Agher
| Agher Achair or Achradh | |
|---|---|
| Town Land/Crossroads | |
|
Agher Post Office | |
  Agher Location in Ireland | |
| Coordinates: 53°27′35″N 6°46′07″W / 53.459810°N 6.768609°WCoordinates: 53°27′35″N 6°46′07″W / 53.459810°N 6.768609°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| County | County Meath |
| Dáil Éireann | Meath West |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
Agher (Irish: Achair) is a crossroads and townland in County Meath, Ireland. It is located 3 km (1.9 mi) southwest of Summerhill.
The only retail outlet in Agher is the local convenience store, which is a post office as well. The Nangle family has owned the shop for over 200 years. The shop was there in the 18th century.
Agher Demesne
Turn left at the crossroads; continue a kilometre down the road and on the left is the entrance to Agher Demesne or also called Agher Pallis. This was the seat of the Winter family. It was an excellent house with very good out-houses. gardens and orchards. The residence was situated in a demesne of about 350 acres. It is said that the cottages on his estate were excellent, showing Winter's regard for comfort of his tenants and employees.[1]
Agher House
Agher House faced east with the wing to the south side. It had many beautiful large rooms, stairways back and front and a number of bathrooms and toilets. Outside it had beautiful walk, gardens, trees and shrubs, with a pond to the west of the house.
The Winters had many servants including a butler, cook, housekeeper and maids as well as a coachman, a carpenter and a gardener. In the early 1930s Colonel Winter sold the estate to the land commission. The land commission divided the land among some local people and people from the west and south of Ireland. The land commission tried to sell the house but could get no offers and in 1947 a decision was taken to demolish the house by controlled explosion. The rubble was pushed into the basement of the former mansion and a modern house was built beside it. This was a great shame and a great tragedy as a four-story mansion was demolished and many jobs were lost. The site retains some original features like the entrance, the out-offices and the farmyard.[2]
Agher Church
Agher Church is the local Anglican church. It is in the Rathmolyon and Dunboyne Union, which is a collection of parishes joined together. The rector of the union is The Reverend Rector Janice Aiton. The church holds a very important stained-glass window made by Thomas Jervais. It is the second-earliest known Irish-made stained-glass window. The unusual subject is St Paul preaching to the Athenians on top of Mars Hill outside the Court of Areopagus. The window was originally erected in the private chapel of Dangan Castle, the seat of the Wellesley family (who Field Marshal, The Duke of Wellington, Lord Arthur Wellesley KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS is a member of the family), which burnt down in the 1809. The window was presented to Agher by the O'Connor family, who were then occupying Dangan. Soon after the new Agher church was constructed, Samuel Winter erected a family burial vault in the churchyard. Agher church was re-built in 1902. The church's history goes back to 1407, when The Reverend W. Edwards and Reverend N. Vale was a part of the clergy.[3]
The poet, political writer, and clergyman Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was rector of the Church of Ireland Church at Agher.
The adjoining cemetery contains the graves of the Winter family, who provided the land on which the church was built in 1802. Members of the O'Higgins Family who were descended from the Barons of Ballynary in County Sligo and of whom Bernardo O'Higgins of Chile was a kinsman are also buried in Agher Cemetery.
Sport
Golf club
There is a golf club in Agher called Summerhill Golf Club. It is owned by the Nangle family. The current captain is Joe Crowe.[4] It is a nine-hole course and with its combination of rolling parkland and moor land, and surrounded by stunning woodlands, every hole has a unique challenge which will surprise even the most confident golfers.
Agher Park F.C.
Kevin Hayes started with just one team playing in the Meath and District League in 1984. It grew to 12 teams by 1995 playing in the North Eastern Counties Schoolboys League, Northest Ladies League and the M.D.L. In 2009 ″Agher Park F.C.″ amalgamated with another local club called ″Summerhill Celtic″ to become ″Park Celtic Summerhill″.
See also
References
- ↑ The History and Folklore of Coole and Summerhill Parish, complied and presented by Coole and Summerhill I.C.A., page 94
- ↑ The History and Folklore of Coole and Summerhill Parish, written and complied by Coole and Summerhill I.C.A., pages 94–95
- ↑ The History and Folklore of Coole and Summerhill Parish, written and complied by Coole and Summerhill I.C.A., pages 96–99
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
External links
- A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (1837)
- National Inventory of Architectural Heritage Ireland
