Castlepollard
Template:Short description Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox settlement
Castlepollard (Template:Lga or Cionn Toirc)<ref name="PDI1"/> is a small town in north County Westmeath, Ireland. It lies west of Lough Lene and northeast of Lough Derravaragh and Mullingar. As of the 2022 census, Castlepollard had a population of 1,349 people.<ref name="cso2022"/>
Name
The name 'Castlepollard' comes from the name of a castle or fortified manor built by the English army captain Nicholas Pollard in the early 17th century. The town's official Irish name is Baile na gCros (anglicised Ballinagross), meaning "town of the cross (or crossroads)".<ref name="PDI1">Template:Cite web</ref> However, the name Cionn Toirc (anglicised 'Kinturk'), meaning "head of the boar", has also been applied to the town.<ref name="PDI1"/> The townland of Kinturk Demesne covers the southern part of Castlepollard.
History
16th and 17th centuries
Nicholas Pollard, an English Army captain from Devonshire, arrived in Ireland in 1597 during the Nine Years' War. He fought under the Earl of Essex's command against the Gaelic Irish forces. After that campaign, Captain Pollard was settled on land in the Mayne area. Cionn Torc (Kinturk), a valley between the lakes, was granted 'in capite' by the ageing Queen Elizabeth I to Captain Pollard. He built a small castle at Rathyoung which he called Castle Pollard.
Walter Pollard, first son of Nicholas, married Ismay Nugent of Roscommon. He received a regrant of the demesne during the restoration period, following the Civil War and Cromwellian confiscations. The grant was made by charter from King Charles II, and approved by the Irish Parliament. In addition, he was granted a permit for a weekly market and a fair which was held four times annually. The Pollard family was reconfirmed in the manorial title by the edict of William and Mary. Serving as Commissioner for Supplies during the War of the Three Kingdoms, Pollard sat in the Irish Parliament, and became High Sheriff of the county in 1692. The family gradually improved the residence and the estate. They rebuilt the adjoining out buildings and developed the village of Castlepollard. They intermarried with the Dillon family of Ladyhill, the Pakenhams, the Duttons, the Tuites, and other landed county families. The descendants of Nicholas Pollard lived at Kinturk into the early twentieth century.
Castlepollard Massacre, 1831
On 23 May 1831 members of the paramilitary Royal Irish Constabulary force (which Britain established to police Ireland) arrested a man following a fight at Castlepollard's fair.<ref name="Castlepollard Massacre">Template:Cite web</ref> The crowd surrounded them until they released the man. At approximately 5pm that day, members of the same force returned, this time armed with muskets.<ref name="Castlepollard Massacre"/> These RIC members were then allegedly jeered by the crowd. In response, they lined up and fired shots.<ref name="Castlepollard Massacre"/> By the time they had finished 13 people lay dead, and many others were injured.<ref name="Castlepollard Massacre"/> The names of the dead were: Patrick Dignam, Mary Kiernan, John Slevin, Patrick McCormack, Brian Mahon, Tomas Kiernan, Patrick McDermott, Patrick McDonagh, Mary Neill, James Fagan, Patrick Keegan, Patrick Ledwich and Peggy Leary. 19 police officers were sent to Mullingar jail but at their hearing in Mullingar in July 1831 all 19 were discharged without conviction.<ref name="Castlepollard Massacre"/>
This incident may have been related to the enforcement of collection orders during the Tithe War (1831–1836). Spasmodic violence broke out around this time (particularly in Kilkenny, Wexford, and Cork) when the police entered local fairgrounds to enforce seizure orders on cattle for non-payment of tithes. Order was finally restored by rescinding seizure orders in 1836. The subsequent revision of the Tithe Act commuted the levy. The Church of Ireland was disestablished by the Gladstone government in 1869, and the tithe was abolished.
Built heritage
Castlepollard's original village layout, much of which dates to the 19th century,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is preserved and now landscaped in a central triangular green. Surrounded by buildings from the Georgian period, a sculpture on the square depicts a scene from the locally centred legend of the Children of Lir. A plaque outlines the story in several languages. The setting of the legend is Lough Derravaragh. There are several ringforts on the surrounding high ground. Two ancient forts are of archaeological interest. Randoon is located in nearby Ranaghan, south west of Lough Lene, and Turgesius Island, is situated on Lough Lene. Turgesius was a Viking leader who sojourned here with a local lover while on respite from his seafaring. He held sway in Danish Dublin (Dyflin) and Shannon Viking port near Clonmacnoise.
Two churches serve the local Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland Christian communities. Kinturk House, the Georgian period Pollard residence, now serves as St. Peter's Centre. It was purchased by the Sacred Heart Sisters from the family in 1935, who added a chapel wing. A hospital designed by T.J. Cullen (1879–1947) was built c. 1935 and was part of "an extensive hospital construction programme initiated during the first decades of the Irish Free State"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> financed by the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake. The sisters operated a Mother and Baby home there for many years; the property was sold to Midlands Health Board in 1971.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the early nineteenth century, the main village and the Pollard family properties underwent a reconstruction program. The Kinturk Demesne residence and the adjacent buildings were rebuilt in the Georgian style of the period. Some common lands were enclosed. A new Church of Ireland building was erected in the square, along with the Market House<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Located on the west side of the green, this was the village's major public building and landmark. The quarterly Court of Petty Sessions convened here.
During the War of Independence the Irish Republican Army (IRA) burned the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks located on the Mullingar Road. The RIC then moved to the courthouse. In 1921, the IRA began a wave of burnings which targeted government offices throughout Ireland. This was a concerted effort to cripple the UK civil service in its day-to-day administration of the country. The Market House was also torched. Two sitting magistrates were kidnapped by the IRA on their way to the court. The men were held hostage locally, reportedly in a cow byre on the Hill of Moal. They were later released unharmed after forty eight hours, and the village was spared reprisals. The Market House was rebuilt in 1926 and served for periods as a fire station and a library.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Later additions to the built environment include multiple housing estates, the Area Office of the Westmeath County Council,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Castlepollard Community College's new school building (2004),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> both on the Mullingar Road. In the 20 years between the 2002 and 2022 census, Castlepollard's population increased by more than 50%, from 895 to 1,349 inhabitants.<ref name="citypop">Template:Cite web</ref> The 2022 census indicated that approximately 30% of homes (158 of 526 households) were built between 2001 and 2010.<ref name="cso2022"/>
Transport
While Bus Éireann route 111 (Cavan to Dublin via Trim) previously served Castlepollard,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> this is no longer the case.Template:Fact As of November 2024, route 111a (Cavan to Delvin via Granard) had a stop at Castlepollard.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Route 447 also provides a link to Mullingar via Crookedwood on Thursdays only.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The nearest rail service is at Mullingar railway station, approximately 22 km distant.
Economy
Mergon International, a manufacturer of moulded parts, is one of the main businesses in the area.Template:Fact Castlepollard has number of retail outlets which serve a hinterland in the northern part of County Westmeath.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> This includes filling stations, one bank, a post office, council buildings, primary and secondary schools, a number of grocery/newsagent shops, hairdressers, beauty salons, drapery stores, furniture stores, pharmacies and a hardware store.Template:Fact Castlepollard also has number of pubs.
Sport
Hurling is the major sport in the area. The local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club, Castlepollard Hurling Club, has won the Westmeath Senior Hurling Championship on 14 occasions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The club's "arch-rivals", Lough Lene Gaels GAA, are based in neighbouring Collinstown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other local GAA clubs include Ballycomoyle (Template:Convert away), who play in the Junior Gaelic football championship, and Castletown Finea Coole Whitehall (CFCW) (Template:Convert away) plays in the Intermediate championship.Template:Fact
Castlepollard Celtic Football Club, an association football (soccer) club founded in 2004, fields teams ranging from Under 7s to Under 16s for boys and girls.Template:Fact In 2013, the club fielded a senior team in the Combined Counties Football League.Template:Fact
Tullynally Castle
Two kilometres west of Castlepollard on the Granard Road (Pakenham Hall Street) is Tullynally Castle, seat of the Pakenham family, later the Earls of Longford. Also known as Pakenham Hall, the original 17th-century fortified house (c. 1655) was remodelled first as a Georgian mansion in the 1730s, then as a large Gothic Revival castle.<ref name="niahCastle">Template:Cite web</ref> The castle was worked on by several well-known architects in the early-to-mid nineteenth-century, including Francis Johnston, James Shiel and Sir Richard Morrison.<ref name="niahCastle"/>
A number of other structures are located on the grounds, including the gate lodge which fronts the Granard Road facing Castlepollard. The two-storey limestone building was designed Template:Circa by Shiel (a former clerk of Francis Johnston) whilst making renovations on the main house. An integral Tudor Gothic-arched carriage arch to the centre of the main body of the building and a single-bay three-storey tower on polygonal-plan attached to the north end of the main façade (east) form "a pleasing vista on a main road leading out of Castlepollard from the west and marks the start of a long tree-lined avenue to Tullynally Castle itself".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is currently in use as private residence.
The gardens, like the castle, are on a large scale, covering nearly Template:Convert. Terraced lawns around the castle overlook 18th century parkland. The adjoining woodland gardens and walled gardens date largely from the early 19th century and encompass a grotto of eroded limestone from nearby Lough Derravaragh and two ornamental lakes. The walled gardens have flower borders and an avenue of 200-year-old Irish yews.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The gardens are open to the public in the spring and summer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
- List of towns and villages in Ireland
- Market Houses in Ireland
- Mullaghmeen, highest point in Westmeath