Navan ( ; , meaning "the Cave") is the

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. In 2016, it had a population of 30,173, making it the tenth largest settlement in

. It is at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the

River Boyne The River Boyne ( ga, An Bhóinn or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through C ...

and Blackwater, around 50 km northwest of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

History and name

Navan is a Norman foundation: Hugh de Lacy, who was granted the

Lordship of Meath The Lordship of Meath was an extensive seigneurial liberty in medieval Ireland that was awarded to Hugh de Lacy by King Henry II of England by the service of fifty knights and with almost royal authority. The Lordship was roughly co-extensive wit ...

in 1172, awarded the Barony of Navan to one of his knights, Jocelyn de Angulo, who built a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

there, from which the town developed. Inside the town walls, Navan consisted of three streets. These were Trimgate Street, Watergate St. and Ludlow St. (which was once called Dublingate St.). The orientation of the three original streets remains from the Middle Ages but the buildings date from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The town's Post Office on Trimgate Street office was built in 1908 on the site of an earlier post office. In 1990, the post office was relocated to Kennedy Road. The building of a new shopping centre re-oriented the town's centre. The onetime post office was acquired as the site of the town's first McDonald's restaurant. Map of Navan

Navan town Post Office located on Trimgate Street

Variants of ''Navan'' had been in use since

Norman times The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the C ...

.An Uaimh - its Origin
. Navan Historical Society. It is thought to come , a variant of its more common Irish name ''an Uaimh''. In 1922, when the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

was founded, ''an Uaimh'' was adopted as the town's only official name. However, it failed to gain popularity in Irish and in 1971 the name was reverted to ''Navan'' in English.

Bus transport

Navan is served by several bus routes. The town has no central bus station; there are four separate stops in the town, with different routes serving each (Market Square, Mercy Convent, Shopping Centre and Fire Station). The majority of routes are operated by

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidi ...

. The most frequent route is the 109 to

, which departs from Abbey Road. Sillan also serve the town. Royal Breffni Tours provide services to

Dundalk Institute of Technology Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Dhún Dealgan) is an institute of technology, located in Dundalk, Ireland. Established as the Dundalk Regional Technical College, students were first enrolled in the coll ...

. Streamline Coaches provide services to NUI Maynooth.

Education

Navan has a number of secondary schools, including private denominational and public inter-denominational and non-denominational. St. Patrick's Classical School is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

boys-only school. Loreto Secondary School, St. Michael's at the Loreto Convent, and St. Joseph's Secondary School at the Mercy Convent are both girls-only Roman Catholic

convent school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syst ...

s. Coláiste na Mí is a

VEC Vec may mean: Mathematics: * vec(''A''), the vectorization of a matrix ''A''. * Vec denotes the category of vector spaces over the reals. Other: * Venetian language (Vèneto), language code. * Vecuronium, a muscle relaxant. * vec, a sentient mora ...

-run school in Johnstown that opened in 2013. Beaufort College is a large state-owned inter-denominational

vocational A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious c ...

school. The Abylity Secondary College was a parent-owned fee-paying non-denominational school. Navan and the surrounding area has a number of primary schools, including the town's Catholic boys' primary school Scoil Mhuire, which was originally run by the

De La Salle Brothers french: Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes , image = Signum Fidei.jpg , image_size = 175px , caption = , abbreviation = FSC , nickname = Lasallians , named_after = , formation ...

. Pierce Brosnan was a former pupil of St. Anne's Loreto, which is situated beside St. Mary's Catholic Church and near to St. Joseph's Mercy. There are also St. Paul's, St. Ultan's, and St. Oliver's primary schools. Scoil Éanna is the town's only

gaelscoil A Gaelscoil (; plural: ''Gaelscoileanna'') is an Irish language-medium school in Ireland: the term refers especially to Irish-medium schools outside the Irish-speaking regions or Gaeltacht. Over 50,000 students attend Gaelscoileanna at primary an ...

. The town's only

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the sec ...

secondary school, Preston School, closed in the 1970s. It is now the site of the shopping centre in the town. There is a Church of Ireland primary school known as Flowerfield School, on the Trim rd a new site. It was originally situated at the Flowerfield area of the town, on the main thoroughfare to Drogheda, in a building that has been sympathetically converted into private accommodation. There is also a multi-denominational

Educate Together Educate Together () is an educational charity in Ireland which is the patron body to "equality-based, co-educational, child centred, and democratically run" schools. It was founded in 1984 to act as the patron body for the new multidenomination ...

primary school in the town, sited at Commons Road.

Sport

Páirc Tailteann Páirc Tailteann () is a GAA stadium in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. It is the home of the Meath Gaelic football and Hurling teams. The ground has had a capacity of between 30,000 and 33,000, but following a safety audit in 2011 the GAA redu ...

is located in Navan and is home of the Meath

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

and

Navan Hibernians GAC Navan Hibernians is a now-defunct Gaelic Athletic Association hurling club that was based in Navan, in County Meath, Ireland. Honours Navan Hibernians won the inaugural Meath Senior Hurling Championship The Meath Senior Hurling Championshi ...

Hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

teams. Navan R.F.C. won over 186 trophies in the 1960s and currently compete in the All Ireland League (AIL) Division 1B Knockharley Cricket Club was founded in 1982 and are the only cricket club in

competing in the Leinster Cricket Union, the club's most recent success came in 2006 when the 1st XI won the Middle 2 Leinster Cup defeating Mullingar at North Kildare. Parkvilla Football Club was founded in 1966 and currently plays in North East Football league Premier Division and their reserve team competes in Division 3B.

Public art

Public art and sculptures in Navan include ''Sniomh'', by Betty Newman Maguire, which sits in front of Navan Fire Station. This sculpture is reputedly inspired by the movement of water and the merging of the rivers Boyne and Blackwater. Another public sculpture, ''The Fifth Province'' by Richard King, is located on the Navan Bypass. This sculpture is composed of four branches and a central upright stem that symbolises the flowering of hope and peace. '' The Bull'', designed by sculptor Colin Grehan, is a prominent piece of public art. Situated in the market square of the town, this is a 16 tonne limestone statue of a bull being held back by two handlers and commemorates the historic bull markets that took place in the area. The statue was surrounded by controversy over its cost, an estimated €8.7 million, and its location. Local man Paddy Pryle noted that "anybody coming up Timmons Hill, which is one of the main entrances into the town, will be entering Navan via the bull's arse. It is one of the most crazy things I have seen put up yet," Objections to the statue delayed its erection by 8 years.

Folklore

According to local folklore a

Souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought north ...

was discovered near the Navan Viaduct in 1848. The location of its entrance has since been lost. Another folk tale involves the ghost of

Francis Ledwidge Francis Edward Ledwidge (19 August 188731 July 1917) was a 20th-century Irish poet. From Slane, County Meath, and sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was later also known as a First World War war poet. He befriended the establish ...

. According to the story an old friend of Ludwidge was working at the Meath Chronicle, the local news printer, when he heard the sound of Ledwidge's motorcycle outside. His friend was confused as he believed Ledwidge was fighting on the Western Front, upon going out to greet him the friend found that Ledwidge had disappeared. The story claims that this ghostly apparition appeared at the same moment he died. In the Fenian cycle of Irish mythology,

Fionn mac Cumhaill Fionn mac Cumhaill ( ; Old and mga, Find or ''mac Cumail'' or ''mac Umaill''), often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is leader of the ''Fianna'' bands of y ...

studied under the druid Finegas along the river Boyne. He is believed to have caught the Salmon of Knowledge in what is now Navan.

Twinning

Navan is twinned with the following places: *

Bobbio Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a di ...

, Italy * Broccostella, Italy

People

Francis Beaufort Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer, rear admiral of the Royal Navy, and creator of the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descende ...

, scientist and naval officer *

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 ('' GoldenEye'', '' Tomorro ...

, actor *

Enda Caldwell Enda Caldwell is an Irish radio personality and voice actor. As of 2022, he was the "drivetime host" at New York's EDM station, Pulse 87. Caldwell has also worked at radio stations elsewhere in the world, including the DRM station Radio Luxembou ...

, radio personality *

Shane Cassells Shane Cassells (born 6 April 1978) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as a Senator for the Labour Panel since April 2020. He previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath West constituency from 2016 to 2020. Before ...

, Fianna Fáil politician * Ian Clarke, computer scientist *

Keith Donegan Keith Donegan (born 12 March 1997), is an Irish racing driver and team owner who last drove in the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship for Race Performance Motorsport. He is the owner of the team, having purchased the assets of RP Motorsp ...

, racing driver * Simon Fagan, musician *

Anthony Holten Anthony "Tony" Holten (3 May 1945 – 11 September 2020) was an Irish author, historian, stroke advocate, former mechanic and marine engineer. Early days He was born in Dowdstown, Navan in 1945. He started an apprenticeship in Navan Engineering ...

, author *

Donal Keogan Donal Keogan (born 13 April 1991) is a Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangul ...

, Gaelic footballer * Gráinne Maguire, stand-up comedian, writer and podcaster * Arthur Mathews, comedy writer * Conor Nash, Australian Rules Footballer *

Helen McEntee Helen McEntee (born 8 June 1986) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Justice from June 2020 to November 2022. From April to November 2021, she became a minister without portfolio during a period of maternity leave. ...

, Fine Gael politician *

Dylan Moran Dylan William Moran ( ; born 3 November 1971) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor, artist and poet. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series ''Black Books'' (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Peg ...

, comedian * John O'Callaghan, DJ *

Hector Ó hEochagáin Shane Ó hEochagáin (; born 17 August 1969), known mononymously as Hector, is an Irish television and radio presenter born in Drogheda, County Louth, and raised in Navan, Co. Meath. He currently presents ''The Tommy and Hector Podcast with La ...

, TV personality * Joseph Rooney, Catholic priest *

Tommy Tiernan Tommy Tiernan (; born 16 June 1969) is an Irish comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for hosting ''The Tommy Tiernan Show'' (2017–present) and playing Gerry in the sitcom '' Derry Girls'' (2018–2022). Early life Tiernan was born i ...

, comedian *

Paul Tighe Paul Desmond Tighe (born 12 February 1958) is an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture since his appointment on 28 October 2017. He is the joint highest-ranking Irishman in the R ...

, Catholic prelate * Yemi Adenuga, TV personality and Ireland's first black female elected Councillor

References

External links

Historical Society of Navan website
{{Authority control County towns in the Republic of Ireland Towns and villages in County Meath