Mountnorris

Mountnorris is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about six miles south of Markethill. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 165 people. It is within the Armagh City and District Council area.

History

The townland of Mountnorris was historically called Aghnecranagh and Aghenecranagh (from Irish: Achadh na Cranncha meaning "field of the wooded place").^[1] In 1600 Lord Mountjoy built an earthwork fort and left a garrison of 400 men under the command of Captain Edward Blaney in Mountnorris. The area took its name by combining the names of Mountjoy and his campaign commander in the Low Countries, Sir John Norris.

By 1620, the village no longer had a garrison and in the 18th century passed into the hands of the Cope family of Loughgall, to become a rural settlement with no military connections. The village was the originally intended site of the Royal School but due to instability at the time in Ulster, the school was resituated to its current site in Armagh and was opened in 1608.

On 31 May 1992, during "The Troubles", the Provisional IRA carried out a large truck bomb attack against the British Army (Ulster Defence Regiment) base at nearby Glenanne. It killed three soldiers and wounded another ten. It is often called the "Glenanne barracks bombing".

People

• Sir Francis Annesley, 1st Baronet, of Newport Pagnell, a member of an influential Anglo-Irish family which descended from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, was a favourite of James I who granted him land in Ireland, notably the fort of Mountnorris in County Armagh. He was knighted in 1616, created a Baronet, of Newport Pagnell in the County of Buckinghamshire, in the Baronetage of Ireland in 1620 and Baron Mountnorris in 1628. In 1642, on the death of his kinsman Henry Power, he became Viscount Valentia.
• Andrew Trew Wood (1826-1903), a Canadian businessman and parliamentarian, was born in Mountnorris.
• Sir John Hall Magowan, British Ambassador to Venezuela 1948-1951
• Billy Wright, the loyalist paramilitary leader, was raised in Mountnorris. He founded the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in 1996 and was assassinated in 1997 by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).

Education

• Mountnorris Primary School
• St. Teresa's Primary School

References

1. ^ Placenames NI

• NI Neighbourhood Information System
• Visit Armagh

See also

• List of towns and villages in Northern Ireland