Stamullen () is a village in

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

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 ...

on the border with

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

. It lies just off the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

32 km north of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

city centre and beside the Delvin River. In the late 1990s and early 21st century, it expanded significantly with the development of numerous housing estates in the area.

History

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes the ruins of St Patrick's parish church (dated to the 13th century) and the nearby chapel of St Christopher (dated to the 15th century). Part of the Preston chapel of St Patrick's survives, including the tomb of William Preston, 2nd Viscount Gormanston, and his second wife Eleanor Dowdall. The ruins of these structures lie within Stamullen graveyard, which contains a number of unusual gravestones, including a

cadaver monument A cadaver monument or ''transi'' is a type of funerary art, funerary monument to a deceased person, featuring a sculpted tomb effigy of a skeleton, or of an emaciated or decomposing dead body, with closed eyes. It was particularly characteristic ...

(dated to c.1450) within St Christopher's chapel. In October 1999, a real IRA training camp and underground firing range were discovered near the village.

Demographics

In the period between the 1996 and 2022 census, the population of Stamullen increased significantly (almost 9-fold), from 427 to 3,720 inhabitants. According to the 2016 census, more than 85% of homes in the village (869 of 1,018 households) were built between 1991 and 2010. As of the 2006 census, Stamullen then had the second-lowest percentage of people in the over 65 age group and the lowest percentage of people in the 45-64 age group in any town in Ireland with a population over 1500.

Amenities

The village contains a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

, pub, three hairdressers, barbers, veterinary clinic, butcher, fast food outlet, laundromat and a coffee shop. A

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

was established in the town in 2012. This facility, the Silverstream Priory, falls within the

Diocese of Meath The Diocese of Meath () is an Irish diocese which took its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it still exists as a separate diocese, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other dioceses. Histor ...

. In March 2012, two American monks moved into Silverstream House, originally built in 1843 by the Preston family (the Viscounts Gormanston). The monastery's adherents celebrate the

Liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

in Latin, performs

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

, and Eucharistic Adoration. Stamullen has a community centre which is also home to St Patricks GAA, Stamullen Football Club, Stamullen Badminton Club, and Stamullen Bowls Club. The village is also home to the M. Donnelly Stamullen Road Club Cycling Team. A free

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

is delivered each month to homes and businesses within the community.

Education

St. Patrick's National School, originally opened in 1954, was extended in the 1980s to increase capacity to 6 classrooms. Numbers declined for some time, but with the building boom starting in the late 1990s numbers started to climb again. A number of pre-fabs were built in advance of the granting of planning approval for a new building which opened in 2008. As of 2019, the school had an enrollment of more than 660 pupils.

References

External links