, in 1832, built on the site of the original church
Foundation Eamhain Mhacha (or Navan Fort), at the western edge of Armagh, was an ancient
pagan ritual or ceremonial site. According to
Irish mythology it was one of the great
royal sites of
Gaelic Ireland and the capital of
Ulster. It appears to have been largely abandoned after the 1st century. In the 3rd century, a
ditch and bank was dug around the top of Cathedral Hill, the heart of what is now Armagh. Its circular shape matches the modern street layout. Evidence suggests that it was a pagan sanctuary and the successor to Navan. Like Navan, it too was named after the
goddess Macha:
Ard Mhacha, meaning "Macha's height". This name was later
anglicised as
Ardmagh, which eventually became
Armagh. Navan and Armagh were linked by an ancient road which passes over Mullacreevie hill. After
Christianity spread to Ireland, the pagan sanctuary was converted into a Christian one, and Armagh became the site of an important church and
monastery. According to tradition,
Saint Patrick founded his main church there in the year 445, and it eventually became the head church of Ireland.
Muirchú writes that a pagan chieftain named
Dáire would not let Patrick build a church on the hill of Ard Mhacha, but instead gave him lower ground to the east. One day, Dáire's horses died after grazing on the church land. He told his men to kill Patrick, but was himself struck down with illness. They begged Patrick to heal him, and Patrick's holy water revived both Dáire and his horses. Dáire rewarded Patrick with a great bronze cauldron and gave him the hill of Ard Mhacha to build a church. Dáire has similarities with the Irish god
the Dagda.
Medieval era By the 7th century, Armagh had become the site of the most important church, monastery and
monastic school in the north of Ireland. The
Book of Armagh was produced in the monastery in the early 9th century and contains some of the oldest surviving specimens of
Old Irish. Armagh was at the heart of the kingdom of the Airthir, a part of the
Airgíalla federation. The church at Armagh looked to both the Airthir and neighbouring
Uí Néill for patronage. and it suffered at least ten Viking raids over the following century. A hoard seemingly lost by Vikings in the River Blackwater shows the high quality of metalwork being made in Armagh at this time. Armagh's claim to being the head church of Ireland was formally acknowledged at the
Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111. Following the
Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, Armagh was attacked by Anglo-Normans led by Philip de Worcester in 1185 and by
John de Courcy in 1189. It was also raided by Ruaidrí mac Duinn Sléibe of
Ulaid in 1196 and 1199. Archbishop
Máel Patraic Ua Scannail rebuilt Armagh cathedral in 1268 and founded a
Franciscan friary, whose remains can still be seen. There was also a small
Culdee community in Armagh until the 16th century. In the 1560s, English troops under
Thomas Radclyffe occupied and fortified the town, which was then attacked and largely destroyed by
Shane O'Neill. After the
Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598, the
routed English army took refuge at Armagh before surrendering to
Hugh O'Neill.
Modern era The
parliamentary borough of Armagh was a two-seat constituency in the
Irish House of Commons prior to 1801. It continued as a
one-seat constituency in the
United Kingdom House of Commons from 1801 to 1885. It had a municipal corporation which was abolished under the
Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. Armagh has been an educational centre since the time of Saint Patrick, and thus it has been referred to as "the city of saints and scholars". The educational tradition continued with the foundation of the
Royal School in 1608, St Patrick's College in 1834 and the
Armagh Observatory in 1790. The Observatory was part of
Archbishop Lord Rokeby's plan to have a university in the city. This ambition was finally fulfilled, albeit briefly, in the 1990s when
Queen's University of Belfast opened an outreach centre in the former hospital building. The
Catch-my-Pal Protestant Total Abstinence Union was founded in 1909 in Armagh by the minister of 3rd Armagh (now The Mall) Presbyterian Church, Rev. Robert Patterson. Although relatively short-lived it was very successful for that time, attracting many tens of thousands of members. It was influential in the development of a "two-community" narrative in Ulster which was important in the Ulster Unionist campaign during the
Home Rule crisis. A
blue plaque historical marker commemorating Rev. Patterson was erected on The Mall in 2019. Three brothers from Armagh died at the
Battle of the Somme during
World War I. None of the three has a known grave and all are commemorated on the
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. A fourth brother was wounded in the same attack. On 14 January 1921, during the
Irish War of Independence, a
Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) sergeant was assassinated by the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Armagh. He was attacked with a
grenade as he walked along Market Street and later died of his wounds. On 4 September 1921,
republican leaders
Michael Collins and
Eoin O'Duffy addressed a large meeting in Armagh, which was attended by up to 10,000 people. During
the Troubles in Armagh, the violence was substantial enough for a stretch of road on the outskirts of the city to be referred to as "
Murder Mile". Over the span of 36 years, although mainly concentrated in the years from 1969 until 1994, the small city, including some outlying areas, saw 86 deaths in the Troubles, including those of a number of people from the city who died elsewhere in Troubles-related incidents. Armagh City Hall, which had been built as the Tontine Buildings in 1828 and converted into a municipal building in 1910, was badly damaged in a bomb attack on 27 September 1972 and subsequently demolished. ==City status==