Castletroy
| Castletroy Caladh an Treoigh | |
|---|---|
| Suburb | |
  Castletroy Location in Ireland | |
| Coordinates: 52°40′01″N 8°33′11″W / 52.66704°N 8.55297°WCoordinates: 52°40′01″N 8°33′11″W / 52.66704°N 8.55297°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| City | Limerick |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | 625 574 R 625 574 |
Castletroy (Irish: Caladh an Treoigh)[1] is a suburb of Limerick, Ireland and is the largest suburb in Munster. Its population is estimated at 40,000 as of 2010.
Historically, the district was entirely separate to Limerick, and consisted of little development aside from the villages of Annacotty and Monaleen. With the creation of the University of Limerick, as well as the growth of Limerick city itself, this began to change. Castletroy is one of the fastest-growing residential areas in Ireland and has now engulfed the old villages of Annacotty and Monaleen (Móin a lín - field of flax). Monaleen parish has one of the most beautiful buildings as its main landmark: Monaleen Church.
Castletroy includes three primary schools Milford NS, Monaleen NS and a Gaelscoil (Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh), the secondary school, Castletroy College, and a number of hotels including the Kilmurry Lodge Hotel and Castletroy Park Hotel. It is also host to both Milford and Monaleen Gaelic Athletic Association Clubs.
The population in of Castletroy is now approximately 32,506 people, of which 16,573 are students. Castletroy Golf Course is well known and divides Monaleen and Castletroy itself. Kilbane, Castletroy Heights, Monaleen Heights and Monaleen Park were the original housing developments and were once surrounded by farmland. These houses are the oldest.
Recent developments include numerous sprawling housing estates. Newtown local shopping centre, the main Castletroy shopping centre, extends to some 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) is located off Dublin road at Kilmurray roundabout and includes SuperValu (Ireland) supermarket and 24 mall shops, McDonald's restaurant and an eight-screen cinema, once called "Storm", which opened its first screen on 19 May 2005. This was then rebranded in March 2012 to Odeon Cinemas after a takeover. Lidl have recently opened a branch in Castletroy. A local park has also been built including a children's playground and skatepark. The National Technology Park is home to some major business in Castletroy such as 'Vistakon', a contact lens division of Johnson & Johnson and Viagogo an online ticket marketplace for buying and selling tickets to live events. More recently Chicago based financial institution Northern Trust has expended in Castletroy's Hamilton House 2 and opened a new office in City East Plaza also in Castletroy.
In the past several attempts were made by Limerick City Council to expand its area of control to include Castletroy as part of its plan to expand the old city boundary to include large suburbs just outside the boundary. Up until June 2014 Castletroy and neighboring suburbs were not within the city boundary despite being part of the cities overall urban fabric. The amalgamation of the 2 local authorities in Limerick from 2014 saw all areas of Limerick (city and county) come under one united and single authority for the first time. The merger of the authorities saw the city area expanded to include all urban areas (including Castletroy) within the Limerick urban area into the Limerick Metropolitan District within the merged Limerick authority.
Also in Castletroy is a small and little-known Jewish graveyard. It dates from the late 19th century when Limerick had a sizable Jewish community. However, the Jews were mostly driven from the city in what was called the Limerick Pogrom (see History of Limerick, History of the Jews in Ireland). In 1990 the site was renovated and reopened by Chief Rabbi Mervis.