Tandragee
The Square, Tandragee (2009)
Tandragee is located in Northern Ireland
Tandragee
Location within Northern Ireland
Population3,545 (2021 Census)
Irish grid referenceJ030462
• Belfast25 mi (40 km)
District
County
CountryNorthern Ireland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCRAIGAVON
Postcode districtBT62
Dialling code028
PoliceNorthern Ireland
FireNorthern Ireland
AmbulanceNorthern Ireland
UK Parliament
NI Assembly
List of places
UK
Northern Ireland
Armagh
54°21′22″N 6°24′54″W / 54.356°N 6.415°W / 54.356; -6.415

Tandragee (from Irish Tóin re Gaoith, meaning 'backside to the wind')[2] is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is built on a hillside overlooking the Cusher River, in the civil parish of Ballymore and the historic barony of Orior Lower.[3]

Earlier spellings of the name include Tanderagee and Tonregee.[2] It had a population of 3,545 people in the 2021 Census.[4]

History

Overlooking the town is Tandragee Castle. Originally the seat of the Chief of the Name of the O'Hanlon Irish clan and Lord of Orior, the Castle and surrounding countryside were confiscated and granted to Oliver St John and his heirs during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and the Plantation of Ulster.

According to D. J. O'Donoghue's account of his 1825 Irish tour, Sir Walter Scott was fascinated by the life and career of Redmond O'Hanlon, a local Rapparee leader. Hoping to make him the protagonist of an adventure novel, Scott corresponded with Lady Olivia Sparrow, an Anglo-Irish landowner whose estates included Tandragee. Although Scott asked Lady Olivia to obtain as much information as possible about O'Hanlon, he was forced to give up on the project after finding documentation too scanty.[5]

Tandragee Castle was rebuilt in about 1837 for The 6th Duke of Manchester. Today, its grounds are home to the Tayto potato-crisp factory.

In 2000, Tandragee was scene of the Murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, two teenaged local Protestant men who were unaffiliated with an paramilitary organization, as part of an ongoing Loyalist feud.[6]

Education

Sport

Tandragee Rovers play in the Mid-Ulster Football League. There is a golf course within the grounds of Tandragee Castle, within walking distance of the main street. It is 5,589 metres, par 71, and a hilly parkland course.

Despite Tandragee's Protestant majority, the Gaelic Athletic Association also has a presence near the town. Tandragee's Gaelic football team is named "The Redmond O'Hanlons", after the 17th century rapparee of the same name.

Notable People

Shay McDonnell - International Rugby Union Player - Gibraltar Rugby Football Union

Industry and transport

Tandragee Castle and gate lodge

Thomas Sinton opened a mill in town in the 1880s, an expansion of his firm from its original premises at nearby Laurelvale – a model village which he built. Sintons' mill, at the banks of the River Cusher, remained in production until the 1990s.[7] The potato-crisp company Tayto has a factory and offices beside Tandragee Castle. It offers guided tours.

St Mark's Church overlooking part of Tandragee

Tanderagee railway station opened on 6 January 1852 and was shut on 4 January 1965.[8]

Northern Ireland Electricity has an interconnector to County Louth in the Republic of Ireland from the outskirts of the town.[9]

Demography

2021 Census

Tandragee had a population of 3,545 people in the 2021 Census.[4] Of these:

2011 Census

Tandragee had a population of 3,486 people (1,382 households) in the 2011 Census. Of these:[11]

2001 Census

Tandragee is classified as an intermediate settlement by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 2,050 and 4,500 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 3,050 people living in Tandragee. Of these:

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

See also

References

  1. ^ Tandragee Archived 29 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Placenames Database of Ireland.
  2. ^ a b Place Names NI
  3. ^ "Tandragee". IreAtlas Townlands Database. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  4. ^ a b "2015 Settlement". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  5. ^ D. J. O'Donoghue, Sir Walter Scott's Tour in Ireland in 1825: Now First Fully Described, Dublin: O’Donoghue & Gill, 1905. Pages 10–11.
  6. ^ "BBC News | NORTHERN IRELAND | Murder victims 'had no terror links'". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  7. ^ Tandragee to get mill back in action, The Belfast Telegraph
  8. ^ "Tandragee station" (PDF). Railscot – Irish Railways. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 March 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
  9. ^ Eirgrid-SONI Transmission System Map, October 2007
  10. ^ "Religion or religion brought up in". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  11. ^ "Census 2011 Population Statistics for Tandragee Settlement". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Retrieved 7 June 2021. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Crown copyright.
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