Westport (, historically anglicised as Cahernamart)Placenames Database of Ireland (see archival records) is a town in County Mayo in Ireland.Westport Before 1800 by Michael Kelly published in Cathair Na Mart 2019 It is at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Ireland. Westport is a tourist destination and scores highly for quality of life. It won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition three times in 2001, 2006 and 2008. In 2012 it won the Best Place to Live in Ireland competition run by The Irish Times.
Westport is designated as a heritage town, and is one of only a few planned towns in Ireland. The town centre was laid-out in the Georgian architectural style, and incorporates the Carrow Beg river into the design composition. This provides for tree lined promenades (known as The Mall) and several stone bridges.
The pilgrimage mountain of Croagh Patrick, known locally as "the Reek", lies some 10 km west of the town near the villages of Murrisk and Lecanvey. The mountain forms the backdrop to the town.
History
Early origins and name Westport originates and gets its name in the Irish language from a 16th-century castle, Cathair na Mart (meaning "the stone fort of the beeves"). The castle and surrounding settlement belonged to the powerful local seafaring Ó Máille clan, who controlled the Clew Bay area, then known as Umaill.
The original village of Cathair na Mart existed around what is now the front (east) lawn of Westport House. It had a high street, alleys down to the river and a population of around 700.Peadar O'Flanagain "An Outline History of the Town of Westport" Cathair na Mart Journal A small port also existed at the mouth of the Carrowbeg river. Roads led from the village to the west (West Road), the south (Sandy Hill Road) and the east (Old Paddock Road).
Westport House and 18th-century beginnings
Westport's origins are tied to the Browne family. The Brownes were a noble family from Sussex, England, who arrived in Mayo in the 16th century and gradually acquired land around the county, particularly in the Westport area. Their position was strengthened in the later 17th century when Colonel John Browne, a Jacobite who had fought at the 1691 Siege of Limerick, married Maude Bourke, the great-great-granddaughter of regional soveign Grace O'Malley (), thereby inheriting rights to lands that had previously belonged to the Bourke and O’Malley families. Seeking to establish a grand residence that reflected their power, the Brownes constructed Westport House in the 18th century, initially built on the site of an Ó Máille castle at Cahernamart. The earliest version of the house stood without a lake or dam, with the tide rising and falling against its walls.Westport House A Brief History published by Westport House 2008 From the 1730s onward, the estate was rebuilt and expanded, most notably under the direction of the German architect Richard Cassels, and later Thomas Ivory and James Wyatt. The finished house was set within parkland, with landscaped gardens, terraces, and a lake, symbolically asserting the Brownes’ authority in Mayo and anchoring the planned Georgian town of Westport that grew around the estate.
John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont intended to move the existing Cahernamart settlement to facilitate landscaping of parklands around Westport House; this intention was outlined to Richard Pococke when he visited Browne in 1752.
The first clear evidence for the deliberate development of a new town is an advertisement in Faulkner's Dublin Journal on 17 March 1767, stating "a New Town is immediately to be built near the old town of Westport...according to Plans and Elevations already prepared". The focal point was to be a "large and elegant market house" situated in an octagonal market area enclosed by 12 "large well-finished slated Houses". There were to be "three avenues for streets of thirty slated Houses" and "several very large streets for great numbers of thatched Houses and cabbins, to be built separately" at a cost of 20–40 guineas each.Antiquities of West Mayo", Christiaan Corlett, pp87 & Cathair na Mart No 26 2008, Journal of the Westport Historical Society, pp124 Workmen were to contact Peter Brown-Kelly, son of the Earl, or the architect William Leeson.
In 1778 Peter Browne, 2nd Earl of Altamont engaged James Wyatt (1746–1813) to redesign parts of Westport House, including its dining room. This engagement fostered a lasting belief that Wyatt was the town's designer, but work on the town was already well advanced when Wyatt began work. If he had any design input into the town project it could only have been to later stages such as the Malls.
Peter Browne, 2nd Earl of Altamont acquired slave plantations in Jamaica by marriage. His grandson Howe Peter Browne (2nd Marquess of Sligo) was Governor of Jamaica when the slaves were freed. This connection to plantation slavery is documented in later historiography.
19th-century townscape and mapping
The town's street plan follows medieval principles of urban design introduced by the Normans in the 13th century, with a particular emphasis on the incorporation of the river into the composition. Low stone walls contain the river for two blocks and produce, on each side, tree-lined promenades (The Mall) with several stone bridges over the river Carrow Beg. The Malls were constructed by the First Marquess of Sligo after 1800. William Bald's map of Mayo, surveyed between 1809 and 1817, and Henry Browne's map from the same period, show that the basic framework of Westport's streets, including the Malls, was present by the early 19th century.
Westport is designated as a heritage town and is unusual in Ireland in that it is one of only a few planned towns in the country. The original architectonic plans for the town, however, are not available.
Revolutionary period (1916 to 1922)
In 1916, Westport's John MacBride became unexpectedly involved in the Easter Rising when, while visiting Dublin for his brother’s wedding, he encountered Thomas MacDonagh and offered his services. He was soon appointed second-in-command of the Irish Volunteers at Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, where he directed men in defending the position. After the surrender, he was court-martialled and executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol on 5 May 1916, refusing a blindfold and facing death defiantly. His execution sent shockwaves back to Westport and it helped to radicalise opinion in the town, with dozens of local Volunteers later arrested and interned in Britain during the revolutionary period.
After the Easter Rising of 1916, in Westport over 30 Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin supporters were arrested by the RIC under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 on the orders of resident magistrate John Charles Milling and the local District Inspector, Shore.http://westmayo.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/District-Inspector-Resident-Magistrate-John-Charles-Miling-2.pdf District Inspector & Resident Magistrate John Charles Milling by Dominic Price Those arrested included Joe Ring, Tom Derrig and PJ Doris, editor of the Mayo News; they were sent to Frongoch internment camp in Wales. Joe Ring and others were released at Christmas 1916.
On 29 March 1919, Milling, resident magistrate to County Mayo since 1915, was killed by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) at his home on Newport Road, Westport.
During the Irish War of Independence, on 26 March 1921, following the killing of a constable by the IRA four days earlier, the Westport RIC left their barracks to punish the town and surrounding area. Homes and businesses of IRA families were targeted. The home and business of Charles Hughes, chairman of the Urban District Council, was destroyed, as was the pub and shop of Thaddeus Walsh, chairman of the Rural District Council. Other houses in the town and houses in Carrowkennedy, Drummindoo and Carrowbawn were destroyed or burned.The Flame and the Candle by Dominic Price published by The Collins Press 2012
A company of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary were based in Westport from June 1921.Atlas of the Irish Revolution Edited by John Crowley, Donal O Drisceoip and Mike Murphy published by Cork University Press 2017
Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Royal Irish Constabulary pulled out of their barracks for the last time on Monday 12 February 1922 and formally handed the barracks over the next day.
Civil War Early in the Irish Civil War, Mayo, including Westport, was controlled by the Anti-Treaty side. On the evening of 1 April 1922, Joe Ring was arrested in Westport by the IRA and held in Castlebar jail on charges of recruiting for the new National Army; he went on hunger strike and was released on 13 April, receiving a hero's welcome in Westport.
A cross-channel ferry, the SS Minerva, was kitted out as a troop carrier by the National Army and left North Wall, Dublin on 22 July, sailing around Ireland and arriving in Clew Bay on 24 July 1922. Col. Comdt. Christopher ('Kit') O'Malley from the Dublin Guard was in command and accompanied by Brigadier-General Joe Ring. The Minerva carried 400 troops and a Rolls-Royce 1920-pattern armoured car, nicknamed the Big Fella, with a Vickers machine gun and an 18-pounder artillery piece, as well as 600 rifles and 150 bicycles. It anchored off Inishlyre. General Ring led a landing by sea. The Coastguard station at Rosmoney was captured by 40 National Army troops, freeing 90 pro-treaty prisoners who were held there. Ring then landed his men and armoured car at Westport Quay. Republicans, who had not expected their arrival, set fire to the barracks and withdrew from the town. The pro-treaty forces were stationed at Westport Town Hall, where troops billeted there shot off the head of the Glendenning statue.
Mid to late 20th century The 1920s and 1930s saw important transport shifts. The train line to Achill, which had connected western communities to Westport, was progressively reduced and finally closed in 1937; the loss was part of a shift to wider transfer of goods and passengers from rail to road.
In 1960, Westport House opened to the public as a heritage and visitor attraction. It marked a major shift in the Westport economy towards the tourism sector.
In 1977, the pharmaceutical company Allergan established a plant in Westport, becoming one of the company’s largest global manufacturing and research facilities. The site initially specialised in producing eye-care products, and in 1993 it began manufacturing Botox. Over the following decades, the plant expanded several times, becoming a cornerstone of Westport’s economy and one of the largest employers in the west of Ireland.
Since the late 20th century, Westport has expanded with several new housing estates. These include Springfield, the Carrowbeg Estate, Horkans Hill, Cedar Park, Fairways, Knockranny Village and Sharkey Hill.
In 1990, the long-empty Glendenning Monument at the Octogon was restored and topped with a new statue of Saint Patrick, returning the column to prominence. The monument had originally been erected in 1845 to commemorate George Glendenning, a wealthy banker and land agent, reportedly because he left money in his will for its construction. Known locally as "Big George," the statue was damaged during the Civil War when Free State troops used its head for target practice. The broken figure had remained in place until 1943, when the local council removed it along with the coat of arms and inscriptions.
21st century