Dromod or Drumod () is a village in

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim, County Leitr ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Dromod is a

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 ...

beside Bofin and Boderg, which are threaded by the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( or archaic ') is the major river on the island of Ireland, and at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of I ...

. Built along the River Shannon, this is a Tidy Towns winner with a modern harbour that is frequently used by cruiser traffic. A water feature in the centre of the village, entitled 'The Weeping Tree', and was made by a local craftsman from a piece of bog oak which was found nearby.

Demographics

Between 2006 and 2022, the population of Dromod increased from 210 to 753, an increase of 258.6%.

Dromod railway station

The village has a station on the Dublin-Sligo railway line connecting

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

and

Dublin Connolly Connolly station () or Dublin Connolly is the busiest railway station in Dublin and Ireland, and is a focal point in the Irish route network. On the North side of the River Liffey, it provides InterCity, Enterprise and commuter services to ...

long the mainline. Dromod railway station opened on 3 December 1862 and remains in operation, despite closing for goods services on 3 November 1975. Dromod also had a railway station on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Cavan and Leitrim Railway. It opened on 24 October 1887 and finally closed on 1 April 1959. A short section of narrow gauge line has been reopened at the station as part of preservation efforts.

History

Gaelic Ireland Gaelic Ireland () was the Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, that existed in Ireland from the late Prehistory of Ireland, prehistoric era until the 17th century. It comprised the whole island before Anglo-Norman invasi ...

the place was called "Dromode mac Shanley" in recognition of the dominant Mac Shanly sept of Muintir Eolais. The town is mentioned once in the

Irish Annals A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over ti ...

- "". An

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

works was established at Dromod .

Pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...

brought to Dromod

Finery forge A finery forge is a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and decarburization, removing carbon from the molten cast iron through Redo ...

was used to produce an malleable iron product, for transportation to Dublin and Limerick. The operation was closed down in the 1790s, due to an exhaustion of forests locally. Through at least the 19th and 20th century, seven annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

s were held at Dromod- 1 January, 28 March (or 29th), 15 May, 26 June (or 29th), 14 August, 10 October (or 11th), and 11 December. Between 2000 and 2007, during the

Celtic Tiger The "Celtic Tiger" () is a term referring to the economy of the Republic of Ireland, economy of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment. The boom was dampened by ...

period, the village grew and several new housing estates and buildings were built in the area. Dromod was classified, by the Central Statistics Office, as a

census town In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...

for the first time in the 2006 census. At that time it had a population of 210 people. By the 2022 census, the population had grown to 753 people. The N4 national road, which previously ran through the village, was routed around Dromod and neighbouring Roosky with the opening of the N4 Dromod Roosky Bypass in December 2007.

People

* John McDonald, a 19th-century poet, lived near Dromod

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Dromod railway station

Community website
(archived 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dromod Towns and villages in County Leitrim