Kildare

I

Introduction

Kildare, county in Leinster province, south-eastern Republic of Ireland, bounded on the north by Meath, on the east by Dublin and Wicklow, on the south by Carlow, on the south-east by Laois, and on the north-east by Offaly. Kildare has a land area of 1,694 sq km (654 sq mi) and is divided into productive farmland in the south and part of the Bog of Allen peatland in the north-west from which rises the Hill of Allen (206 m/670 ft).

II

Land and Resources

Carboniferous limestone underlies the rich agricultural soil and peatland of Kildare through which flows the rivers Barrow, Boyne, and Liffey. The 18th-century Grand and Royal canals are other waterways that also cross the county. To the south is approximately 2,400 hectares (6,000 acres) of open countryside known as the Curragh, which is the site of numerous stud farms.

Kildare's climate is typical of Ireland as a whole with mild summers and winters, and a uniform distribution of rainfall throughout the year. Temperatures average 7° C (45° F) in January and 16° C (61° F) in July.

III

Population and Administration

The county has an estimated population of 122,656 (1991). Naas (1991 population 11,141), not Kildare, is the county town; its Irish name (Nás na Ríogh, Naas of the kings) signifies that it was once one of the royal seats of the kings of Leinster. The other main towns are Celbridge (8,309), Maynooth (6,027), and Kildare (4,196). There are almost no settlements in the Bog of Allen.

Naas is the administrative centre for the county council and the county has a county manager. There are urban district councils at Athy and Naas; Droichead Nua and Leixlip are administered by town commissions.

IV

Education and Culture

National University of Ireland (NUI), Maynooth offers higher education courses across five faculties: arts, Celtic studies, engineering, philosophy, and science. St Patrick’s College, a pontifical university, shares a campus with the NUI at Maynooth. St Patrick’s was founded in 1795 as the National Seminary for Ireland for training Catholic priests and is the country’s second oldest university. Lay students were first admitted in 1966.

One of Ireland’s finest novelists, James Joyce, attended Clongowes Wood Jesuit College in Clane for three years. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the leaders of the 1798 rising of the Society of United Irishmen was born in the county and entered the Irish parliament in 1783 as member for Athy and Kildare.