Ashbourne (Cill Dhéagláin in Irish) is a sizeable commuter town in County Meath, Ireland about 20 km from Dublin on the N2 road.
Growth
Ashbourne has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years, from a relatively small market town to become part of the thriving commuter belt of Dublin. The growth has largely been the result of the rapid construction of several new housing schemes - most notably several apartment blocks scattered throughout the town and a number of new housing estates. The growth has spurred expansion of local enterprise and retail to cater for the growing populations needs. Many new retail units have opened in recent years.
Amenities
There is an 18 hole golf course on the outskirts of the town and several sports clubs in the town, including a GAA club, Ashbourne-Donaghmore, a rugby union team, a number of soccer clubs, boxing club as well as other sporting organisations. The town also boosts several pubs and various other amenities.
More recently, a new shopping street has been built, Killegland Street, which contains a number of varied retail units along with a new library and council offices. Car parking in the town has been expanded thanks to both a large underground car park beneath Killegland Street linking into the Tesco supermarket and a multi-storey car park above.
Development is now being concentrated on the area between Killegland Street and Ned Nulty's Lane, with a large amount of riverside apartments, a linear park and more leisure and retail units being completed.
1916 Rising Monument
On the northern outskirts of the village is a monument to the only major incident of the 1916 Easter Rebellion to take place outside Dublin. This monument carries a plaque inscribed with a line from a poem by Thomas Ashe, the local schoolmaster at that time: 'Let me carry your cross for Ireland, Lord'. The monument has a dual image - on one side the figure is in the form of Christ, on the other Insurgen
See also
External Links
Last updated: 06-02-2005 12:25:35
