Ardstraw
| Ardstraw | |
| Tyrone | |
|---|---|
 Ardstraw Presbyterian Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | H348874 |
| Location: | 54°44’2"N, 7°27’35"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 222 (2001) |
| Post town: | Strabane |
| Postcode: | BT82 |
| Dialling code: | 028 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Derry and Strabane |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
West Tyrone |
Ardstraw is a small village, townland in Tyrone, three miles northwest of Newtownstewart. The 2001 Census recorded a population of 222 people, in 81 houses. The townland is in the Barony of Strabane Lower.
The name of the village is from the Gaelic Ard Sratha, meaning 'hill or height of the strath'.[1]
Bishopric
The Diocese of Ardstraw was founded in the 6th century by St Eoghan. It is one of the dioceses recognized by the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111. Although the 1152 Synod of Kells replaced it in its list of dioceses with that of Maghera, the seat of which was later moved to Derry, bishops of Ardstraw continued to exist until the early 13th century, when the see was finally united to that of Derry.[2]
Though it has not has a bishop since the Middle Ages, Ardstraw is today listed by the Roman Catholic Church as a titular see.
John de Courcy
In 1198, John de Courcy, a Norman knight who had invaded Ulster in 1177, destroyed the church of Ardstraw on his way to Inishowen.[3]
Sport
- Football: Ardstraw F.C.
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Ardstraw) |
References
- ↑ Ardstraw - Placenames NI
- ↑ Henry Cotton, The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland. Fasti ecclesiae Hiberniae, Vol. 3, The Province of Ulster, Dublin, Hodges and Smith 1849, pp. 307–311
- ↑ DeBreffny, D; Mott, G (1976). The Churches and Abbeys of Ireland. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 60–61.