Maghera, NIR - Postcode - BT46 5UR - Post Codes & Zip Codes List

Description of Maghera

At the base of the Glenshane Pass in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, is a little village known as Maghera  Machaire Rátha, meaning 'plain of the ringfort. From a 2001 low of 3,711, its 2011 Census population was 4,220. Located in the Mid-Ulster District, Maghera Parish (after which it was called) and the former barony of Loughinsholin are also part of the area's geographic context. 

History of Maghera

Saint Lurach, whose family may have been evangelized by Saint Patrick, founded a monastery in what is now the town in the sixth century. The Cenél nEoghain was headquartered in Maghera at Ráth Luraig, according to the Annals of Ulster. Ruins of St. Lurach's Church, which once stood on the site of the monastery, have been dated to the 10th century. They consist of what is perhaps the oldest crucifixion relief in Ireland, which is located over a gateway. St. Mary's Catholic Church, which dates back to the early 20th century, features a replica of the lintel over the tomb of Jesus.

In the 12th century, both the old church and town were destroyed in fires. After that, the cathedral church of Cenel Eogain was moved to Maghera, making it the seat of the bishopric.  In 1246, Bishop Germanus O'Carolan petitioned Pope Innocent IV for permission to move the see from Maghera to Derry due to the city's greater accessibility.

Maghera and the surrounding territory drew Scottish settlers as a result of the Plantation of Ulster and the Rebellion of 1641, which forced out many of the early English families. Not only did they clash with the poor Irish, but also, as tenants and Presbyterians, with the landowning, Church of Ireland, Ascendancy. Mass migration to the American colonies followed (Charles Thomson listed his hometown as Maghera on his Declaration of Independence signature), and in the 1790s, the United Irishmen were formed.

On 7 June 1798, the United Irishmen collected about 5,000 men in Maghera, showing that they were hopeless about change and determined to make common cause with their Catholic neighbors. The lightly armed host disbanded the next morning after hearing of the rebel defeat at Antrim and the approaching government soldiers. For his role, Presbyterian church elder Watty Graham was executed and his head was publicly displayed. John Glendy, one of his ministers, was sent into exile in the United States. During demonstrations organized by the Orange Order in Maghera and Castledawson on 12 July 1830, clashes broke out between members of the Orange Order and the Ribbonmen. A number of Catholic homes were subsequently burned by Protestants. Tenant purchase of property was made possible by the Land Acts around the turn of the century, which helped mend sectarian tensions, but by the end of the century, the national question had won out. Nationalists and unionists have maintained an even political division in the town.

Loss of population in the surrounding rural districts caused by the Great Famine of the 1840s and its aftermath has not been fully restored. The "Famine Plot" cemetery was marked with a headstone in 2003 by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the city saw a period of moderate prosperity. It was one of two important towns in the Magherafelt Rural District, and it boasted a train station, a textile plant, a thriving weekly market, and proximity to Clark's linen mill in Upperlands. Post-war improvements in education, housing, and transportation all benefited the city. In the 1960s, Catholic and Protestant communities each got their own elementary and high school, new housing developments went up, and the town's narrow streets were widened to accommodate cars.

County Down Places and PostCode / ZipCode List

Down County Post Code & Zip Code Category:

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Description of Down

One of the thirty-two counties that make up the island of Ireland, County Down is also one of Northern Ireland's six constituent counties and Ulster's nine.

With a total size of 961 square miles (2,490 square kilometers) and a population of 531.665, it is the largest city in the country by both measures. It is bounded to the north by County Antrim, the east by the Irish Sea, the west by County Armagh, and the south by County Louth across Carlingford Lough.

Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula are located in the eastern part of the county. Bangor, located on the seashore in the north, is the major city. It has borders with County Armagh to the west, and Lisburn and Belfast to the north, both of which are major urban centers. Down is home to both the southernmost point in Northern Ireland (Cranfield Point) and the easternmost point in Ireland (Burr Point).

History of Down

Ptolemy claims that the Voluntii tribe settled in the area at the turn of the second century AD. Between the years 400 and 1177, County Down was an integral part of the Ulaid kingdom. The territory of Ulaid was frequently attacked by Vikings in the eighth and ninth centuries, but great local resistance prevented any Norse from settling there permanently. Retaliating for the Ulaiden's rejection to grant him asylum from Brian Boru the year before, Sigtrygg Silkbeard led a fleet on a series of raids across the region in 1001.

In 1177, the Normans attacked and took over the area. English and Scottish settlers began arriving in the area from the year 1180 and continued through the 1600s. In 1569, "An Act for converting of Countries that be not yet Shire Grounds into Shire Grounds" was passed by the Irish Parliament. With the help of this law, a commission was established in 1570 "to survey and make enquiry in the countries and territories... that are not shire ground, or are doubtful to what shire they belong; to limit and nominate them a shire or county; to divide them into countries, baronies, or hundreds, or to join them to any existing shire or barony."

Geography of Down

You can find the county's coastline on both Belfast Lough and Carlingford Lough (both of which have access to the sea). In between the Ards Peninsula and the main land is Strangford Lough. In addition, Down includes some of Lough Neagh's shoreline. Smaller loughs include Castlewellan Lake and Lough Island Reavy in the town of Castlewellan, Clea Lough in the town of Killyleagh, Lough Money and Loughinisland in the town of Downpatrick, and Silent Valley Reservoir, Ben Crom Reservoir, Spelga Dam, and Lough Shannagh in the Mourne Mountains.

County Antrim is separated from the rest of Northern Ireland by the Lagan River. A large portion of the county's southwest is located along the River Bann. The Clanrye and Quoile rivers are also nearby.

Mew Island, Light House Island, and the Copeland Islands are only a few of the many islands just off the Down coast, to the north of the Ards Peninsula. You can find Gunn Island just off the Lecale shore. In addition, Strangford Lough is dotted with several itty-bitty islets.

Northern Ireland, UK Description

Northern Ireland is a constituent state of the United Kingdom, located in the island of Ireland's northeastern quadrant, on the western continental periphery commonly referred to as Atlantic Europe. It is the only part of the United Kingdom that is not part of the European Union. Northern Ireland is occasionally referred to as Ulster, despite the fact that it consists of only six of the nine counties that comprised that historic Irish province.

A long history of newcomers and emigrants has shaped Northern Ireland, which has welcomed Celts from Europe's continental shores as well as Vikings, Normans, and Anglo-Saxons. Over the course of the 17th century, thousands of Scottish Presbyterians were forcibly resettled and English military garrisons were established, resulting in the institutionalization of the ethnic, religious, and political divisions that eventually led to violent conflict.

Since the 1920s, when Northern Ireland was officially separated from the Republic of Ireland, the region has been wracked by sectarian violence. It doesn't matter how serious Northern Ireland's peacemaking efforts have been since the mid-1990s; those who are familiar with the shibboleths and cultural codes that define its peoples are the best equipped to navigate the region, dictating which football (soccer) team to root for, which whiskey to sip, and which song to sing. An old graffito once scrawled on the walls of Belfast captures the complexities of those political markers: "If you are not confused, you do not understand the situation." Outsiders are increasingly familiar with Northern Ireland because of its contributions to world culture, including poetry by Seamus Heaney and music by Van Morrison. However, Northern Ireland's political fortunes have improved since then, and with that improvement has come a flourishing of the arts.

Located in Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast, a modern city whose historic core was severely damaged by aerial bombardment during World War II. Belfast, once known for its shipyards (where the Titanic was built), has seen a significant reduction in the size of its industrial base. Aesthetically, the city is similar to Northern Ireland's other major cities, Londonderry (also known as Derry locally and historically) and Armagh, in that it is adorned with parks and orderly residential neighborhoods. It is even more beautiful in Northern Ireland's countryside: lush, fertile, and dotted with rivers and lakes. These features, as well as the country's folk and artistic traditions, have found poetic expression in the country's folk and artistic traditions.

Geographical Description of Northern Ireland

On the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland occupies approximately one-sixth of the total land area. It is separated from Scotland, which is also a part of the United Kingdom, on the east by the narrow North Channel, which is only 13 miles (21 kilometers) wide at one point and forms a natural border with the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea separates Northern Ireland from England and Wales on the east and southeast, respectively, and the Atlantic Ocean separates it from the rest of the world on the north. The Republic of Ireland forms the southern and western borders of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In terms of topography, Northern Ireland can be thought of as a saucer with its center at Lough (lake) Neagh, and the highlands can be considered the inverted rim of that saucer. On the rim of the saucer, five of Ireland's six historic counties—Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone and Londonderry—converge to form the lake, and each has its own highland region that extends from its shores. Towards the north and east, Antrim's mountains (which are actually a plateau) rise steeply from the sea and slope upward. It reaches an elevation of 1,817 feet (554 bmetres) at Trostan, with the plateau terminating in an impressive basalt and chalk cliff coastline, broken by a series of glaciated valleys known as glens and facing Scotland, but otherwise isolated from the remainder of Northern Ireland. Slieve Croob (which rises to 1,745 feet (532 metres) in the southeast) and the Mourne Mountains (which reach an elevation of 2,789 feet (850 metres) at Slieve Donard (Northern Ireland's highest point) are all within two miles (3 kilometers) of each other in the southwest. In the southeast, the rounded landscape of drumlins—smooth, elongated mounds left by the final Pleistocene glaciation' South of Carlingford Lough, this magnificent landscape of granite peaks is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.

The scenery is gentler south of Lough Neagh, but the land rises to a height of 1,886 feet (575 metres) in Slieve Gullion, near the Irish border, where the land rises to 1,886 feet (575 metres). West of Lough Neagh, the land gently rises to the more rounded Sperrin Mountains; Sawel, at 2,224 feet (678 metres), is the highest of several 2,000-foot-plus hills in the area; Sawel is also the highest point in the area (610 metres). Located in the far southwest, historically known as County Fermanagh, the region is geographically centered on the basin of Lough Erne, in a drumlin-strewn area surrounded by hills rising to more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) in elevation.

The Economy of Northern Ireland

Because of its close ties to the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland's economy is inextricably intertwined with it. Trade between Northern Ireland and its closest neighbor, the Republic of Ireland, has grown significantly in recent years despite the fact that economic ties between the two countries have historically been underdeveloped. Northern Ireland's economy has long been underperforming in comparison to the rest of the United Kingdom, owing largely to political and social unrest on the island of Ireland. The International Fund for Ireland was established in the 1980s by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland to aid in the development of the country's economy. Providing economic assistance to the entire island, with a particular emphasis on Northern Ireland, the fund's mission is to alleviate poverty. The European Union also provides financial assistance to the Northern Ireland government and its citizens.