A visit to Ashbourne, Co. Meath in 2012

A slideshow of photos I took during my first visit to Ashbourne in County Meath on Wednesday 4th April 2012. Ashbourne (Irish: Cill Dhéagláin, meaning "Déaglán's church"), is the second largest town in County Meath. It is about 20 km north of Dublin. Ashbourne was historically called Kildeglan. It was given its present named of Ashbourne by Frederick Bourne in the 19th Century who bought the lands of Ashbourne. Bourne owned a coach company and financed road-building. He named the settlement after his favourite tree and his surname Ash and Bourne. Ashbourne was among a small number of places outside of Dublin where the Irish Volunteers launched an attack the same time as the 1916 Rising which was meant to initially be a nationwide rising but ended up being called off with most of the action mainly in the end happening in Dublin. The Fingal Volunteers led by Thomas Ashe and Richard Mulcahy attacked the RIC Barracks in Ashbourne. Ashbourne was a small village with a population under 400 until 1970. In response to the growing population of nearby Dublin, a new scheme of houses was built in Ashbourne, based on the American open plan scheme rather than with fenced-off gardens. The population of the town was 8,528 as of the 2006 census, a 34% increase on the previous census in 2002. The population in the 2016 Census was recorded at 12,679, making it Meath's second largest town after Navan and the largest town in the new Meath East Dáil constituency, which elects 3 TDs to the Dáil. This growth coincided with a change in Ashbourne's demographics, with the 2006 census showing that over 12% of Ashbourne's population was born outside Ireland. The Lithuanian community is the second largest minority in Ashbourne after people from the United Kingdom. Almost one fifth of all non-Irish born in the town are from Lithuania. Lithuanian language services are held in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The Polish community in Ashbourne is the second-largest in Meath after Navan. Ashbourne is linked to the M50 and Dublin City by 17 kilometres of motorway/high quality dual carriageway on the N2/M2 national primary route, which commences at junction 5 of the M50 motorway (13.5 km from Ashbourne). The road is a six-lane dual-carriageway from the M50 until exit 2, Cherryhound in Co. Dublin, where it becomes a motorway from there to the Rath roundabout, 1.5 km north of Ashbourne. The M2 incorporates a bypass of Ashbourne which opened in 2006. Ashbourne Connect and Bus Eireann buses serve Ashbourne. There is an 18-hole golf course on the outskirts of the town and several sports clubs in the town, including Donaghmore-Ashbourne GAA Club which was originally founded as Donaghmore in 1923 at the Wootton, and now with a new facility with pitches and clubhouse, with an indoor astro turf and two full-size Gaelic pitches opened at Killegland in 2006. There is also a rugby union team who play their matches at the Ashbourne rugby club (founded 1974) which has also has a new pitch and a small astro pitch which is sometimes used for 5-a-side soccer. There are also a number of soccer teams (including Ashbourne United, & Killegland FC), a cricket club Ashbourne cricket club behind the community centre, and a judo club. There is a community centre, opened in 1981 and upgraded in 2017, which has a sports hall with a full size basketball court, 3 badminton courts, squash court, handball & racquet ball court, and changing facilities and meeting rooms. The community centre is used by sporting organisations, including the St Andrews athletics club who also have facilities in the Arkle Pavilion in Greenogue on the outskirts of Ashbourne, Ashbourne Archers, who run archery training courses and weekly shoots in the indoor hall of Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA. The International Baseball Centre (IBC) is located in Ashbourne behind the Ashbourne District Community Centre. The IBC is Ireland's only international standard baseball diamond, and home of the Ashbourne Baseball Club. The field has been the host of the International Baseball Festival (IBF) since 2015. Fairyhouse Racecourse is located 10 km from Ashbourne. Tayto Park opened in 2010 and has approximately 50 acres of activities, including one of Europe's largest wooden roller coasters, The Cú Chulainn Coaster, which opened in June 2015. The town's first cinema opened in Ashbourne Retail Park on 19 June 2009. The Sunday Tribune reported that the six-screen, 1,000-seat facility, which was Showtime Cinemas' first opening, has wall-to-wall screens, rocker seats, full digital projection and 3D capability. The Roman Catholic parish of Ashbourne extends south to Newtown Commons, east to Greenoge, north to Rath and west to Harlockstown.[citation needed] The Church of the Immaculate Conception is located in the centre of the town. In 1981, the parish was joined to Donaghmore, which has its own church 2 km (1 mi) to the south-east of Ashbourne.