Ashbourne, County Meath
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| Ashbourne Cill Dhéagláin |
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| Location | ||
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| Irish Grid Reference O060525 |
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| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
| County: | County Meath | |
| Elevation: | 73 m (239 ft) | |
| Population (2002) | 6,362 | |
Ashbourne (Cill Dhéagláin in Irish) is a sizeable commuter town in County Meath, Ireland about 20 km from Dublin on the N2 road.
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[edit] Growth
Ashbourne has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years, from a small village to become part of the commuter belt of Dublin. It used to be a nice place to live with great community spirit but has been overrun by a sizeable population of scangers in recent years and is now a haven for drug dealers, dodgy developers and has been largely forgotten by the politicians of Meath due to the indifference of its inhabitants.
The population of the town was 6,362 as of the 2002 census, a 27% increase on the previous census in 1996, making it Meath's second largest town after Navan and the largest town in the new Meath East Dáil constituency, which will elect 3 TDs to the Dáil from the next general election. The current population is estimated at 7,237 and is expected to hit 15,000 by 2012. This growth has largely been the result of the rapid construction of several new housing schemes - most notably several apartment blocks scattered throughout the town and a number of new housing estates. The growth has spurred expansion of local enterprise and retail to cater for the growing populations needs. Many new retail units have opened in recent years.
[edit] Public Transport
Ashbourne is served by Bus Éireann who provide a regular service from Beresford Place, using unique Bus Éireann-branded double-decker buses, every 20 minutes at peak times to the town. Some of these services continue on to Ratoath, Kilmoon Cross, Duleek and even Navan.
Ashbourne is served by a limited Dublin Bus Nitelink service after 11.30pm. Monday to Thursday, Ashbourne commuters can take the 40N service through Finglas and on to Ashbourne for €6 one-way (significantly cheaper than the €35 plus taxi fare) from Westmoreland St at 12.30am and 2am. Thursday to Saturday, there is a dedicated Ashbourne Nitelink, the 88N, which again leaves Westmoreland St and proceeds straight to Ashbourne for €6 one-way at 12.30am, 2am and 3.30am.
[edit] Amenities
There is an 18 hole golf course on the outskirts of the town and several sports clubs in the town, including a Gaelic Athletic Association club, Donaghmore-Ashbourne, a rugby union team, a number of soccer clubs, a judo club, boxing club as well as other sporting organisations.
More recently, a series of new shopping streets have been built as part of a scheme to give Ashbourne the type of retail centre more in keeping with other towns. Up until recently commercial development in the town was stifled given the fact that the town was bisected by a busy national primary route, the N2, on to which all commercial development was focused. This restricted the town's potential to attract high street retailers due to the a lack of suitable sites and the associated traffic hazards of the N2. In 2002 a local area plan for the town was completed which provides for the future development of Ashbourne. The plan provides for a major expansion of Ashbourne westward into the townland of Killegland adjoining the new N2 Ashbourne bypass. If implemented it will see the introduction of more residential units, a retail park, community facilities and industrial units. The town is being planned westward as the Fingal County boundary is only 1.5 kilometres from the east side of the town, which decreases to approximately 600 metres at the north end of the town, in the townland of Rath. While this type of forward planning would normallyavoid situations like Drogheda, Waterford and Limerick cities where calls for boundary extensions have become divisive issues, permission has been granted for a large estate, Archerstown Wood, to the east of the town which will bring Ashbourne within 500m of the border with Co. Fingal.
Of the new streets developed in Ashbourne's new town centre, Killegland Street, has become the core commercial street containing a number of varied retail units along with a new library and council offices. Car parking in the town has been expanded thanks to both a large underground car park beneath Killegland Street linking into the Tesco supermarket and a multi-storey car park above. The German discount retailer Lidl opened on Declan Street, which leads on from Killegland Street, in July 2005.
Aldi opened a branch on Bridge Street in November 2005. Bridge Street is an existing street between the Broadmeadow River and the Ashbourne House Hotel which contained just 3 dwellings and no retail outlets 8 years ago. Today, there are five shops, a large hotel, dozens of apartments and a supermarket there - typical of the high pace of development in Ashbourne in the past decade.
Dunnes Stores has opened a large store on the former Dardis & Dunns seed merchant site on the northern end of Frederick/Main Street as part of the Ashbourne Town Centre development and is accessible from both Frederick Street, across from Ashbourne's old Town Centre (home to SuperValu, Chartbusters and a number of outlets since 1990) and Killegland Square, linking the two retail centres in the town.
Ashbourne got its third bank when Permanent TSB opened a branch on Killegland Street in October 2005 and other new outlets include Carphone Warehouse, Aston Carpets, Sasha, Subway, Cantec Computers and Boots The Chemist (opening April 2007). Development is now being concentrated on the area between Killegland Street and Ned Nulty's Lane, with a large amount of riverside apartments, a linear park and more leisure and retail units completed.
[edit] The new N2
Ashbourne is linked to the M50 and Dublin City by 17 kilometres of new high quality dual carriageway on the N2 national primary route, which commences at junction 5 of the M50 motorway (13.5km from Ashbourne). The new road terminates at the Rath roundabout in the townland of Rath 1.5km north of Ashbourne. This section of the N2 was significantly upgraded in the 1990's almost as far as Slane, which is the next town north of Ashbourne. The road is unique in Ireland as it is the first non-motorway road in the state to officially be granted national motorway speed limits of 120 km/h. As a result of this, the road is sometimes incorrectly though understandably referred to as the M2 by some local groups such as auctioneers and some local media. There are, however, two minor technical differences between this road and a motorway. It has a broken yellow line to indicate the start of the hard shoulder instead of a continuous yellow line which is found on motorways and it does not have emergency telephones at 1 kilometre distances along the hard shoulder. Other consequential differences include the use of signage on a green instead of blue background and the fact that motorway restrictions do not apply so provisional license holders, bicycles and tractors can join traffic travelling at 120 km/h. However, this is not a genuine concern due to the width of carriageways and the fact the route is part three lane and has a hard shoulder.
The Ashbourne library has held a number of events and extremely well known authors have paid a visit to the library. The Library is a great place is sit and read with your friends, play on the computers or simply sit in quiet.
The new N2, which the Government announced in March 2005 would not be tolled, allows thousands of commuters and hauliers to avoid the town, which has become a major bottleneck for traffic heading south from Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Monaghan, Louth and the rest of Meath. The South Ashbourne Interchange, a large junction taking traffic on and off the N2 near the Nine Mile Stone, promises a non-stop transferral of traffic to and from Ashbourne and its new by-pass. The new N2 will eventually be linked to the M50 through a freeflow junction at exit 5, meaning most traffic will not have to stop at traffic lights as is currently the case. Already, the new route sends and receives northbound M50 traffic this way.
Phase 1 of the route, from the M50 junction to the Cherryhound junction, opened to commuter traffic on 17 November 2005. The old N2 from just north of The Brock Inn was then blocked off from the M50 junction and became the R135. The new route immediately allowed traffic to and from Ashbourne to avoid Kilshane Cross, a noted bottleneck in recent years due to it serving Dublin airport. Phase 2 of the route, from the Nine Mile Stone south of Ashbourne to north of Rath Cross - the Ashbourne bypass section - opened to traffic on 21 March 2006, ahead of the entire route being opened by An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD on 25 May 2006 - four months ahead of schedule.
Currently, the Bus Éireann Ashbourne bus leaves the new route at the first exit and proceeds along the old road; this situation will undoubtedly be reviewed and an express service to Dublin from Ashbourne and nearby Ratoath may be considered.
[edit] 1916 Rising Monument
To the north of the village is a monument to the only major incident of the 1916 Easter Rebellion to take place outside Dublin. This monument carries a plaque with a line from a poem by Thomas Ashe the local schoolmaster: 'Let me carry your cross for Ireland, Lord'. The monument has two images on one side the figure is in the form of Christ on the other side is a revolutionary. This monument is known locally as The Rath Cross.
