Rathnew

Rathnew
Ráth Naoi
Town

Rathnew Village
Rathnew

Location in Ireland

Coordinates: 52°59′26″N 6°05′07″W / 52.9906°N 6.0853°W / 52.9906; -6.0853Coordinates: 52°59′26″N 6°05′07″W / 52.9906°N 6.0853°W / 52.9906; -6.0853
Country Ireland
Province Leinster
County Wicklow
Elevation 71 m (233 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Urban 2,964
Time zone WET (UTC+0)
 • Summer (DST) IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference T285952

Rathnew (Irish: Ráth Naoi, meaning "The Ring Fort of Naoi") is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. Located south of the capital Dublin along the M11 between Dublin and Wexford, it is the exit point for those wishing to visit the county town of Wicklow, situated 3 km (1.9 mi) to the east.[2]

Education

Rathnew is home to Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin, Ireland's first inter-denominational primary school, established in 1996, and celebrating its 10th anniversary in the 2006-2007 school year. The school draws pupils from Rathdrum, Brittas and Newcastle, as well as Rathnew. It is situated temporarily in the village on part of a site that has been earmarked for a new co-educational national school.

Rathnew is home to three primary schools; St. Ernan's B.N.S., which was opened in 1965, and is due to be combined with St. Josephs G.N.S and Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin. St. Ernan's originally had only three classrooms but has been fitted with an extra two along with three prefabs to facilitate the growing number of students. St. Joseph's G.N.S. is a girls' primary school situated beside the local St. Joseph's Parish Church. There have been several plans to amalgamate the two schools and as of late the amalgamation plans seems to have taken a step closer to completion.

Rathnew is also home to Little Harvard Creche which was opened in 2011.

Rathnew is home to Coláiste Chill Mhantáin which opened in September 2011. Coláiste Chill Mhantáin is the amalgamation of two previous secondary schools based in Wicklow Town, Abbey Community College and De La Salle.

Since late 2006 Clermont Convent, previously a private Secondary School for girls, has reopened on the same grounds as a Third Level College affiliated to the Institute of Technology, Carlow.

Sport

The village's Gaelic football team has won the Wicklow Senior Provincial Championship more than 30 times, most recently in 2015

Rathnew's soccer club was founded in 1958. For a time there the village had two soccer teams, Rathnew Ernans and Rathnew Celtic. Rathnew Celtic was arguably the better of the two, as they were the only team to ever go through the Leinster Junior Cup without conceding a goal in 1978/1979 season. In 1986 both teams joined to make Rathnew A.F.C. a team which is still present today The team was recently granted a new pitch and stadium, Shamrock Park. Since late 2010, Rathnew A.F.C. has also played host to Rathnew Ladies A.F.C. soccer side, the first in the long history of the club, enjoying their most recent success in 2011 winning the DWSL Shield.

Tourism

Rathnew is home to the historic Tinakilly House, the former residence of Capt. Robert Halpin and now a hotel. It is situated in the center of the village opposite the local cemetery with narrow entrance to a mile-long avenue. The building was first built in 1883 when it became Halpin's residence. The house overlooks the Irish Sea with a large gardens surrounding it.

Transport

Rathnew railway station opened on 1 September 1866, closed for goods traffic on 9 June 1947, and finally closed on 30 March 1964. For rail transport today, the closest station is Wicklow railway station, two miles inwards.[3]

The local bus goes through the village every hour and stops outside the local primary school.

Business

Rathnew is home to three pubs: The Rathnew House, Fitzpatricks, and Shay Doyle's. Rathnew is also home to two chip shops as well as three shops one of which is also a petrol station. Rathnew held three sawmills two of which are still operational: Duffy's and Jameson's. M.D. & Son's industrial steel manufacturers is another independent company ran by Harry Murphy.

Local Government

Since 2009, Rathnew resident John Snell has been a member of Wicklow County Council. John Snell is a member of the political party Sinn Féin.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Rathnew Legal Town Results". Central Statistics Office. 2011.
  2. ↑ The illustrated road book of Ireland. Automobile Association. 1970.
  3. ↑ "Rathnew station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rathnew.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.