County Westmeath Guide (An Iarmhí)
“The Lake County” - in the province of Leinster. County town: Mullingar.
Lakeland county dotted with Lough Ree and Lough Owel.
A lakeland county at the very centre of Ireland, Westmeath is dotted with the waters of Lough Ree, Lough Owel and Lough Ennell. Athlone, straddling the Shannon, is its lively hub and home to one of the oldest pubs in the world. It’s a place of fishing, boating and unhurried midland calm.
Westmeath is Ireland's lake country, its low green hills threaded between Lough Ennell, Lough Owel, Lough Lene, Lough Derravaragh and the broad waters of Lough Ree on the Shannon. Myth runs deep here: the Children of Lir were said to have spent 300 years as swans on Derravaragh, and the Hill of Uisneach near Ballymore was regarded by the ancients as the sacred centre of Ireland, where the fires of Bealtaine were kindled and the provinces met at the great Catstone. Carved out of Meath by statute in 1543, the county has long been prosperous grazing land, celebrated for cattle so well fed the saying went 'beef to the heel like a Mullingar heifer'.
Its two principal towns pull in different directions: Mullingar, the county town, sits amid the lakes on the Royal Canal, while Athlone commands the Shannon crossing between Leinster and Connacht, its castle guarding a bridge fought over for centuries. Whiskey has been made at Kilbeggan since 1757, and music is a county tradition running from the tenor John McCormack through showband king Joe Dolan to Niall Horan of One Direction. With Goldsmith country along its western shore and Belvedere House on Lough Ennell, Westmeath rewards travellers who slow down and take to the water.
Cities, towns and villages in Westmeath
- Mullingar - The lakeside county town on the Royal Canal, famed for its cathedral, its music heritage and its cattle-trading past.
- Athlone - The Shannon-side gateway between east and west, home to a Norman castle and Sean's Bar, reputedly Ireland's oldest pub.
- Kilbeggan - A canal-era town whose distillery, licensed in 1757, is among the oldest licensed distilleries in the world.
- Moate - A midlands market town named after the great Norman motte of Moategranoge beside it.
- Castlepollard - A trim plantation town near Tullynally Castle and the ancient monastic village of Fore.
- Fore - A tiny valley village celebrated for its Benedictine priory and the legendary Seven Wonders of Fore.
- Tyrrellspass - A graceful Georgian village built around a crescent green by the Countess of Belvedere.
- Kinnegad - A crossroads town on the old Dublin road, long a coaching and travellers' stop.
- Glasson - The 'village of the roses' near Lough Ree, at the heart of Goldsmith country.
Famous people from Westmeath
- Niall Horan - Mullingar-born singer who found global fame with One Direction before a successful solo career.
- Joe Dolan - Mullingar showband legend whose statue stands on the town's Market Square.
- John Count McCormack - World-famous tenor born in Athlone in 1884, made a papal count for his services to charity.
- Oliver Goldsmith - Author of The Deserted Village and She Stoops to Conquer, raised at Lissoy near Glasson, the heart of Goldsmith country.
- T. P. O'Connor - Athlone-born journalist and MP who became Father of the House of Commons after nearly five decades at Westminster.
- Niall Breslin (Bressie) - Mullingar musician, former rugby player and mental-health advocate who fronted The Blizzards.
- John Broderick - Athlone novelist whose books chronicled midlands small-town life in the mid-twentieth century.
- Michael O'Leary - Ryanair chief executive and racehorse owner long based at Gigginstown House near Mullingar.
Did you know?
- Sean's Bar in Athlone is recognised by Guinness World Records as Ireland's oldest pub, with parts of the building dating to around 900 AD.
- The Hill of Uisneach was regarded in early Ireland as the mystical centre of the island, and its Bealtaine fire festival has been revived in modern times.
- In legend, the Children of Lir spent 300 of their 900 enchanted years as swans on Lough Derravaragh.
- Westmeath was created in 1543 when an Act of Parliament divided the old county of Meath in two.
- A townland on the shores of Lough Ennell is called Lilliput, a name local tradition links to Jonathan Swift, who visited the area before writing Gulliver's Travels.
- From 1933 the high-power radio transmitter at Athlone broadcast to all of Europe, and 'Athlone' was marked on radio dials across the continent.
- The Jealous Wall at Belvedere House, built by an earl to blot out his brother's home, is Ireland's largest folly.
- Kilbeggan Distillery, licensed in 1757, is one of the oldest licensed whiskey distilleries in the world.
Surnames from Westmeath: Daly · Dillon · Nugent · Scully · Coffey · Carey · Dalton · Dooley · Fox · Malone · McCormack · Nulty