Claremorris

History

The town derived its name from Maurice de Prendergast, a Norman who came to Ireland in 1169.

The town was established during the 18th century. In 1822 the Roman Catholic Chapel was built, which was later demolished to make way for the town hall. The present Roman Catholic Church St Colman's Church, was built in 1911. St. John's Anglican Church, now the town library, was built in 1828.

The main landlord family in Claremorris was the Browne family, one of whom, the Hon. Denis Browne (1760-1828), was High Sheriff of Mayo during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and acquired the nickname of "Donnchadha an Ropa" (Denis the Rope) as a result of his treatment of captured rebels, who had also burnt down his house. He was afterwards MP for Mayo in the UK Parliament.

Demographics

In April 2011, Claremorris had a total population of 3,412 people, consisting of 1,577 males and 1,835 females. 23.1% percent of the population were non-Irish nationals and 96.1% of the resident population had lived at the same address the year before. There were 2,945 Roman Catholics in the area at the time of census making it the largest religion in the area.

Amenities

Many new shops have been added in the last few years, including The Silverbridge Shopping Centre. With the development of Chapel Lane from a derelict street to a commercial street, this part of the town has been transformed. Four supermarkets compete for customers in the town including retail giants Tesco and Aldi.

There are three hotels including the modern 4-star McWilliam Park Hotel, which opened in late 2006. It has a leisure centre, swimming pool and conference facilities. The town has several restaurants catering for Italian, Indian, Chinese and Irish cuisine.

Claremorris has many pubs, however a number have closed down in recent years. The town has two nightclubs namely Rumours and Diceys.

A swimming pool and leisure centre opened on 1 September 2009. A new Garda Station opened in 2008. A new 6-screen cinema has been planned.

There are two secondary schools - St Colman's College for boys and Mount St. Michael for girls - and several primary schools.

The surrounding countryside is of rolling drumlins, eskers, woods and lakes.

Genealogical records for Claremorris consist of Roman Catholic church records of marriage which commenced in 1805 and baptisms which commenced in 1825. Church of Ireland records consist of baptisms from 1834 onwards, marriages from 1846 onwards and burials from 1878 onwards. These are held at the South Mayo Family Research Centre in Ballinrobe.

Sports

There are a number of sporting clubs including:

Road

Claremorris is situated at a major road junction. The N17 (Galway-Sligo road) and the N60 (Castlebar-Roscommon road) meet in the town.

The town was once a major traffic bottleneck.

Claremorris ground to a halt every afternoon, (particularly Fridays), when the busy N17 slowly negotiated the old bank corner which consisted of a sharp right hand bend. By the late 1990s, over 13,000 vehicles were trundling through the town daily.

In 1994 a design for the bypass was completed by Mayo County Council, the CPO went ahead in 1995. Followed by a 3-year wait for funding allocation for the scheme. Eventually in 1998 the go ahead was given and construction of the bypass commenced. The N17 bypass opened in July 2001 to the relief of thousands of motorists. Journey times at peak periods were reduced by 30 minutes on the Galway/Sligo route after the opening. The project was built as a grade separated single carriageway (motorway style interchanges) which is unusual for single carriageway bypasses in Ireland. The new 16 km road bypassed one of Irelands most treacherous national routes, the original 7 mile stretch between Claremorris and Knock had a very high accident rate due to its poor alignment. The busy N60 still passes through the town via an inner relief road. A second bypass for the town is included in the proposed new N60 road to Castlebar, in 2011 the NRA suspended this road development due to government cutbacks.

Railways

Claremorris railway station is served by the Dublin Galway/Westport line as well as the Ballina Branch Line to Ballina. There is currently a campaign underway to open the Western Railway Corridor through Claremorris linking Limerick to Sligo. The Claremorris-Tuam phase was due to open in 2014 but is indefinitely postponed.

Weather station

Claremorris is home to one of Ireland's eight inland weather observing stations, located 2 kilometres from the town centre. It began recording weather in November 1943 and was run and staffed by a local family. During WWII Ireland provided detailed weather reports to the Allies. Weather reports from Claremorris and Blacksod Lighthouse (located on the west coast of Mayo) played a significant factor in selecting the date of launch for the invasion of France (D Day) on 6 June 1944. Many will remember the weather expert in the film "The Longest Day", imparting this information to Gen. Eisenhower and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1949 it was decided that the Irish Meteorological Service needed observations on an hourly basis from inland stations like Claremorris. It was decided to staff the station with full-time permanent personnel. In 1996 staff were relocated to Ireland West Airport Knock and it now operates automatically with data uploaded to Dublin [1].

Climate

Claremorris has a temperate oceanic climate with cold winters and warm damp summers. The coldest months being January and February and the wettest being December and October. Claremorris received roughly 1,500 hours of sunshine in 2010. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).

People

Claremorris is the birthplace of:

Local schools

Local events