Background
Armagh, the City of Saints and Scholars
Armagh is a small city in Northern Ireland, having its
city status awarded in 1994 and Lord Mayoralty in 2012. Provided with all the
modern amenities which modern life demands, including an internationally known
Planetarium, it is for the wealth of its past that it is best known throughout
Ireland and further afield.
There are few towns or cities that have such a depth of
historical significance. For over 600 years from 350BC to 332 AD it was the
main seat of the Kings of Ulster, the most northerly province in Ireland. Today
the coat of arms of the City of Armagh is topped by the Irish crown signifying
its royal importance and the city is the last resting place of Brian Boru, the
greatest of Irelands High Kings, who was buried here in 1014. Armagh has had
its share of the age of chivalry with local knights and chieftains fighting not
just amongst themselves but withstanding invasion from the Norsemen of
Scandinavia and the Normans of France. All this has given the area a wealth of
relics and memorials from the past.
Armagh is, however, best known as the place where Saint
Patrick founded his principal Church in Ireland in 444AD. From this beginning,
other churches, schools and colleges followed and Armagh soon became a seat of
learning during the Dark Ages in Medieval Europe. By spreading this knowledge
abroad, Ireland became widely known as the “Isle of Saints and Scholars”. Today
it has two imposing Cathedrals representing both sides of the Christian church
and the Royal School in Armagh founded by King James in 1608.
It is from this background of learning and culture that
the enterprise for many skills and crafts developed over the years. Foremost
amongst these have been woodworking and the manufacture of fine wooden
products. Today this area is the centre of the furniture industry in this part
of Ireland and generations of families have been employed in the small family
concerns which have kept these traditions alive and
flourishing.
Armagh is a small city in Northern Ireland, having its
city status awarded in 1994 and Lord Mayoralty in 2012. Provided with all the
modern amenities which modern life demands, including an internationally known
Planetarium, it is for the wealth of its past that it is best known throughout
Ireland and further afield.
There are few towns or cities that have such a depth of
historical significance. For over 600 years from 350BC to 332 AD it was the
main seat of the Kings of Ulster, the most northerly province in Ireland. Today
the coat of arms of the City of Armagh is topped by the Irish crown signifying
its royal importance and the city is the last resting place of Brian Boru, the
greatest of Irelands High Kings, who was buried here in 1014. Armagh has had
its share of the age of chivalry with local knights and chieftains fighting not
just amongst themselves but withstanding invasion from the Norsemen of
Scandinavia and the Normans of France. All this has given the area a wealth of
relics and memorials from the past.
Armagh is, however, best known as the place where Saint
Patrick founded his principal Church in Ireland in 444AD. From this beginning,
other churches, schools and colleges followed and Armagh soon became a seat of
learning during the Dark Ages in Medieval Europe. By spreading this knowledge
abroad, Ireland became widely known as the “Isle of Saints and Scholars”. Today
it has two imposing Cathedrals representing both sides of the Christian church
and the Royal School in Armagh founded by King James in 1608.
It is from this background of learning and culture that
the enterprise for many skills and crafts developed over the years. Foremost
amongst these have been woodworking and the manufacture of fine wooden
products. Today this area is the centre of the furniture industry in this part
of Ireland and generations of families have been employed in the small family
concerns which have kept these traditions alive and
flourishing.