Youghal

Youghal (/ˈjɔːl/ YAWL; Irish: Eochaill, meaning "yew wood") is a seaside resort town in County Cork, Ireland. Sitting on the estuary of the River Blackwater, in the past it was militarily and economically important. Being built on the edge of a steep riverbank, the town has a distinctive long and narrow layout. At the 2002 census the population was 6,597, but the population of its catchment area is about 10,000.

Since 2000 the town has experienced a strong decline in its former extensive industrial base, but there are plans for revitalisation taking advantage of the town's unique assets. As a historic walled seaport town on the coastline of east Cork, it has many historic buildings and monuments within its ancient town walls, and has been designated as an Irish Heritage Port by the Irish Tourist Board. It remains a popular tourist destination.

Name

The name Youghal comes from the Irish Eochaill meaning "yew woods", which were once plentiful in the area. Older anglicisations of this name include Youghall, Yoghel and Yochil.

Youghal (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Youghal was a parliamentary borough represented in the Irish House of Commons to 1800. It was a corporation with burgesses and freemen.

History

In 1700 the borough was under the patronage of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington. It passed through his granddaughter Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington to her husband William Cavendish, later Duke of Devonshire, who by 1758 had entrusted it to Henry Boyle, 1st Earl of Shannon. Following the Act of Union 1800 the borough sent one MP to Westminster, still under the patronage of the Earls of Shannon.

A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the Parliamentary history of the borough of Youghal in County Cork.

The borough appears to have exercised the elective franchise by prescription, as, though no notice of that privilege appears in any of its charters, it continued to send two members to the Irish parliament from the year 1374 till the Union, since which period it has returned one member to the imperial parliament; the right of election was vested solely in the members of the corporation and the freemen, whether resident or not; but by the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88, it has been granted to the £10 householders, and the non-resident freemen have been disfranchised. A new boundary has been drawn round the town, including an area of 212 statute acres.

Youghal (townland)

Youghal (Irish: Eochaill) is a townland in the Barony of Owney and Arra, County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of Youghalarra.

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