Caledon, Tyrone
| Caledon | |
| Tyrone | |
|---|---|
 Mill Street, Caledon | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | H755453 |
| Location: | 54°21’0"N, 6°49’59"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 387 (2001) |
| Post town: | Caledon |
| Postcode: | BT68 |
| Dialling code: | 028 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Mid-Ulster |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Fermanagh and South Tyrone |
Caledon is a small village and townland (of 232 acres) in Tyrone, sitting in the Clogher Valley on the banks of the River Blackwater, six miles from Armagh. The whole village is a designated conservation area.
This village is in the south-east of Tyrone and near the borders of County Armagh and County Monaghan, the latter in the Irish Republic, in the Barony of Dungannon Lower.
The 2001 Census recorded a population of 387 people.
Caledon was historically known as Kinnaird, from the Gaelic Cionn Aird, meaning "head/top of the height or hill".[1]
History
The old settlement of Kinard was burned in 1608 by the forces of Sir Cahir O'Doherty during O'Doherty's Rebellion. Sir Henry Óg O'Neill, the main local landowner, was killed by the rebels.
Caledon House was built in 1779 by James Alexander, a member of the Irish House of Commons for Londonderry, who had previously in 1778 bought the Caledon Estate. James Alexander was made Baron Caledon in 1790 and later Viscount Caledon in 1797. The House was begun in 1779 to designs by Thomas Cooley, but altered by John Nash in 1808–10.[2]
In 1967, a house in Caledon began a protest which marked the beginning of The Troubles. The Gildernew family, began a protest about discrimination in housing allocation by illegally occupying a house in Caledon, which the local council had allocated to a 19-year-old unmarried Ulster Protestant woman, Emily Beattie, who was the secretary of a local Ulster Unionist Party politician. Beattie was given the house ahead of older, married Roman Catholic families with children.[3] The protesters were evicted by officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, one of whom was Beattie's brother. The next day, the annual conference of the Nationalist Party unanimously approved of the protest action.[4]
Caledon railway station (on the narrow gauge Clogher Valley Railway) opened on 2 May 1887, but finally closed on 1 January 1942. Tynan and Caledon railway station on the mainline opened by the Ulster Railway on 25 May 1858. In 1876 the Ulster Railway merged with other railways companies to become the Great Northern Railway. The station was finally closed on 1 October 1957.[5]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Caledon, Tyrone) |
References
- ↑ Caledon - Placenames NI
- ↑ O'Neill, B (ed). (2002). Irish Castles and Historic Houses. London: Caxton Editions. p. 25.
- ↑ Dwyer, T. Ryle (4 October 2008). "The spark that lit the Troubles is still smouldering in the embers". Irish Examiner. http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/ryle-dwyer/the-spark-that-lit-the-troubles-is-still-smouldering-in-the-embers-73911.html.
- ↑ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1968". Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch68.htm.
- ↑ "Caledon and Tynan stations" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf.
