Mosney

Mosney (Irish: Maigh Muirí, meaning "plain of Mairid") is a townland and village in the civil parish of Moorechurch in County Meath, Ireland, 48 km (30 mi) from Dublin. It was best known as the site of a Butlin's holiday camp during the second half of the 20th century and as the site for the national finals of the Community Games. By the early 21st century, the holiday camp had been converted into an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers. The village was served by Mosney railway station until 2000.

Early in the 19th century, Mosney was a manor house and part of the estate of the Peppers of Ballygarth Castle. By the mid-20th century, the house was the home of the farm steward of Mosney and was lived in by Johnny Oram whose father had been the previous farm steward.

References

Butlin's Mosney

Mosney Accommodation Centre (formerly Butlin's Mosney and Mosney Holiday Centre) is located in Mosney, County Meath, Ireland and is situated approximately 48 km (30 mi) from Dublin. It is probably best known as the site of a Butlin's holiday camp in the second half of the 20th century and as the site for the national finals of the Community Games. By the early 21st-century, this had been converted into an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers.

The centre was served by Mosney railway station, which closed down in 2000.

History

Butlin's Mosney

Mosney was the first Butlin's camp outside the UK. In most ways Mosney was identical to Butlin's existing successful camps, but in Ireland this was something seen to be feared, rather than embraced. A number of complaints appeared in the Catholic Standard, warning that holiday camps were an English idea that was not desirable in Catholic Ireland. Like the other camps, Mosney was designed to have a church and reassurances were given that it would be a Catholic chapel with a resident priest. Reassurances were also given that Irish nationals would have priority over British tourists in booking holidays. In July 1948 the camp was finally opened by William Norton the Minister for Social Welfare, and it operated successfully as a Butlin's camp until the early 1980s.