Naas
For the region in Australia, see Naas (valley)
| Naas Nás na Ríogh |
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| Prudens ut Serpens Wise as the Serpent |
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WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates:
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| Irish
Grid Reference N893196 |
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| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
| County: | County Kildare | |
| Elevation: | 114 m | |
| Population (2006) | 20,044 | |
| Website: www.naas.ie | ||
Naas (pronounced /neɪs/; Irish: Nás na Ríogh /nɑːs nə riː/ or An Nás /ən nɑːs/) is the county town of County Kildare, Ireland. It is a major commuter belt town, with many people living in Naas and working in Dublin. The nearby M7 motorway, which bypasses Naas and connects Dublin to the South and Southwest, is one of the busiest routes in the country.
Introduction
Naas town, Nás na Ríogh as it is called in Irish, is the "Meeting Place of Kings" because of its ancient location as a cross-roads to and from Dublin, and its traditional location as the principal governmental administrative centre in the county. Naas is located 32 kilometres (20 miles) south-west of Ireland's capital. According to the preliminary census reports the town's 2006 population was 21,715 (including rural area). The urban population of 20,044 (2006 Census) makes it the largest town in Kildare and the 15th largest in the Republic of Ireland. The Kildare County Council offices and the general hospital for the Kildare area are based in Naas.
History
The Irish language name for Naas, Nás na Ríogh, literally means Meeting Place of the Kings. The town historically hosted meetings of pre-Norman Irish kings and after the Norman invasion, English parliament meetings were held in the town.
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 was defeated in an unsuccessful attack on the town. A leader of the United Irishmen Theobald Wolfe Tone is buried just outside Naas at Bodenstown.
During World War II, Naas was the site of Ireland's prisoner of war (P.O.W.) camp (the Curragh prisoner of war camp).
Because Ireland was officially neutral during that war, Ireland interned military personnel
from any belligerent who ended up in Irish territory; as a result, the P.O.W. camp in Naas housed
Industry and Business
The town's 4,000 new arrivals in the last five years are generally well educated and upwardly mobile home buyers, who share a technical culture as local hi-tech employees of Intel, Xilinx, Hewlett Packard, and many others. At one point in 2004, Naas was one of the fastest growing towns in western Europe. It is in fact the 16th largest town in the Republic of Ireland. The town is planning new housing developments in the next five years for a larger capacity of 30,000, with a ring road under construction. Over the last year there has been a large influx of people from Eastern European countries like Latvia, Estonia and particularly Poland giving the town a large sense of cultural diversity. The other activities include local government, supermarket distribution outlets, a pizza factory, law offices, hotels and a livestock mart.
Amenities
Amenities in the town include: library, a new, full modernised Gaelic Athletic Association club, two Roman Catholic Churches, one Church of Ireland Church, one Presbyterian Church, three Secondary schools, four primary schools, tax office, Naas General Hospital, horse race course, soccer club, rugby club, two major nightclubs, several pubs, three supermarkets, county council offices, a number of hotels and the new state-of-the-art Moat Theatre. The Church of Our Lady & St. David is a Roman Catholic Parish Church dating from 1827. The original parish church, St. David's Church, is held by the Church of Ireland. In 1997, the second Catholic Church opened in Ballycane on the east side of town and was dedicated to the Irish Martyrs.
Places of Interest
Punchestown Racecourse is just to the south east of the town, in the parish of Eadestown. The annual Punchestown Race Festival is a major event for a whole week in April. The Oxegen music festival is also held there in the second weekend of July.
See also
Source
- Nolan W. & McGrath T. (eds.) Kildare History and Society (Geography, Dublin 2006) ISBN 978-0-906602-57-7
External links
- [1] Naas Gaa website
- Naas Homepage
- International Civic Heraldry
- Naas Local History Group
- Naas community website
- Naas town website Website made by the Naas town council, has useful information and numbers.
- Maps and aerial photos for Coordinates:
- Maps from MapQuest, Multimap and Yahoo! Maps
- Satellite images and maps from Google Maps and Live Search
- Other mapping from GlobalGuide and WikiMapia
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