| Birr Biorra
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Birr
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Ireland | ||
| Province | Leinster | ||
| County | County Offaly | ||
| Elevation | 75 m (246 ft) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| • Urban | 4,097 | ||
| • Rural | 1,096 | ||
| Irish Grid Reference | N058045 | ||
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1821 | 5,406 | — |
| 1831 | 6,594 | +22.0% |
| 1841 | 6,336 | −3.9% |
| 1851 | 5,480 | −13.5% |
| 1861 | 5,401 | −1.4% |
| 1871 | 4,939 | −8.6% |
| 1881 | 4,955 | +0.3% |
| 1891 | 4,313 | −13.0% |
| 1901 | 4,438 | +2.9% |
| 1911 | 4,047 | −8.8% |
| 1926 | 3,402 | −15.9% |
| 1936 | 3,297 | −3.1% |
| 1946 | 3,224 | −2.2% |
| 1951 | 3,285 | +1.9% |
| 1956 | 3,922 | +19.4% |
| 1961 | 3,872 | −1.3% |
| 1966 | 3,924 | +1.3% |
| 1971 | 3,981 | +1.5% |
| 1981 | 4,262 | +7.1% |
| 1986 | 4,194 | −1.6% |
| 1991 | 4,056 | −3.3% |
| 1996 | 4,193 | +3.4% |
| 2002 | 4,436 | +5.8% |
| 2006 | 5,081 | +14.5% |
| [1][2][3][4][5] | ||
Birr (Irish: Biorra; pronounced [bʌːr]) is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. Birr is a designated Irish Heritage Town with a carefully preserved Georgian heritage. Birr itself has graceful wide streets and elegant buildings. Many of the houses in John's Place and Oxmantown Mall have exquisite fanlight windows of the Georgian period.
The town is situated at the meeting of the Camcor and Little Brosna rivers which flow on into the River Shannon near Victoria Lock.[6]
Birr railway station opened on 8 March 1858, but finally closed on 1 January 1963.[7]
The Ormond Flying Club has been in operation at Birr Airfield for over 30 years.[8] The area has been linked with aviation for some time - as a British Army airstrip was previously near the current field.
Birr lies on the N52 and N62 national secondary roads. The routes are combined as they pass through Birr. The R439, R440 and R489 regional roads also terminate in the town.
Bus Eireann provide public transport services to the town. The Athlone to Limerick city service regularly passes through the town daily. Kearns privately owned bus service provides a number of direct bus services to Dublin from Birr.
On 31 August 1869, the first road fatality recorded in history occurred in Birr, when local born scientist Mary Ward, a cousin of third Earl of Rosse, fell from a steam powered car on a bend. Unfortunately, the vehicle traversed her, causing the fatal injuries.
A monastery was founded at Birr by St Brendan of Birr. It produced the Gospels of McRegol, named after the abbot at the turn of the 8th/9th century and now to be seen in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Synod of Birr, held in 697, was the occasion on which the Cáin Adomnáin, or law of innocents, was pronounced. The town itself is an old market and former garrison town dating to the 1620s.
In Emmet Square stands Dooly's Hotel: one of the oldest coaching inns in Ireland, dating from 1747. The name of Galway Blazers was given to the Galway Hunt after a celebration held in the hotel in 1809 resulted in the premises being set on fire. Film director John Huston was latterly a member of the Galway Blazers. Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba famously sang to crowds gathered below in the Square, from her hotel room above in Dooly's Hotel. The nightclub attached to the hotel is named "Melba's" to mark the occasion.
The column in the centre of the square dates from 1747 and was built to carry the statue of the Duke of Cumberland, known as the Bloody Duke and the victor of the Battle of Culloden. The statue was removed in 1915 as it was in danger of collapse. On the Roscrea road, near the County Arms Hotel is the beautiful Gothic-style Catholic church of 1817–25. St. Brendan's Church of Ireland was also built in Gothic style in 1815 and is located in the Oxmantown Mall. A smaller Methodist Church known as Wesley Chapel was built in 1820 on Emmett Street to accommodate a growing Methodist congregation following the preaching of John Wesley in the late 18th century in Birr. The Sisters of Mercy convent on Wilmer road beside the Catholic church is also a gothic styled building. Most of the convent was converted by Offaly County Council to civic offices and a public library. Birr was also the site of a workhouse built around the time of the Great Famine. The building is now mainly derelict.
The town was also the location of The Crotty Schism, one of the few schisms to affect the Catholic Church in Ireland in the 19th century. The ruins of a church on Castle Street was the result of the Crotty Schism however it is now in a derelict condition after it fell into disuse following the end of the schism. The church is known locally as Crotty's Church.
Birr Urban District Council was renamed Birr Town Council in 2002.
Birr is a designated Irish Heritage Town due to the preservation and wealth of Georgian architecture in the town. [9] The earliest Georgian style buildings dating from 1740s are located in Emmet Square and Emmet street (then known as Cumberland Square and Cumberland Street).[10] The pillar located in the centre of the square supported a statue of the Duke of Cumberland but was removed in the early 20th Century although the pillar remains in the centre of the square.[11] The Oxmantown Mall was laid out in the early 19th Century and was designed as a promenade leading from Birr Castle gates to the Church of Ireland. The mall is tree lined on one side with the Georgian houses on the other.[12] John's Mall was also built during this time also with fine Georgian buildings.[13] The area is also known as the chains due to the sturdy chain railings enclosing the central plots in the centre of the Mall. Birr Town Council meets here in a building known as John's Hall built in the style of a Greek Temple. [14] Seffin Stone is also located here which is said to mark the centre of Ireland.[15]
Mentioned by Geraldus Cambrensis, who referred to it as 'Umbilicus Hiberniae', the indentations on the stone are as old as megalithic sites, such as Newgrange. It is suggested that the indentations are from the hand of Finn MacCool, hence the origin of the name as Suigh Finn (pronounced "See-Finn"), the Seat of Finn. It is located to the left of the gates to St John's Hall, on John's Mall, close to Emmet Square. The Seffin stone was said to mark the centre of Ireland.
Birr Castle is the oldest inhabited home in the county. In the 16th century the O'Carrolls of Éile had one of their castles here and this was granted to a Sir Laurence Parsons in the course of the Stuart plantation, c. 1620. Sir Laurence Parsons built most of the structure of the present castle. The castle was twice besieged in the 17th century and one of the towers still shows the scars of the artillery of Patrick Sarsfield, who tried unsuccessfully to take it. The castle still remains the seat of the Earls of Rosse and is home to the seventh Earl (Brendan Parsons) at present. As a family home, the Castle is only open to the public on special occasions. The surrounding demesne however is open to tourists every day of the year, and the gardens contain many fine trees and shrubs set in a landscaped park with waterfalls, river and lake.
In 1960, renowned photographer Lord Snowden took his new bride, Princess Margaret, to meet his mother, Anne, resident in Birr Castle, wife of the 6th Earl http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1230/1224286482617.html .
A main feature on the grounds of the castle is the great Leviathan of Parsonstown, an astronomical telescope with a 72-inch metal mirror erected by the third Earl of Rosse, which was, until 1917, the largest telescope in the world. The spiral structure of nebulae was discovered through this telescope. It featured in the PBS (USA) documentary, 'Telescope - Hunting the Edge of Space Part 1: The Mystery of the Milky Way' (2011). Eminent British astromony broadcaster Patrick Moore wrote 'The Astronomy of Birr Castle (1971)', a history of the telescope and the significance of the work carried out here.
The workhouse in Birr is one of only four left intact in Ireland. It is located on the R440 road, going in the direction of Dublin from Emmet Square. It is opposite Elm Grove. Not open to the public, it is an austere building and was the home of last resort for many during the Great Famine. As the workhouses filled, local business owners, whose taxes paid for their upkeep, saw value in offering inhabitants passage to the new world's of America, Canada and Australia. Birr Workhouse recently featured in the TV Series Who Do You Think You Are? (U.S. TV series), when US celebrity Rosie O'Donnell traced her ancestors to a workhouse in County Kildare. As the relevant building there no longer existed, Rosie visited Birr to illustrate for viewers what a workhouse was like.
A descendant of the O'Carrolls, Charles Carroll was the only Catholic to sign the United States Declaration of independence and, also, the only signatory to give his address. Signing such a potentially treasonous document was leaving oneself open to a death sentence. To distinguish himself from his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, in the event that a sentence fell imminent, Charles signed in full as "Charles Carroll of Carrollton". The first US Senator for Maryland, he is mentioned in the State song and a former home forms part of Johns Hopkins University.
The population of Birr (and its environs) has risen by 21.5% from 1996 to 2006[16]:
Birr also has a very successful hurling team, Birr GAA, winning the all-Ireland championship four times. Many of Birr's hurlers—including Brian Whelehan—learned their craft at St. Brendan's Community School, which also boasts a strong musical and scientific tradition.
The first ever All-Ireland hurling final was played in Hoare's field (currently Tesco) Birr, on Easter Sunday, 1 April 1888, between Tipperary and Galway. The match was won by Tipperary on a score line of 1 goal, 1 point and 1 forfeit point to Galway’s no score. A forfeit point was given against a player carrying the sliotar over his own goal line.
The remarkably low score, albeit under different rules to the modern game, is recorded as the lowest score ever in a hurling match in the Guinness Book Of Records.
The gardens in Birr Castle feature the Tallest Box Hedges In The World.
A Grow-it-yourself[17] group set up in Birr in 2011 to inspire and assist local people to grow their own food.
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