Armagh City - from Bradshaw's Directory 1820

"HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE TOWN OF ARMAGH


ARMAGH, a city of Ulster, the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland, and
the capital of the county of Armagh, is situated on a hill, surrounded
by a highly cultivated and picturesque country, and within less than a
quarter of a mile of the river Callan, to whose banks it once extended.
It is the seat of the consistorial court of his grace the archbishop of
Armagh, who is the primate and metropolitan of all Ireland. The see of
Armagh extends into five counties, viz.—Armagh, Derry, Meath, Tyrone,
and Louth, being 75 miles from north to south, and from 12-1/2 to 32 in breadth.

Armagh was, in the middle centuries, an extensive and populous city, and
was celebrated as a place of learning, having had, at one period,
according to the Irish historians, seven thousand students at its
college. The city, with the cathedral, a large Gothic building, one
hundred and twenty feet from east to west, and one hundred and
twenty-five from north to south, was built in the year 445, by St.
Patrick. It was afterwards destroyed by fire, and ravaged by the Danes,
who took off or annihilated the archieves of this ancient place. It was
also often plundered or laid waste in the repeated wars between the
natives and the Anglo-Normans; and, in 1642, it was set on fire by Sir
Phelim O’Neil. From the time of the suppression of the abbeys, with
which Armagh abounded, it had dwindled into a very insignificant and
neglected town; and in this state it remained until Dr. Richardson,
afterwards Baron Rokeby, was promoted to the primacy. By the princely
munificence of this prelate, the cathedral was repaired, and the town
altogether renovated. He built and endowed in the observatory, with an
excellent astronomical apparatus, a library, and a palace, with a neat
chapel, on the glebe adjacent to the city. To his liberality Armagh is
also indebted for a parish school lately built, and for a school, where
children are educated gratuitously, according to the modern improved
systems. The school is in a flourishing condition, and is endowed with
1530 acres of fine land, which, in 1804, produced a gross annual rent of
£1144 10s. 5-1/2d.

A very elegant county court-house, in which the business of the assizes,
quarter sessions, &c. is transacted, has been lately built, at the foot
of the gentle acclivity on which the observatory stands. In front of
this building, there are very pleasant public walkss [sic], surrounded
by trees, planted in an eliptic form: these walks seem to be
half-encircled, on the eastern, northern and western points, by public
buildings, whilt [sic] on the eastern side, the houses of the city
appear ascending gradually one above the other, until the view is
terminated by the cathedral.

A few years ago, a handsome church was erected, on a gentle acclivity,
between the barracks and the free school.

On the western side of the city there is a charter-house or eleemosynary
poor school, of considerable magnitude, founded in 1758. In addition to
the churches already mentioned, the places of worship are, a large
Presbyterian meeting-house, a meeting-house for Seceders, a tabernacle
for the Evangelical congregation, a large Roman Catholic chapel, and two
Methodist preaching-houses. The city, before the union, sent two
members to parliament; it now sends only one.

In Armagh, an association for the suppression of mendicity was lately
formed. It is supported by voluntary subscriptions. His Grace the Lord
Primate contributes £50 per annum, and about £780 are subscribed by the
inhabitants, by whom a committee has been appointed to manage the
distribution of the money.—A society for the relief of sick poor meet
once a week in the market-house, and appoint a number of persons out of
their body to visit and relieve the indigent.—A short time since, a
Savings Bank was established, under the most respectable gentlemen in
the neighbourhood.

The county infirmary is a handsome edifice, situated at the junction of
Abbey-street and Callan-street. The number of intern patients who
receive surgical aid in this institution may be averaged at one hundred
and sixty, and the extern patients who are supplied with medicine, at
three thousand.

A public bakery has been lately established in English-street, which
promises to be of considerable utility in regulating the assize of
bread. The public news-room is situated in the same street.—From a
basin convenient to the city, the inhabitants are supplied with water,
which is conveyed by pipes into their dwelling houses, at the rate of £1
per annum.

Armagh has a very large market every Tuesday. The principal commodity
sold in it is linen cloth in the brown state. The average weekly sales
of this article amount to 7000 pieces, which, valued at £1 9s. per
piece, would amount to £10,150. There is also a market every Saturday
for grain and all kinds of provisions."