Gort
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the town in Galway. For other uses, see Gort (disambiguation).
| [Gort] Gort Inse Guaire |
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| Town population: | 1182 (1996) |
| Rural population: | 1450 (1996) |
| Elevation: | 43m |
| County: | Galway |
| Province: | Connacht |
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| Dialing Code: | 091 |
Gort (Irish: Gort Inse Guaire or An Gort) is a town in south County Galway in the west of Ireland. An Gort is the official Irish name for the town, as defined by the Placenames Commission. However the town is known as Gort Inse Guaire in spoken Irish. The town lies just north of the border with County Clare on the main N18 Galway–Limerick road. Gort is situated in the territory of Ui Fiachrach Aidhne also known as Maigh Aidhne ("the plain of Aidhne"), which is coextensive with the diocese of Kilmacduagh / Cill Mhic Dhuach.
Gort takes its name, Gort Inse Guaire, from Guaire Aidhne, the sixth century King of Connacht and patron of St. Colman Mac Duach. During the Middle Ages the chiefs of Cinél Aedha na hEchtghe, the O'Shaughnessys (Ó Seachnasaigh) (a clan descended from Guaire Aidhne) had their principal stronghold in Gort, on a site which later became a cavalry barracks. At the end of the seventeenth century the O Shaughnessy lands were confiscated and granted to Sir Thomas Prendergast, 1st Bt., whose grandson was John Prendergast-Smyth, 1st Viscount Gort. In 1831, the town had a population of 3,627 and 563 houses. The Great Hunger of the mid 1840s devastated the population.
A number of historic sites around Gort are included in the Sites and Monuments Record. Kilmacduagh monastery and round tower are situated approximately 3 km west of Gort. The poet William Butler Yeats renovated an old tower house near the village ("Thoor Ballylee") and took up residence there. He was also a frequent visitor to the home of Lady Gregory at nearby Coole Park.
One in four of Gort's population is Brazilian according to Metro Eireann. Many of the Brazilians originally came to work in the meat processing plants in Gort where the pay is generally much higher than in similar plants in Brazil.
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