Maynooth
Template:Ie citytown infoboxMaynooth (Maigh Nuad in Irish) is a town located in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is located on the R148 road between Leixlip and Kilcock, with the M4 motorway bypassing the town. Other roads connect the town to Celbridge, Clane, and Dunboyne.
Two third-level educational institutions -- St. Patrick's College, Maynooth founded by King George III in 1795 and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth founded in 1995 -- are located in the town. Despite the lower figures quoted by census results, the true population of the town is anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000. The difficulty in measurement is due to the fact that much of the town's population is transient - students at NUI Maynooth or temporary employees at the nearby Intel and Hewlett Packard facilities (both located in Leixlip).
The ancient name of Maynooth means the plain of Nuada. Nuada is referred to as the maternal grandfather of the legendary Fionn mac Cumhail in the 'Annals of the Four Masters'.
The town is the main retail and other service centre for North Kildare and South Meath, with branches of SuperValu, Tesco Ireland, Aldi and Lidl, as well as a wide variety of non-chain stores. In October 2005, Dunnes Stores opened a major shopping centre off the town's main street, Manor Mills. This centre contains a number of other high street names, such as Easons, with a Bank of Scotland (Ireland) branch due to open soon. Both Tesco and Dunnes Stores open 24 hours.
The town is the terminus of most Iarnrod Éireann western commuter rail services, as well as a being served by the Sligo InterCity service. Dublin Bus services also serve the town.
It contains a fire station, in addition to the area's largest Garda station, a health centre and branch library.
The town is a major historical centre, with Maynooth Castle and Carton House: two former seats of the Dukes of Leinster. The town is just inside the western edge of The Pale.
The most important historical buildings in the town are those of St. Patrick's College some of which antedate the foundation of the college, while others are in the late georgian and neo-gothic revival style. The new range of buildings was erected by E.W.N. Pugin in 1850 while the highly important College Chapel was designed and completed by J.J. McCarthy during the presidency of Dr. Robert Browne in 1894.
In the 1920s, the town was the unofficial home to the King's representative in Ireland, Domhnall Ua Buachalla, who declined to take up official residence in the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park, and whose family operated a hardware store in the town until 2005, the only store with an Irish language name in the town for many years.
The famed Connolly's Folly is also near the town, although it is arguably in Celbridge, as it is much closer to it, but is covered by Maynooth's very large town boundaries.
In the mid-1980s the town gained some minor fame for having the first callcard phones in Ireland; recently it has gained infamy for being home to the highest concentration of cannabis users in the state.
The historic Bond Bridge, built in 1798, on the road to Rathcoffey is currently under demolition and replacement (November 2005) after a long campaign by certain local residents for its improvement due to claims that it could cause an accident, despite massive costs to Kildare County Council and no road traffic accident related fatalities. The opening of a relief road linking the housing estates on the Rathcoffey road to the Straffan road allowed the start of the demolition. This road also removed the majority of heavy vehicles that would normally cross the bridge for the short period of time between its construction and the closure of the bridge. It is estimated that the work will take forty weeks to complete. It is expected to cost at least €5.6 million to complete, equivalent to 20% of Kildare County Council's entire roads & road safety budget.
Maynooth is also the name of a very small town north of Bancroft in Ontario, Canada.
Steven Byrne is reportedly from Maynooth (he's the one with the emo fringe, he's mad, you can't miss him!)
Christine And The Arsonist a local band of maynooth. Damery Guitars for them, He is a legend SUPREME!, and Seany boy Malone Plays Bass, he's maaaaaaad sexy!