Moate Explained

Moate
Native Name Lang:ga
Settlement Type:Town
Pushpin Map:Ireland
Pushpin Label Position:right
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Ireland
Coordinates:53.3954°N -7.7206°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:Ireland
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Type3:Dáil Éireann
Subdivision Name1:Leinster
Subdivision Name2:County Westmeath
Subdivision Name3:Longford–Westmeath
Unit Pref:Metric
Area Total Km2:1.943
Elevation M:72
Population Total:3013
Population As Of:2022
Population Footnotes:[1]
Population Density Km2:auto
Area Code Type:Telephone area code
Area Code:+353(0)90
Postal Code Type:Eircode routing key
Postal Code:N37
Timezone:WET
Utc Offset:±0
Timezone Dst:IST
Utc Offset Dst:+1
Postal2 Code Type:Postal Sorting Office
Blank Name Sec1:Irish Grid Reference

Moate (;)[2] is a town in County Westmeath, Ireland.

The name An Móta is derived from the term motte-and-bailey, as the Normans built an example of this type of fortification here. The earthwork is still visible behind the buildings on the main street.

The town later became an important marketplace and Quaker village. It made the town more wealthy than equivalent towns in Leinster. There are several extant examples of Quaker houses on the main street, which itself is typical of an Irish marketplace.

Location

Moate is on the Cloghatanny River, also known as the Moate Stream, which is a tributary of the River Brosna. The confluence between the Cloghatanny and Brosna is 7.5km (04.7miles) to the southeast of Moate.[3]

The town is on the R446 road between Kinnegad and Athlone. Before July 2008, this was the N6 road, a national primary route, and Moate was a serious traffic bottleneck. The new M6 motorway bypasses the town.

Amenities

Moate is a growing town with an amenity and heritage park, a greenway running through the town, golf club, tennis courts, astro turf pitch, a pastoral centre and a community centre. There are also many businesses such as supermarkets, petrol stations, a post office, a bike shop, hairdressers, clothes shops, a sports shop, a pharmacy, coffee shops, restaurants, pubs and a hotel. Many new building ventures have taken place in recent years, including a complex of apartments and shops at the site of the old Convent of Mercy on Station Road.

Culture and heritage

The local Gaelic football club is the Moate All Whites. The club's name and playing kit colours are based on the white religious habits worn by the Carmelite White Friars, a long established Moate institution.

Tuar Ard Arts Centre is a Community lead project which opened its doors in October 2000. The Centre strives to develop an awareness of and provide as broad a range of visual and performing art forms through creative artistic programming incorporating professional / non-professional activities so that the involvement of all age groups can be expanded and enriched through participation in and access to the arts. It holds a 173 tiered seating auditorium.[4]

Dún na Sí Amenity and Heritage Park is a community park located on the outskirts of the town, encompassing ecology, play, heritage, arts and education. The park comprises the Scéal Exhibition in the Comhaltas Teach Cheoil, heritage trail, sensory garden, pet farm, walking trails, native Irish woodland, turlough, playground and tea rooms.[5]

The former gaol, part of the old courthouse, now contains a small museum housing artefacts found in the area dating from the Stone Age through to the modern era. The main building of the old courthouse has been renovated into a public library.[6]

A 17th Century ruined Quaker Meetinghouse stands in the centre of the town, the Church of St. Patrick serves as the Catholic parish church and the Church of St. Mary is the local Church of Ireland church. A second Catholic Church, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, stands to the north of the town.[7]

Transport

Bus

Bus Éireann and Irish Citylink operate Dublin–Galway bus routes that service Moate.[8] [9]

Rail

The disused Moate railway station was built by the Midland Great Western Railway to connect Dublin and Galway and opened on 1 August 1851. It closed for goods traffic on 2 December 1974, and closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1987.[10] Parts of the film The First Great Train Robbery (1979)[11] were filmed on the local railway. The crew of about 150 actors, extras, and production team, spent around two weeks in and around Moate filming. The cast of the movie stayed at the Royal Hoey Hotel during this time.[12] The train station depicted as "Ashford" is actually Moate Station.

Dublin to Galway Cycleway

The Mullingar (West) to Garrycastle (Athlone East) section of the Dublin-Galway Greenway (cycleway) was opened on 3 October 2015 by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Moate.[13] The cycleway links Moate to Athlone and Mullingar on a 3m wide 40 km long cycleway.

Education

Primary

Moate has two primary schools: St. Brigid's Primary School on Station Road, formerly known as Convent Primary School, is co-educational and was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1861.[14] The other is St. Oliver Plunkett Boys' Primary School on Lake Road.

Secondary

The town's secondary school is Moate Community School on Church Street. It was created on September 1, 1996 by combining three schools: the Convent of Mercy Secondary School, the Carmelite College secondary school, and Moate Vocational School.[15] A new building opened in the school in 2002 containing a gymnasium, four new science laboratories, a home economics room, art room, lecture hall, technical drawing classroom and an oratory as well as general classrooms and offices. It has approximately 1,250 students (including Moate Business College) and a staff of 130. The business college provides courses including performance arts and information technology.[16]

Patrick Kelly Memorial Park

A memorial park, Patrick Kelly Memorial Park, opened in December 2008, named after the only Irish soldier to die in combat in Ireland since the end of the Irish Civil War. On 16 December 1983, Private Patrick Kelly, who was from Moate, was attempting to free American businessman Don Tidey, who had been kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army. Along with Garda recruit Gary Sheehan, he was killed in a shoot-out with IRA gunmen at Derrada Woods in Ballinamore, County Leitrim.[17]

Notable people

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Census Mapping – Moate . . . 11 December 2023.
  2. http://www.logainm.ie/1413965.aspx Moate
  3. http://www.epa.ie/licences/lic_eDMS/090151b28036f421.pdf Inspectors Report on a Waste Water Discharge Licence Application
  4. Web site: Facilities - Conference Room Booking - Gallery - Theatre - Meeting Rooms. 2021-03-13. Tuar Ard Arts Centre. en-US. 26 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210126182845/https://tuarard.ie/art-centre-facilities/. live.
  5. Web site: Dún na Sí Amenity & Heritage Park - Home. www.dunnasi.ie. 2018-12-07. 9 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171009051243/http://dunnasi.ie/. live.
  6. 2016-06-17. New Westmeath library features Colm Murray archive. en. 13 March 2021. 28 May 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170528030942/https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0617/796338-moate-court-house-restoration-colm-murray/. live.
  7. Web site: Cartronkeel, Moate, County Westmeath. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. buildingsofireland.ie. 3 December 2018. 4 December 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181204005928/http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=WM&regno=15317050. live.
  8. http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1314893562-20.pdf Bus timetable: Dublin (and airport)–Galway route
  9. Web site: Bus timetable: Dublin (and airport)–Galway route . City Link . https://wayback.archive-it.org/10702/20121219151651/http://citylink.ie/images/citylink-dublin-commuter-for-web.pdf . 2012-12-19 . dead.
  10. Web site: Moate station . Railscot - Irish Railways . 2007-11-04 . 2 March 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110302022802/http://www.railbrit.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf . live .
  11. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079240/locations Filming locations for The Great Train Robbery
  12. Web site: McCormack. Stan. 2020-08-13. When the movies came to town. 2022-07-19. Westmeath Examiner. en.
  13. http://www.galwaytodublincycleway.ie/#!mullingar-to-garrycastle-athlone/cdtz Mullingar to Garrycastle Cycleway opening
  14. http://www.stbrigidsmoate.ie/index.html St. Brigid's Primary School
  15. Web site: Welcome To Moate Community School . 2024-05-09 . Moate Community School.
  16. Web site: About MBC – Moate Business College. en-US. 2018-12-07. 3 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190403162352/https://moatebusinesscollege.com/about-us/. live.
  17. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/town-honours-murdered-soldier-1.924713 Town honours murdered soldier
  18. Web site: E. M. Allingham. S. D. Bassingthwaighte. White, William Duckett (1807–1893). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre for Biography, Australian National University. 25 December 2014. 23 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923101344/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/white-william-duckett-4841. live.