| Naas Nás na Ríogh |
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| Motto: Prudens ut Serpens Wise as the Serpent[1] |
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| Location | ||
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| Irish grid reference N893196 |
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| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
| County: | County Kildare | |
| Elevation: | 114 m (374 ft) | |
| Population (2006) | 20,044 | |
| Website: www.naas.ie | ||
Naas (English pronunciation: /ˈneɪs/; Irish: Nás na Ríogh, pronounced [nɑːs nə riː], or An Nás [ən nɑːs]) is the county town of County Kildare, Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand, it is also the largest town in the county.
Naas is a major commuter town, with many people living in Naas and working in Dublin. Naas is considered the most affluent area in County Kildare with the town consisting of mainly middle and upper class residents with house prices being described as exceptionally high especially during the Celtic Tiger years. The nearby N7 dual carriageway and M7 motorway connect Naas to Dublin and to the south and southwest; it is one of the busiest routes in the country. As part of County Kildare, Naas is within the Greater Dublin Area.
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The Irish language name for Naas, Nás na Ríogh literally means Meeting Place of the Kings, as the place historically hosted meetings of pre-Norman Irish kings. After the Norman invasion some meetings of the Irish parliament were held in the town. Many of the earlier settlers in Kildare were Cambro-Normans from Wales, and so the medieval church was dedicated to Saint David.
In the Middle Ages Naas became a walled market town which was occasionally raided by the O'Byrne and O'Toole clans based in the nearby area which became County Wicklow.
Naas features on the 1598 map "A Modern Depiction of Ireland, One of the British Isles" by Abraham Ortelius as "Nosse". (It is worth noticing the "O Byrne" and "O Tolo" (O'Toole) names appearing prominently on the map).
A mayor and council were selected by the richer merchants and landowners; the mayor was titled the "Sovereign of Naas" and carried a ceremonial mace until the post was abolished in 1840. Because of its importance as a place for trading, public meetings and local administration, with its law courts, racecourse and army barracks, it became known as the "county town" of County Kildare.[citation needed]
In the former Parliament of Ireland that was established in 1297 and ended in 1800, the constituency of Naas had 2 seats.
One of the first battles of the rebellion of 1798 took place in Naas on 24 May 1798 when a force of about 1,000 rebels was defeated in an unsuccessful attack on the town. A leader of the United Irishmen, Theobald Wolfe Tone, is buried just outside Naas, at Bodenstown.
In 1898 the Local Government Act established Naas Urban District Council (now Naas Town Council). Its jurisdiction had a circular boundary with a 2.4 km (1.5 mi) radius from the new town hall on the main street. Most of the rest of County Kildare is managed directly by Kildare County Council which has also been based in Naas since 1898, and which oversees the work of the Town Council.
Today, Naas is the 15th largest town in the Republic of Ireland. The town is planning new housing developments during the next five years with a projected population of 30,000.
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | %± |
| 2018 | 1,821 | 0.4% |
| 3073 | 1,831 | 0.5% |
| 3808 | 1,841 | 0.5% |
| 3571 | 1,851 | 0.5% |
| 3010 | 1,861 | 0.5% |
| 2966 | 1,871 | 0.5% |
| 3660 | 1,881 | 0.5% |
| 3808 | 1,891 | 0.5% |
| 3735 | 1,901 | 0.5% |
| 3836 | 1,911 | 0.5% |
| 3842 | 1,926 | 0.8% |
| 3442 | 1,936 | 0.5% |
| 3290 | 1,946 | 0.5% |
| 3774 | 1,951 | 0.3% |
| 3731 | 1,956 | 0.3% |
| 3915 | 1,961 | 0.3% |
| 4023 | 1,966 | 0.3% |
| 4529 | 1,971 | 0.3% |
| 5078 | 1,979 | 0.4% |
| 7739 | 1,981 | 0.1% |
| 8345 | 1,986 | 0.3% |
| 10017 | 1,991 | 0.3% |
| 11141 | 1,996 | 0.3% |
| 14074 | 2,002 | 0.3% |
| 18312 | 2,006 | 0.2% |
| 20044 | {{{54}}} | Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "{" |
| [2] | ||
Amenities in the town include: a library, tax office, a new Gaelic Athletic Association club, athletics club, a range of schools, Naas General Hospital, horse racecourse,[3] soccer club, tennis club, soccer club, rugby club, two major nightclubs, several pubs, five supermarkets, county council offices, a number of hotels and the new Moat Theatre.
A large new public swimming pool and leisure centre opened on Carragh Avenue in 2009 and the old swimming pool site is under consideration as a public car park.[4]
The town has two Roman Catholic Churches, one Church of Ireland Church, and one Presbyterian Church. The Church of Our Lady & St. David is a Roman Catholic Parish Church dating from 1827. The original parish church, St. David's Church, is held by the Church of Ireland. In 1997, the second Catholic Church opened in Ballycane on the east side of town and is dedicated to the Irish Martyrs.
Local industrial enterprises include Intel, Xilinx, Hewlett Packard.
Other economic activities include local government, Aldi's national headquarters, and indigenous manufacturers such as Green Isle Foods, Dawn Farm Foods, Readymix, Dennison Trailers, Omos Street Furniture, Amvic Ireland, Pasta Concepts, Phamapac, QK Meats, Redlen, Simply Soups, Taravale Foods, Granning Axles and Irish Commercials. The town also includes law offices, hotels and a livestock mart. Naas is also home to the most expensive boutique in Ireland the Emporium Kalu in the centre of the town.
Under construction is the new Naas Shopping Mall at Corbans Avenue which is due to be completed in November 2009[citation needed].
The town of Naas is surrounded by commercial parks with stores such as Harvey Norman, Smyths Toy's, Clery's, PC World, Halfords and Heatons. The largest commercial park is located near the Newhall Interchange. A major business park is under construction at Osberstown.[5]
Naas has three secondary schools, St. Mary's, a girls convent school, the Christian Brothers School, for boys, and Pipers Hill, a mixed school.
It also has primary schools, including the Convent of Mercy, a girl's school, St. Corban's B.N.S., a school for boys, Scoil Bhride, a mixed school and Ballycane, another mixed school teaching classes from Junior Infants to 2nd class and St. David's, a mixed school.
Naas also has a large public library which is located in the canal harbour area. It can be accessed via Basin Street or the Newbridge Road. Books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, magazines and language packs are among the items that can be borrowed. It also offers free Internet access to library members. Art exhibitions, activities and meetings are held in the library throughout the year. The library is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday.[6]
There are two racecourses near Naas. Punchestown Racecourse is just to the south east of the town, in the parish of Eadestown, and Naas Racecourse is about 1 km from the town centre.[3] The annual Punchestown Race Festival is a major event for a whole week in April. The Oxegen music festival is also held at Punchestown in the second weekend of July.
Naas has one of the largest scouting groups in Ireland, with 2 Beaver nights, 3 cub nights, 3 Scout nights and also a very large Venture group.
Naas railway station opened on 22 June 1855, closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1947 and for goods traffic on 10 March 1947, and finally closed altogether on 1 April 1959.[10]
The N7 Naas Road, which connects Naas to Dublin, was upgraded in 2006 with a six-lane carriageway with grade-separated interchanges. Plans have been laid out to construct a large interchange at the Osberstown-Millenium Park as part of the M7 upgrade.[11] An orbital ring road is also being built; several phases have already been opened.[12]
Naas is twinned with the towns and cities of
The town was twinned with New Zealand for the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games.
NAAS (pron. Nace, as in place), a market town of Co. Kildare, Ireland, 20 m. S.W. from Dublin on branches of the Great Southern and Western railway and of the Grand Canal. Pop. (1901) 3836. It is situated among the .foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, close to the river Liffey. The town is of great antiquity, and was a residence of the kings of Leinster, the place of whose assemblies is marked by a neighbouring rath or mound. Naas returned two members to the Irish parliament from 1559 until the union in 1800. Of a castle taken by Cromwell in 1650, and of several former abbeys, there are no remains. Punchestown racecourse, 22 m. S.E., is the scene of well-known steeplechases.
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Nabataeans >> |
| Naas Nás na Ríogh | ||
| Prudens ut Serpens Wise as the Serpent | ||
|---|---|---|
| Location | ||
|
| ||
| Irish Grid Reference N893196 | ||
| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Leinster | |
| County: | County Kildare | |
| Elevation: | 114 m | |
| Population (2006) | 20,044 | |
| Website: www.naas.ie | ||
An Nás (pronounced /ˈneɪs/; Irish: Nás na Ríogh IPA: [nɑːs nə riː] or An Nás [ən nɑːs]) is the county town of County Kildare, Ireland. With a population of over 23,000 it is the largest town in the County of Kildare. It is a major commuter belt town, with many people living in Naas and working in Dublin. The nearby M7 motorway, which bypasses Naas and connects Dublin to the South and Southwest, is one of the busiest routes in the country.
   | Naas Local History Group - Naas Local History Group - County Kildare Federation of Local History Groups |
| | Naas town website - Naas Town, County Kildare, Ireland |
| | Naas community website - Naas Town.com - Local community, tourist and business information for Naas Town, Co. Kildare, Ireland. |
| | International Civic Heraldry - Coat of arms of NAAS(Irish heraldry) |
| | Naas Homepage - bebo.com - Profile from Naas <CountyNaas> |
| | Naas GAA website - Naas GAA Club |
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