools amalgamated into a combined-sex establishment by 1858, by which time the National School movement was leading to the creation of denominational schools there. The school remained a non-denominational institute but the school decreased in numbers and in 1868 had a roll of only 16 Protestant boys. It was fully integrated into the National School system in 1954, when it became known as Saint Mary's Church of Ireland National School.

Administration

Ardee is in the local government area of Louth County Council. Members of the council are elected from five local electoral areas in the county. The Ardee local electoral area returns six of the council's 29 members, who sit as the Ardee Municipal District.

Ardee had a corporation first mentioned in a charter of 1378. An electorate of 24 burgesses and 80 freemen elected two MPs for the parliamentary borough of Ardee to the Irish House of Commons. It was disfranchised under the Acts of Union 1800. The corporation was abolished by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840.

Media

Newspapers include the Mid-Louth Independent, a regional edition of the Drogheda Independent newspaper, which is published weekly. It is distributed and sold in Ardee, Collon, Dunleer and Tallanstown. The Dundalk Democrat is the regional edition of the weekly newspaper, which covers Ardee and its surroundings.

LMFM Radio is the local radio station for the North East covering Ardee as well as the rest of Louth, Meath, Monaghan and North Dublin.

Transport

Ardee railway station, previously serving the town, was linked to the main Belfast–Dublin line at Dromin Junction station, along a five-mile (8 km) long branch line.

The Ardee Railway station opened on 1 August 1896 and passenger services ended on 3 June 1934. The line continued as a freight service until finally closed on 3 November 1976, serving the local fertiliser factory, sugar beet and livestock transport.

The trackbed was lifted in the late 1980s, and much of the short route is now a designated walkway. Ardee's transport network consists of the N2, which runs directly through the town, and the M1 motorway, which is connected to Ardee through a bypass/link road.