Clonee

Clonee Cluain Aodha
—  Village  —
Clonee Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 53°24′42″N 6°26′39″W / 53.4117°N 6.4442°W / 53.4117; -6.4442Coordinates: 53°24′42″N 6°26′39″W / 53.4117°N 6.4442°W / 53.4117; -6.4442
Country	Ireland
Province	Leinster
County	County Meath Fingal
Elevation	65 m (213 ft)
Population (2006)
- Urban	1,000
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference	O032412

Clonee (Irish: Cluain Aodha, meaning "Aodh's pasture"^[1]) is a satellite village and surrounding district on the border of County Meath and Fingal, Ireland. The county boundary actually runs through the district, just outside the village, which is in Meath, and many of the housing estates listed as Clonee, such as Littlepace and Hansfield, lie on the Dublin side of that boundary.

Location and access

Clonee is about 14 km from Dublin, and is accessible by the Dublin Bus routes 70/A/X (City Centre/Belfield - Dunboyne), 39 (Hawkins St to Ongar) and 270 (Blanchardstown Shopping Centre-Dunboyne). It is situated just off the main N3 Dublin to Cavan road and is 4 miles north-west of the M50 motorway. Dunboyne is just a couple of km away down the R156 road.

Facilities

Clonee has a primary school and a few shopping areas, in addition to facilities within the new housing developments being built around the village.

More facilities are also being built as part of the Árd Cluain development just outside the village, and a supermarket recently opened (in June 2008).

Points of note

The Kepak Group, a large food processing company with a turnover in excess of €500 million and employing more than 2000 people in Ireland and the UK, moved its headquarters to Clonee in 1981.^[2]

Since 1944, Clonee and Dunboyne have been connected through a series of connected underground tunnels.^{[citation needed]}

On January 1, 2005, the Littlepace housing estate in Clonee was struck by a small tornado, which caused damage to a number of houses and parked vehicles.^[3]

Gateway to Meath is a public art installation on the N3 Clonee Bypass. It features a 2.7m tall bronze man at 4m high bronze gate by the artist Ann Meldon Hugh.

Thomas Bracken (1843?-1898) who wrote the words to God Defend New Zealand, New Zealand's National Anthem was said to be born in Clonee, Co Meath. His mother was said to be Margaret nee Kernan or Kiernan who died shortly after Thomas's birth. His father Thomas Bracken was said to be a postmaster and died when Thomas was aged nine or ten. Thomas then went to Moonee Ponds, Victoria, Australia to his uncle John Kernan and came to New Zealand around 1869. He died in Dunedin in 1898 and is buried in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.^[4]

Source

1. ^ A. D. Mills, 2003, A Dictionary of British Place-Names, Oxford University Press
2. ^ http://www.bordbia.ie/go/abb/co?id=7027106 Irish Food Board (retrieved 19 August 2006)
3. ^ http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/01/01/story182855.html Breakingnews.ie, 'Mini tornado' damages 100 houses, retrieved 27 May 2009
4. ^ Broughton, W. S.. "Bracken, Thomas 1843–1898". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2b35. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

External links

• 2000 Clonee Draft Framework Plan