Claremorris

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Claremorris
Clár Chlainne Mhuiris
Location
Location of Claremorris
centerMap highlighting Claremorris
Irish grid reference
M338751
Statistics
Province: Connacht
County: County Mayo
Elevation: 73 m
Population (2006)
 - Town:
 - Environs:		  
3,170 
14,177

Claremorris (Irish: Clár Clainne Mhuiris) is a town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at the junction of the N17 and the N60 national routes. It has a population of 3,170 (14,156 rural). One of the fastest growing towns in the West of Ireland, Claremorris is a selected location for the Government's decentralisation programme, with the OPW to start its move to the town in February 2007.[1]

Claremorris
Claremorris

The surrounding countryside is composed of rolling drumlins, eskers, woods and lakes. There are two secondary schools, St. Colman's College for boys, and Mount St. Michaels for girls, and many primary schools.

Genealogical records for Claremorris consist of Roman Catholic church records of marriage which commenced in 1805 and baptisms which commenced in 1825. Church of Ireland records consist of baptisms from 1834 onwards, marriages from 1846 onwards and burials from 1878 onwards. These are held at the South Mayo Family Research Centre in Ballinrobe.

Contents

[edit] Sports

There are a number of sporting clubs including:

  • The Swimming Club, who until its recent closure for renovations trained at Claremorris Swimming Pool, the swimming club also incorporates Water polo who have in recent years become the first club from connacht to win the all-ireland under 16 & under 19 Boys championships, as well as being the first club to win the inagural Girls Under-16 & Under-19 Championships.
  • The Soccer Club, who train & play their matches at Concannon park. Derek Glynn began his career playing for Claremorris.
  • The Golf club, who play at the local 18-hole gold course located just outside Claremorris on the Galway Road
  • The Athletics Club, who train on the racetrack.
  • The Tennis Club, whose courts at the centre of town are the most modern in Mayo.

[edit] Transport

Claremorris is connected by rail to neighbouring Westport and Ballina, as well as to Dublin. Claremorris railway station opened on 19 May 1862.[2] The Ballina/Westport–Dublin route is intersected at Claremorris by the disused Limerick–Sligo line (dubbed the Western Railway Corridor – see Irish railway history). There is currently a campaign (West-On-Track) to re-open passenger links with Sligo, Galway and Limerick, as well as towns such as Tuam and Gort. Historically, there was also a branch to Ballinrobe from Claremorris.

[edit] Weather Station

Claremorris is home to one of the Republic of Ireland's eight inland weather observing stations, located 2 kilometres from the town centre. It began recording weather in November 1943 and was run & staffed by a local family, the Vaheys, on land bought from the Vaheys' family farm. During WWII Ireland provided detailed weather reports to the Allies. Weather reports from Claremorris (the Vaheys' family run observation centre) & Blacksod Lighthouse (located on the west coast of Mayo) was the reason that the launch of the invasion of France (D Day) went ahead on the 6th June 1944. Many will remember the weather expert in the film "The Longest Day", imparting this information to Gen. Eisenhower and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sometime in 1949 it was decided that the Irish Meteorological Service needed observations on an hourly basis from inland stations like Claremorris. It was decided to staff the station with full time permanent personnel. In 1996 staff were located to Knock airport and it now operates automatically with data downloaded to Dublin [1].[3]

[edit] People

The town is the birthplace of:

[edit] Local Schools

  • St. Colman's College, the boys' Secondary School.
  • Mount St. Michaels, the girls' Secondary School.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ decentralisation page 25
  2. ^ Claremorris station. Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  3. ^ Met Éireann.