Armagh

Armagh, the capital of County Armagh, 33 miles SW. of Belfast, is situated around and on a gentle eminence, whence its original name, Ard-Magha, 'the high field.' It is well built of limestone. The cruciform cathedral (184 by 119 feet), dating from the 12th century, is built of red sandstone, and is supposed to occupy the site of that erected by St Patrick in the 5th century. A Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral occupies the principal height to the north, and the prime's palace that to the south. There are a college, a celebrated observatory, a county courthouse, prison, public library (founded in 1771), fever hospital, district lunatic asylum, infirmary, and barracks for 200 men. It is the seat of the archiepiscopal see of the Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland, who, before the disestablishment of the Irish Church, had an income of £12,087 a year. The chief manufacture is linen-weaving. Armagh, from 495 to the 9th century, was the metropolis of Ireland, the native kings living at Eamania, 2 miles to the west of the city. It was then renowned as a school of theology and literature—its college being the first in Europe. After the Reformation, it suffered severely in the conflicts between the English and Irish; it contained only three slated houses in 1765, since which time it has been rebuilt. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act (1885), Armagh ceased to be a parliamentary borough. Pop. (1881) 10,070; (1891) 8303.