Letterkenny

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Template:Infobox Irish Place Letterkenny (Leitir Ceanainn in Irish) is the largest town in County Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland, located 35 miles north of Donegal Town and 20 miles west of Derry in Northern Ireland. Its name is an anglicisation of the Irish language name, which, translated literally, means "The Slope of the Cannon Family".

The current population of Letterkenny is approximately 15,000, and the total population of the hinterland surrounding it is estimated to be 25,000-30,000 people. Despite its size, it is not the administrative center of Donegal, which is Lifford. It is situated at the base of the picturesque Lough Swilly.

Some prominent buildings in Letterkenny include St. Eunan's Cathedral, St. Eunan's College, the Workhouse (now functioning as the town's museum), and St. Conal's Hospital. Letterkenny Institute of Technology is a higher education institution established in the town since 1971.

1 History and economy
2 Fastest Growing Town in Europe
3 Railway history
4 See also
5 External links

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History and economy

Letterkenny began as a market in the 17th century (thus starting before the Great Famine) and was the first crossing point of the River Swilly. Letterkenny achieved town status in the early 1920s following the partition of Ireland, when the Irish punt replaced the British Pound Sterling as the national currency of Ireland. This led to many Irish banks that had been previously located in the closest city, Derry (now in Northern Ireland), being forced to open branches in Co. Donegal, including in Letterkenny. Public services and industry followed the banks and led to an economic boom in Letterkenny.

The town's major employers include the General Hospital (which grew from St. Conal's Psychiatric hospital), Pramerica, and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. There has been a significant decline in the manufacturing base, however employment has grown in the service sector. Since 2002 there has been a significant expanision in the retail sector. Allied to this growth has been the development of the cultural infrastructure. This includes the opening of An Grianan theatre and the development of a new arts centre. The town also draws in significant numbers of people to its pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.

Its proximity to the border with Northern Ireland, along with its geographic isolation from the rest of the Republic of Ireland, has led to Letterkenny (and indeed, the rest of Co. Donegal) diverging in attitude substantially from that of either side of the border. The economy in the town is strongly dependent on cross-border trade, and times of economic boom are determined mostly by the currency exchange rate between the Euro and the British Pound.

Having a number of pubs and nightclubs, there is a very significant social scene especially at the weekends. It is a very popular hen and stag destination though the numbers are less than during the 80's when many buses brought revellers from many parts of Northern Ireland.

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Fastest Growing Town in Europe

It has been and continues to be referred to as the fastest growing town in Europe; however this has never been substantiated. Information from the Central Statistics Office in Ireland and the EU Statistical Office, EuroStat, going as far back as 1977 make no mention of Letterkenny in their reports on the fastest growing towns or cities within either Europe or Ireland.

However, a former President of Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce and Industry remarked once that it could be the fastest growing town in Europe, this was later used by Frank Mc Donald of the Irish Times in an article in 1995 entitled 'The Fastest Growing town in Europe' and from then on was used regularly in the press locally and nationally.

This is not to say that the town has not experienced rapid expansion in recent years. Between 1996 and 2002 the population of the town and its environs has risen from 11,996 to 15,231. This increase by 27.0 % has made Letterkenny one of the fastest growing towns in Ireland, outside the Dublin commuter belt.[1]

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Railway history

The town was, in times past, connected with the once extensive narrow gauge rail network of County Donegal. This provided connections to Derry (and through there to Dublin and Belfast), to Lifford and Strabane, to Gweedore and Burtonport, and to Carndonagh, north of Derry. The rail system was built in the late 19th century, with the last extensions opening in the 1900s. Some of these lines were never profitable, built using British government subsidies, described as an attempt to kill the Home Rule movement "with kindness". Only a couple of decades later, political events resulted in rail companies operating across two jurisdictions where there had previously been one. This had devastating effects on an already fragile economic situation, resulting eventually in the final closure of all parts of the rail system in the area by 1960. See History of rail transport in Ireland.

The railway station was converted to a bus station which, today serves Bus Eireann. However, poor public transport in the region has led to the development of local privately-owned bus companies, which are often based in the surrounding Gaeltacht. The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway company has continued to operate as a bus company, the Lough Swilly Bus company. These private companies often provide the best transport links in the area.

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