Newry and Mourne District Council

Coordinates: 54°10′34″N 6°15′22″W / 54.176°N 6.256°W / 54.176; -6.256

Newry and Mourne District Council (Irish: Comhairle an Iúir agus Mhúrn) was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

It included much of the south of County Armagh and the south of County Down and had a population of over 99,000. Council headquarters were in Newry, the largest settlement and only city in the area; it has a population of 28,850. Other towns in the council area included Crossmaglen and Bessbrook in County Armagh and Warrenpoint, Rostrevor, Hilltown, Annalong and Kilkeel (an important fishing port) in Down.

The council was formed in 1973 under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. Its area was formed from Kilkeel, Newry and Warrenpoint Urban Districts and Kilkeel and Newry No. 1 Rural Districts in County Down, and from Newry No. 2 Rural District in County Armagh. From 1973 to 1985, the council area consisted of six electoral areas. In 1985, this was reduced to five electoral areas: Crotlieve, Fews, Newry Town, Slieve Gullion and The Mournes. One of its 30 wards, Rathfriland, was transferred to Banbridge Council in 1993. At the elections of 2005, 30 members were elected from the following political parties: 14 Sinn Féin, 9 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 3 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 1 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 2 Independents and 1 United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

Newry

Coordinates: 54°10′34″N 6°20′56″W / 54.176°N 6.349°W / 54.176; -6.349

Newry (/ˈnjʊəri/;from Irish: An Iúraigh) is a city in Northern Ireland, 34 miles (55 km) from Belfast and 67 miles (108 km) from Dublin. It had a population of 29,946 in 2011.

Newry was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery, although there are references to earlier settlements in the area. It is one of Ireland's oldest towns.

Newry is at the entry to the "Gap of the North", close to the border with the Republic of Ireland. It grew as a market town and a garrison and became a port in 1742 when it was linked to Lough Neagh by the first summit-level canal built in Ireland or Great Britain. In 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebrations, Newry was granted city status along with Lisburn.

Name

The name Newry derives from an anglicisation of An Iúraigh, an oblique form of An Iúrach, which means "the grove of yew trees".

The modern Irish name for Newry is An tIúr (pronounced [ən̠ʲ tʲuːɾˠ]), which means "the yew tree". An tIúr is an abbreviation of Iúr Cinn Trá, which itself means "yew tree at the head of the strand". This relates to an apocryphal story that Saint Patrick planted a yew tree there in the 5th century.

Newry (civil parish)

Newry is a civil parish in County Down and County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the historic baronies of Iveagh Upper, Lower Half (one townland) and Lordship of Newry in County Down and the baronies of Orior Upper and Oneilland West (two townlands) in County Armagh.

Settlements

The townland contains the following settlements:

Townlands

Newry civil parish contains the following townlands:

See also

References

Newry (UK Parliament constituency)

Newry was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland, returning one MP. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.

Boundaries

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Newry in County Down.

Members of Parliament

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