Lurgan
Lurgan is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. Lurgan had a population of 38,198 at the 2021 UK census, and falls within the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough. For certain purposes, Lurgan is treated as part of the "Craigavon Urban Area", along with neighbouring Craigavon and Portadown.
Lurgan is typical of many Plantation of Ulster settlements, with its straight and wide, planned streets, and is the home of a number of historic listed buildings, such as Brownlow House and Lurgan Town Hall. Lurgan Park is the largest urban park in Northern Ireland.
Historically, and after the Industrial Revolution, the town of Lurgan was known as a major centre for the production of textiles, something which continued steadily until that industry's gradual decline in the late 20th century.
The development of Craigavon, the "new" city, had a major impact on Lurgan in the 1960s, at a time when much industry was attracted to the area.
History
The name Lurgan is an anglicisation of the Irish name An Lorgain, literally meaning "the shin", but within the context of placenames refers to a "shin"-shaped hill or ridge. Previous names of Lurgan included Lorgain Chlann Bhreasail and Lorgain Bhaile Mhic Cana. The Mac Cana were a sept of the O'Neills and Lords of Clanbrassil prior to the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century.Around 1610, during the Plantation—and at a time when the area was sparsely populated by Irish Gaels—the lands of Lurgan were granted to the English lord William Brownlow and his family. Initially, the Brownlow family settled near the lough at Annaloist; however, by 1619, they had already established a castle and bawn for their own accommodations on a nearby ridge, along with "fair Town, consisting of 42 Houses, all of which are inhabited with English Families, and the streets all paved clean through also to water Mills, and a Wind Mill, all for corn".
Brownlow became MP for Armagh in the Irish Parliament in 1639. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Brownlow's castle and bawn were destroyed, and he and his wife and family were taken as prisoners to Armagh, and then Dungannon, County Tyrone. The land was then passed to the Mac Cana clan and the O'Hanlons. In 1642, Brownlow and his family were released by the forces of Lord Conway. As the rebellion ended, they returned to their estate in Lurgan. William Brownlow died in 1660, but the family would continue their contributions to the development of the linen industry, which peaked in Lurgan in the late 17th century.
Theobald Wolfe Tone would often pass through Lurgan on his journeys, writing in 1792 — "Lurgan green as usual".
The Great Famine
A workhouse was built in Lurgan, opening in 1841 under the stipulations of the Poor Law, which stated that each Poor Law Union would build a workhouse to give relief to the increasing numbers of destitute poor. In 1821, Lurgan's population was 2,715; this increased to 4,677 within 20 years, by 1841. There were a number of reasons for this sudden surge in population; the opportunities provided by the booming linen industry of the day led many workers to abandon their likely-meagre living, relocating to Lurgan with the hopes of gaining employment. Furthermore, the ever-expanding town gave tradesmen the opportunity to secure work in construction of new structures and building, such as Brownlow House.Eventually, the excess numbers of poorer workers moving into town resulted in issues of over-crowding, poor sanitation and a very low general standard of living. When the potato crop failed for a second time in 1846, the subsequent famine in-turn led to a workhouse which had exceeded its 800-person capacity, by the end of that year. In an attempt to alleviate the problem, a relief committee was established in Lurgan, as was customary in other towns. The relief committee raised money by subscriptions from local landowners, gentry and members of the clergy, with the funds being matched from Dublin. With this setup, food was purchased and distributed to the ever-increasing numbers of starving people via soup kitchens. In an attempt to provide employment, and thereby give the destitute the means to buy their own food items, Lord Lurgan devised a scheme of land-drainage on his estate.
The so-called "famine roads" were not built in Lurgan in the same way as the rest of Ireland, although land owners also provided outdoor relief by employing labourers to lower hills or repair existing road issues. During the period between 1846–1849, the famine claimed 2,933 lives in the Lurgan Union alone. The workhouse was situated on the grounds of what is now Lurgan Hospital, where a commemorative mural can be seen along the adjacent Tandragee Road.
New city
The town of Lurgan grew steadily over the centuries as an industrial market town, and, in the 1960s—when the UK government was developing a programme of new towns in Great Britain, to deal with population growth—the Northern Irish government also planned a new town to deal with the projected urban growth of Belfast. This was also to prevent an undue case of overcrowding in the city. Craigavon was designated as a new town in 1965, intended to be a linear city incorporating the neighbouring towns of Lurgan and Portadown. The plan, largely, failed; today, 'Craigavon' locally refers to the rump of the residential area between the two towns. The Craigavon development, however, did affect Lurgan in a number ofways. The sort of dedicated bicycle and pedestrian paths that were built in Craigavon were also incorporated into newer housing areas in Lurgan, additional land in and around the town was zoned for industrial development, neighbouring rural settlements such as Aghacommon and Aghagallon were developed as housing areas, and there was an increase in the town's population, although not on the scale that had been forecast.
The textile industry remained a main employer in the town until the late twentieth century, with the advent of access to cheaper labour in the developing world leading to a decline in the manufacture of clothing in Lurgan.
The Troubles
Lurgan and the associated towns of Portadown and Craigavon made uppart of what was known as the "murder triangle"; an area known for a significant number of incidents and fatalities during The Troubles. By 2010 the town was one of the few areas in Northern Ireland where so-called dissident republicans have a significant level of support. The legacy of the Troubles is continued tension between Roman Catholics and Protestants, which has occasionally erupted into violence at flashpoint 'interface areas'.
On 5 March 1992, a 1,000 lb truck bomb, believed to have been planted by the IRA, exploded in Market Street causing mass damage to commercial properties.
On 5 February 2020, the PSNI found a bomb on a lorry. The Continuity Irish Republican Army admitted they had planted it. They expected the lorry to be put on a North Channel ferry in January 2020.
Geography
Lurgan sits in the north-eastern corner of County Armagh in a relatively flat part of Ireland by the south east shore of Lough Neagh, on the border with County Down and less than 2 miles from the border of County Antrim. The two main formations in north Armagh are an area of estuarine clays by the shore of the lough, and a mass of basalt farther back. The earliest human settlements in the area were to the northwest of the present day town near the shore of the lough. When the land was handed to the Brownlow family, they initially settled near the lough at Annaloist, but later settled where the town was eventually built. The oldest part of the town, the main street, is built on a long ridge in the townland of Lurgan. A neighbouring hill is the site of Brownlow House, which overlooks Lurgan Park.Townlands
Like the rest of Ireland, the Lurgan area has long been divided into townlands, whose names mostly come from the Irish language. Lurgan sprang up in the townland of the same name. Over time, the surrounding townlands have been built upon and they have given their names to many roads and housing estates. The following is a list of townlands within Lurgan's urban area, alongside their likely etymologies:Shankill parish:
- Aghnacloy
- Ballyblagh
- Demesne
- Derry
- Dougher
- Drumnamoe
- Knocknashane
- Lurgantarry
- Shankill
- Taghnevan
- Tannaghmore North & Tannaghmore South
- Toberhewny
- Tirsogue
- Ballynamony
- Drumnakelly
- Silverwood
- Turmoyra
Climate
Governance
Lurgan is part of the Upper Bann constituency for the purpose of elections to the UK Parliament at Westminster. This has long been a safe unionist seat and the current MP is Carla Lockhart of the Democratic Unionist Party.Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont are elected from five-member constituencies using proportional representation and using the same constituencies as for Westminster.
Lurgan town commissioners were first elected in 1855, and they were replaced by Lurgan Urban District Council following the Local Government Act 1898. This effectively ended landlord control of local government in Ireland. The town council was abolished when local government was reformed in Northern Ireland in 1973 under the Local Government Act 1971 and the Local Government Act 1972. These abolished the two-tier system of town and county councils replacing it with the single-tier system. Lurgan was placed under the jurisdiction of Craigavon Borough Council, and remained so until a new act streamlined and merged the various districts in 2015. Today Lurgan forms part of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District. The Lurgan area contains the following wards: Aghagallon, Knocknashane, Lough Road, Magheralin, Mourneview, Parklake, and Shankill.
Seven councillors are elected to represent the Lurgan electoral area on Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. The councillors for the DEA elected in 2023 are: