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Adare Ã?th Dara

Location

Adare

Historically, Adare was a crossing point on the river Maigue.

Renowned as one of Ireland's prettiest villages,^[3] Adare is designated as a Heritage Town by the Irish government.

Adare is located 16 km (10 mi) from Limerick City.

Adare is a major tourist destination, with many tours of Ireland's south-west stopping off in the village. The local heritage centre, which gives a deep insight into the history of the village, also hosts a number of craft shops. Adare is also a popular wedding and conference venue. Adare is becoming a major golf destination with two 18-hole courses - the Adare Golf Club, which incorporates a driving range and which was the site of the 2007 and 2008 Irish Open, the Adare Manor Golf Club and a Pitch and Putt course. Adare has one equestrian centre: Clonshire. Adare is home to a number of world-renowned stables.

The village offers three Hotels: The Adare Manor, The Dunraven Arms and Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel

Adare has six public houses. In the village: Bill Chawke's, Collins', Seán Collins' and Auntie Lena's. In the outlying areas are The Thatch and Neville's. Additionally, each of the three hotels and the two golf courses has bars/restaurants. Many of the pubs also serve food.

There are eight restaurants: The Wild Geese, The Inn Between, The Abbots Rest, The Arches Restaurant, The Blue Door Cottage Pantry, The Golden Dragon, The Pink Potato and Bia.

The main street combines quintessential Irish architecture with the English styled buildings and infrastructure purpose-built for the Dunraven estate. Examples of the latter architectural forms include the thatched cottages near the entrance to Adare Manor

St. Joseph's National School (boys), Our Lady's Abbey NS (girls),^[4] St. Nicholas' primary school (Church of Ireland) (mixed) and Scoil Seán tSraide (mixed).

The main Limerick-Tralee road, the N21 goes through the village. The Adare Bypass is at an early planning stage with construction unlikely to begin before 2011. Adare is a stop on the hourly Limerick-Tralee/Killarney bus service. A railway line to Foynes passes through the town,^[5] but Adare railway station, which opened on 12 July 1856, was closed to passengers on 4 February 1963 and mothballed on 2 December 1974.^[6]

The ancient town lay upon the eastern bank of the Maigue near a ford (crossing point) in the region known as Ardshanbally (derived from ard sean bhaile, 'high old town'), about half-a mile from the modern town on the western side. Historically a market town, in the Middle Ages Adare was a major settlement and boasted three monasteries and a castle.

The Augustinian Priory was founded in 1316 by John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare. The Priory was suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1807, the church of the Priory was given to the local Church of Ireland congregation as the parish church. In 1814 the refectory was roofed and converted into a schoolhouse. Between 1852 and 1854 a second restoration of the church was undertaken by Caroline, Countess of Dunraven.

The Franciscan friary was founded in 1464 by Thomas Fitz-Maurice, 7th Earl of Kildare and his wife Joan, and completed two years later. It is currently a ruin and is located inside the Adare Manor Golf Club. Every Easter Sunday a dawn mass is celebrated in the Abbey.

The Trinitarian Order established their only monastery in Ireland in Adare in 1230. The Abbey was restored in 1811 by the first Earl of Dunraven as the Catholic Parish church.

Said to have been built originally by the O'Donovans, and afterwards to have passed into the possession of the Kildare branch of the FitzGeralds. Desmond castle, as it is popularly known stands on the north bank of the Maigue. An extensive renovation is being carried out on the castle since 1996 and supervised tours are offered in the summer months.

Gaelic games, particularly hurling are popular in Adare. The Adare GAA club was founded in 1929. The senior hurling team has won the county championship in 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2008. In football Adare been less successful, however in 2002 Adare narrowly lost out on the county title. The village regularly enjoys success at underage level in both codes.

The local soccer team is known as Adare United AFC. They currently play at Deer Park Field, situated just off the Blackabbey Road in the village. Founded in 1937, Adare has one of the oldest soccer clubs outside of Limerick City. Adare United participate in the Limerick Desmond Schoolboys/Girls League at Under 8, U10, U12, U14 and U16 age groups and in the Limerick Desmond League at Junior (adult) and Youth level. The 2006/07 Season saw the club form its first ever ladies team and they compete in the Limerick Desmond Ladies League. The Under 10 team are Division 3 Champions for the 2008/09 season. The Junior team won promotion from Division Two in the 08/09 season also.

Golf is very popular in Adare, with the village currently home to the Irish Open golf championship. There are two 18-hole golf courses in the village: The Adare Golf Club which is on the grounds of the Adare Manor Hotel, and the Adare Manor Golf Club, which is a separate entity.

Interesting Facts

Adare was national winner of the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1976.

Cape Adare (Antarctica) was named in honour of Viscount Adare by his friend Captain Ross in January 1841. The title is derived from the village.