Naas

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For other uses, see Naas (disambiguation).
Naas
An Nás / Nás na Ríogh
Town
View of the town and of Naas General Hospital
View of the town and of Naas General Hospital
Official seal of Naas
Seal
Motto: Prudens ut Serpens  (Latin)
Wise as a Serpent [1]
Naas is located in Ireland
Naas
Naas
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country Ireland
Province Leinster
County County Kildare
Dáil Éireann Kildare North
Elevation 114 m (374 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Urban 20,713
Irish Grid Reference N893196
Website www.naas.ie

Naas (/ˈneɪs/; Irish: Nás na Ríogh, pronounced [n̪ˠaːsˠ n̪ˠə ɾʲiː], or An Nás [ən̪ˠ n̪ˠaːsˠ]) is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2011, it had a population of 20,713,[2] making it the largest town in the North Kildare Suburban region .[citation needed] Naas is also a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin.[citation needed]

History

The Irish language name for Naas, Nás na Ríogh literally translates as Meeting Place of the Kings.[3] The town historically hosted meetings of pre-Norman Irish kings from the Kingdom of Leinster.[citation needed] After the Norman invasion in 1169–71 AD, some meetings of the Parliament of Ireland were held in the town.[citation needed] Many of the earlier settlers in Kildare were Cambro-Normans from Wales therefore the medieval church was dedicated to Saint David.[citation needed]

In the Middle Ages, Naas became a walled market town and was occasionally raided by the O'Byrne and O'Toole clans from the nearby area which became County Wicklow. Naas features on the 1598 map by Abraham Ortelius as "Nosse".[4] (It is worth noticing the "O Byrne" and "O Tolo" (O'Toole) names appearing prominently on the map).

A mayor and council were selected by the richer merchants and landowners. The mayor was titled the "Sovereign of Naas" and carried a ceremonial mace until the post was abolished in 1840.[citation needed] Naas became known as the "county town" of County Kildare because of its importance as a place for trading, public meetings,local administration including law courts, racecoursem and the army's Devoy Barracks (closed 1998).[5][6]

In the former Parliament of Ireland, established in 1297 and abolished in 1800, the constituency of Naas had two seats.[citation needed]

One of the first battles of the rebellion of 1798 took place in Naas on 24 May 1798 when a force of about 1,000 rebels were defeated in an unsuccessful attack on the town.[citation needed] A leader of the United Irishmen Theobald Wolfe Tone is buried just outside Naas at Bodenstown.[citation needed]

In 1898, the Local Government Act established Naas Urban District Council (later called Naas Town Council). Its jurisdiction had a circular boundary with a 2.4 km (1.5 mi) radius from the new town hall on the main street.[citation needed] Naas Town Council was abolished in June 2014, when the Local Government Reform Act 2014 dissolved town councils and designated Kildare County Council as the administrative authority for the entire county.[7]

Media

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  • County Kildare's local radio station Kfm 97.3FM – 97.6FM is located in the M7 Business Parka, a suburb west of the town.
  • The regional newspaper, The Leinster Leader, is published in Naas.
  • Kildare County's local TV Station Kildare TV or KTV is located in Naas West based in the Osprey Hotel Complex on John Devoy Avenue.

Places of interest

St. David's church
Canal Harbour, Basin Street
Canal from Abbey Bridge
South Main Street

Places of interest in the town include: a library, tax office, a new Gaelic Athletic Association club, athletics club, a range of schools, Naas General Hospital, horse racecourse,[8] soccer club, tennis club, hockey club, rugby club, two major nightclubs, five-screen 3D cinema, several pubs, five supermarkets, county council offices, a number of hotels and the new Moat Theatre.[citation needed]

A large new public swimming pool and leisure centre opened on Carragh Avenue in 2009 and the old swimming pool site is now a public car park.[citation needed]

The town has two Roman Catholic churches, one Church of Ireland church, and one Presbyterian church.The original parish church, St. David's Church, is currently used by the Church of Ireland. The Roman Catholic parish church, the Church of Our Lady and St. David, dates from 1827.[citation needed] In 1997, the second Catholic Church opened in Ballycane on the east side of town and is dedicated to the Irish Martyrs.[citation needed]

There are two racecourses near Naas. Punchestown Racecourse is just to the south east of the town in the parish of Eadestown, and Naas Racecourse is about 1 km from the town centre.[8] The annual Punchestown Race Festival is a major event for a fell week in April. The Oxegen music festival is also held at Punchestown on the second weekend of July.[citation needed]

Neighbourhoods

Naas North:

Ashgrove, Aylmer, Boreen Lusk, Bru Na Riogh, Cherry Grove, Dun Na Ríogh, Gleann Na Ríogh, Greenaun, Hillside Drive, Hollywood Park, Kerdiff, Monread, Morell, Oldtown, Oldtown Demesne, Poker Drive, Roseville, St Corbans Place, St Josephs Road, The Maudlings, The Sycamors, Woodside Park

Naas South:

Alderwood, Ardconagh, Ard Na Laoi, Ashfield Park, Ban Na Greinne, Broadfield View, Carraig Oscair, Cleevaun, Cluain Aoibhinn, Craddockstown, Devoy Terrace, Esmondale, Hazelmere, Killashee View, Kingsgate, Lacken View, Lakelands, Lakeside Park, Meadow Court, Millbrook, Oakfield, Oakglade, Oakglynn, Patrician Ave, Pipers Hill (Under Construction) Primrose Gardens, Rathasker Court, Rathasker Heights, St Conleths Terrace, St Itas Place, St Michaels Terrace, Sundays Well, Wentworth Place

Naas East:

Chestnut Hill, Elmwood, Kings Court, Kingsfurze Ave, Mountain View, Racecourse Gate (Under Construction) Roselawn, The Gallops, The Paddocks, Thornbrook, Woodlands

Naas West:

Carragh Court, Carragh Green, Cois Na Feadain, Jigginstown, Millbridge, Our Lady's Place, Pacelli, Sarto, Spring Gardens, St Martins Ave, Teampull Cearach

Economy

Local industrial enterprises include Kerry Group,[9] Intel,[citation needed] Xilinx,[citation needed] Hewlett Packard.[citation needed]

The town centre of Naas includes many shops, restaurants, nightclubs and boutiques such as Supervalu, Boots, McDonalds, Eddie Rockets and Carphone Warehouse, but over the years as a consequence of the expansion of the town, most of the stores and retail outlets have been developed in New Retail Parks and Shopping Centres in the outskirts of the town. A Shopping Centre on Monread Rd. was completed in 2010 with Ireland's largest Tesco Superstore being the Anchor Tenant, Costa Coffee, O'Briens Off License, Nicola Ross, Naas Credit Union, Boots, Argos, Vodafone, Subway Sandwiches also trade in the centre. A second McDonalds + Drive-Thru opened beside the centre in 2015. Retail Parks serve the town on both ends North and South with outlets such as, Harvey Norman, PC World, B&Q, Smyths Toys, Heatons, Halfords etc. The Naas/Sallins area is served by numerous Supermarkets. 2 Aldi Stores, 2 Lidl Stores, 2 Supervalu Supermarkets, A large Tesco Extra store along with a smaller Tesco Metro in the town centre and plenty of smaller foodstores scattered around the town. Naas is considered[by whom?] now to be the largest retail centre in County Kildare, largely as a result of its critical mass of bulky goods floorspace located in retail parks in the town's suburbs.[10] A business park is under construction at Osberstown.[11]

Transport

Nass has a variety of functioning transportation infrastructure. The nearby N7 Naas Dual Carriageway connects Naas with Dublin and the M50 Motorway. Additionally, the M7 Motorway connects Naas with the South and South West.

The Naas railway station which opened on 22 June 1855, closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1947 to be re-purposed for cargo rail transport. It reopened on 10 March 1947, but was closed almost 12 years later on 1 April 1959.[12] The railway station at Sallins is now used by many residents of Naas and the surrounding area for the daily commute to Dublin, with frequent trains throughout the day and travel times less than 30 minutes to Dublin's city centre.

Naas is connected to other main towns and cities by bus services. The main bus transportation companies in the area are Bus Éireann and JJ Kavanagh and Sons.[13][14]

The N7 Naas Road, was upgraded in 2006 to a six-lane carriageway with grade-separated interchanges. Additional plans have been laid out to construct a large interchange at the Osberstown-Millenium Park as part of the M7 upgrade.[15] An orbital ring road is also being constructed and several sections of the project have already been completed.[16]

Roads

Education

Naas has three secondary schools, St. Mary's, a girls' convent school, the Christian Brothers School, for boys, and Pipers Hill College (formerly St. Patrick's Community College), a mixed school.[17] A gaelscoil and the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) headquarters are also located in the Piper's Hill campus. Naas also has primary schools, including the Convent of Mercy, a girl's school, St. Corban's [18] a school for boys, Scoil Bhride, a mixed school and Ballycane, another mixed school teaching classes from Junior Infants to 2nd class and St. David's, a mixed school[citation needed] the new primary Naas Community National School at located at Cradockstown.[19]

Naas has a public library which is located in the canal harbour area.[20]

Mayoral remarks

Mayor Darren Scully resigned from office on 22 November 2011 over remarks he made[21] on the national radio station 4fm and the local radio station Kfm. The resignation followed the aggression he allegedly received upon stating, "in every single case I've had" that he would no longer represent black Africans.[22] The comments provoked accusations of racism, which he denied.[23][24] He was expelled from Fine Gael in February 2012, but was readmitted to the party in November 2013 ahead of the Irish local elections, 2014.[25][26][27]

People

Sport

"Perpetual Motion", located at the north end of the Naas By-Pass, created by Rachel Joynt and Remco de Fouw in 1995.
  • Naas Rugby Club (Naas RFC), Forenaughts, Naas. One of the largest memberships for a senior club in Leinster.[citation needed]
  • Naas AFC Soccer Club [2] with over 500 players, from 5 years of age, to Senior club.[30]
  • Monread FC Soccer Club[31]
  • Naas United FC Soccer Club[32]
  • Naas GAA is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club.[33]
  • Naas Hockey Club, located at the Carragh road sport center. They are currently in division 3.
  • Naas Athletic Club on the Caragh Road.[34]
  • Naas Golf Club is one of three local golf clubs and is located in Sallins.
  • Naas Lawn Tennis Club.[35] is one of Ireland's premium tennis clubs, with the recent edition of a 3 court indoor facility.
  • Naas Racecourse.
  • Punchestown, horse racing is frequently held, as well as other international events.
  • KBowl 10 pin Bowling.
  • Osborne Stables, Craddockstown, Naas.
  • Naas Sub Aqua Club
  • Naas Panthers Gymnastics Academy.[36]

Twinning

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Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in the Republic of Ireland

Naas is twinned with the following places:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ http://www.naastown.com/history.asp
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ [1][dead link]
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Bus Eireann, Dublin Coach, Rapid Town Link and web site
  14. ↑ Schedule JJ Kavanagh web site
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Nass Library web site
  21. ↑ name=rte_scully_resigns>Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 37.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Sources

External links

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