| Naas Nás na Ríogh
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| — Town — | |||
| View of the town and of Naas General Hospital | |||
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| Motto: Prudens ut Serpens (Latin) The Wisdom of the Snake [1] |
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Naas
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Ireland | ||
| Province | Leinster | ||
| County | County Kildare | ||
| Dáil Éireann | Kildare North | ||
| Elevation | 114 m (374 ft) | ||
| Population (2011) | |||
| • Urban | 20,573 | ||
| Irish Grid Reference | N893196 | ||
| Website | www.naas.ie | ||
Naas (English pronunciation: /ˈneɪs/; Irish: Nás na Ríogh, pronounced [n̪ˠaːsˠ n̪ˠə ɾˠiː], or An Nás [ən̪ˠ n̪ˠaːsˠ]) is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand,[2] it is also the largest town in the county. Naas is a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin. The nearby N7 dual carriageway and M7 motorway connect it with Dublin and the south and southwest.
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The Irish language name for Naas, Nás na Ríogh literally means Meeting Place of the Kings, as the place historically hosted meetings of pre-Norman Irish kings from the Kingdom of Leinster. After the Norman invasion in 1169-71, some meetings of the Irish parliament were held in the town. Many of the earlier settlers in Kildare were Cambro-Normans from Wales, and so the medieval church was dedicated to Saint David.
In the Middle Ages, Naas became a walled market town, occasionally raided by the O'Byrne and O'Toole clans based in the nearby area which became County Wicklow. Naas features on the 1598 map by Abraham Ortelius as "Nosse".[3] (It is worth noticing the "O Byrne" and "O Tolo" (O'Toole) names appearing prominently on the map).
A mayor and council were selected by the richer merchants and landowners; the mayor was titled the "Sovereign of Naas" and carried a ceremonial mace until the post was abolished in 1840. Because of its importance as a place for trading, public meetings and local administration, with its law courts, racecourse and army barracks, it became known as the "county town" of County Kildare.
In the former Parliament of Ireland that was established in 1297 and ended in 1800, the constituency of Naas had 2 seats.
One of the first battles of the rebellion of 1798 took place in Naas on 24 May 1798 when a force of about 1,000 rebels were defeated in an unsuccessful attack on the town. A leader of the United Irishmen, Theobald Wolfe Tone, is buried just outside Naas, at Bodenstown.
In 1898, the Local Government Act established Naas Urban District Council (now Naas Town Council). Its jurisdiction had a circular boundary with a 2.4 km (1.5 mi) radius from the new town hall on the main street. Most of the rest of County Kildare is managed directly by Kildare County Council, also based in Naas since 1898, and which oversees the work of the Town Council.
Today, Naas is the 15th largest town in the Republic of Ireland. The town is planning new housing developments during the next five years with a projected population of 30,000.
Amenities in the town include: a library, tax office, a new Gaelic Athletic Association club, athletics club, a range of schools, Naas General Hospital, horse racecourse,[4] soccer club, tennis club, soccer club, hockey club, rugby club, two major nightclubs including the famous 'Time' nightclub, five-screen 3D cinema, several pubs, five supermarkets, county council offices, a number of hotels and the new Moat Theatre.
A large new public swimming pool and leisure centre opened on Carragh Avenue in 2009 and the old swimming pool site is now a public car park.
The town has two Roman Catholic Churches, one Church of Ireland Church, and one Presbyterian Church. The Church of Our Lady & St. David is a Roman Catholic Parish Church dating from 1827. The original parish church, St. David's Church, is held by the Church of Ireland. In 1997, the second Catholic Church opened in Ballycane on the east side of town and is dedicated to the Irish Martyrs.
There are two racecourses near Naas. Punchestown Racecourse is just to the south east of the town, in the parish of Eadestown, and Naas Racecourse is about 1 km from the town centre.[4] The annual Punchestown Race Festival is a major event for a whole week in April. The Oxegen music festival is also held at Punchestown in the second weekend of July.
Naas has one of the largest scouting groups in Ireland, with 2 Beaver nights, 3 cub nights, 3 Scout nights and also a very large Venture group as well as a rover group.
Local industrial enterprises include Intel, Xilinx, Hewlett Packard. Other economic activities include local government, Aldi's national headquarters, and indigenous manufacturers such as Green Isle Foods, Dawn Farm Foods, Readymix, Dennison Trailers, Omos Street Furniture, Amvic Ireland, Pasta Concepts, Phamapac, QK Meats, Redlen, Simply Soups, Taravale Foods, Granning Axles and Volvo Irish Commercials. The town also includes law offices, hotels and a livestock mart. Naas is also home to the most expensive boutique in Ireland the Emporium Kalu in the centre of the town. Naas boasts the largest Tesco Extra hypermarket in Ireland located on the Monread Road in the northside of the town. The Tesco Extra site will be further developed into a shopping centre with 18 more retail units including Costa Coffee, Argos and Boots stores planned for summer 2011.
Recently a lot of proposed stores and retail have been announced for Naas such as, Superquinn will be moving onto the Limerick Road along with plans for an Eight-Screen Cinema and leisure centre. A new Penney's (Primark) superstore will be located on the old Superquinn site in the town centre. Under construction is the new Naas Shopping Mall at Corbans Avenue which has seen work postponed due to the economic downturn and lack of funding. Naas is considered now to be the largest Retail Centre in County Kildare, largely as a result of its critical mass of bulky goods floorspace located in Large Modern Retail Parks in the Town's suburbs.[5]
The town of Naas is surrounded by commercial parks with stores such as Harvey Norman, Smyths Toy's, Clery's, PC World, Halfords and Heatons. The largest commercial park is located near the Newhall Interchange. A major business park is under construction at Osberstown.[6]
Naas railway station opened on 22 June 1855, closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1947 and for goods traffic on 10 March 1947, and finally closed altogether on 1 April 1959.[7] The railway station at Sallins is now used by many residents of Naas and the surrounding area for the daily commute to Dublin, with frequent trains throughout the day and travel times less than 30 minutes to downtown Dublin.
Naas is connected to other main towns and cities by bus services. The main carriers are Bus Éireann and JJ Kavanagh and Sons.[8][9]
The N7 Naas Road, which connects Naas to Dublin, was upgraded in 2006 with a six-lane carriageway with grade-separated interchanges. Plans have been laid out to construct a large interchange at the Osberstown-Millenium Park as part of the M7 upgrade.[10] An orbital ring road is also being built; several phases have already been opened.[11]
Naas has three secondary schools, St. Mary's, a girls convent school, the Christian Brothers School, for boys, and Pipers Hill (formerly St. Patrick's Community College), a mixed school. It also has primary schools, including the Convent of Mercy, a girl's school,[12] a school for boys, Scoil Bhride, a mixed school and Ballycane, another mixed school teaching classes from Junior Infants to 2nd class and St. David's, a mixed school.
Naas has a large public library which is located in the canal harbour area.[13]
Mayor Darren Scully resigned from office on November 22, 2011 in the wake of comments he made about the "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans" he had allegedly encountered in the course of his constituency work.
He made the remarks on local radio station 4fm and then repeated them on Kfm. He stated that due to the aggression he had allegedly received "in every single case I've had" that he would no longer represent black Africans.[14] 4fm presenter Niall Boylan said afterwards that he thought Scully had committed "political suicide" on live radio.[15] Anti-racism groups called for Scully to be jailed.[16] The Garda Síochána are investigating him under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act.[14] Naas Town Council members convened a special protocol meeting to discuss the issue.[17] Pressure mounted on Fine Gael to expel Scully.[16] Independent TD Catherine Murphy, who beat Scully in the 2005 by-election, in Dáil Éireann, described his comments as "outrageous" and "totally unacceptable".[18] Former Labour TD Moosajee Bhamjee, Ireland's first Muslim TD, said Scully's remarks represented the "beginning of official racism" in Ireland and described them as "enlightenment" for the "small neo-Nazi following in this country".[18]
Scully has said, "It saddens me that people would call me a racist because I'm not. I know what I am as a person and I'm not any of those things".[19][20] Irish Independent columnist Ian O'Doherty defended Scully and compared those who called for his resignation to Nazis.[21] Kevin Myers, another Irish Independent columnist, criticised the "viciously sanctimonious hysteria" that had "erupted" over a matter which, said Myers, was "symptomatic of the frustration felt by so many Irish people, who for years have felt quite powerless in the face of immigration policies that have had such profound effects on their communities".[22]
Scully was elected to Naas Town Council in 2004 and is a member of Kildare County Council. He has chaired the Naas Town Council Festival Sub-Committee, and in 2006 he chaired the Naas Town Council Ryder Cup Committee.[23] He is a former chairman of the Naas Garda Liaison Committee.[19] He has two children.[19]
Scully was the unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate in the 2005 Kildare North by-election brought about by Charlie McCreevy's departure to Brussels.[23] Fine Gael selected him to contest the 2009 local elections, along with Emer McDaid and Alan O'Kelly.[23] In 2008, Scully criticised Irish Travellers for their "monstrous and inappropriate shrines" in graveyards.[16] The same year he accused young women of getting pregnant to increase their chances of getting local authority housing and claimed teenagers were seeking "advice on how to get pregnant".[16]
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1813 | 2,018 | — |
| 1821 | 3,073 | +52.3% |
| 1831 | 3,808 | +23.9% |
| 1841 | 3,571 | −6.2% |
| 1851 | 3,010 | −15.7% |
| 1861 | 2,966 | −1.5% |
| 1871 | 3,660 | +23.4% |
| 1881 | 3,808 | +4.0% |
| 1891 | 3,735 | −1.9% |
| 1901 | 3,836 | +2.7% |
| 1911 | 3,842 | +0.2% |
| 1926 | 3,442 | −10.4% |
| 1936 | 3,290 | −4.4% |
| 1946 | 3,774 | +14.7% |
| 1951 | 3,731 | −1.1% |
| 1956 | 3,915 | +4.9% |
| 1961 | 4,023 | +2.8% |
| 1966 | 4,529 | +12.6% |
| 1971 | 5,078 | +12.1% |
| 1979 | 7,739 | +52.4% |
| 1981 | 8,345 | +7.8% |
| 1986 | 10,017 | +20.0% |
| 1991 | 11,141 | +11.2% |
| 1996 | 14,074 | +26.3% |
| 2002 | 18,312 | +30.1% |
| 2006 | 20,044 | +9.5% |
| 2011 | 20,573 | +2.6% |
| [24] | ||
Naas is twinned with the following places:
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