ARMAGH, a city and parliamentary borough, in the county of the same name, 82 miles north of Dublin, in Lat. 54. 20. 55. N. and in Long. 6. 37. 57. W. It is delightfully situated on the side of a steep hill, almost in the centre of a fertile valley. With the exception of Kilkenny and Clonmel, Armagh is the most populous inland town in Ireland. It is the seat of the archiepiscopal see of the primate of all Ireland, whose ecclesiastical province comprises six consolidated dioceses. 1. Armagh and Clogher; 2. Tuam, Ardagh, Killala, and Achonry; 3. Derry and Raphoe; 4. Down, Connor, and Dromore; 5. Kilmore and Elphin; 6. Meath. The corporation which was styled "the Sovereign, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Borough of Armagh," was abolished by the provisions of the Municipal Reform Bill. Markets are held on Tuesdays for general purposes, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays for grain. The city is connected with Belfast by the Ulster Railway, and will on the completion of the Newry and Enniskillen railway, possess direct communication with those towns. The borough of Armagh (constituency in 1851, 318) returns one member to the Imperial parliament. Pop. in 1851, 9306.
Armagh, though now much reduced in population, was once considered as the metropolis of the island, and second only to Dublin in the number of its inhabitants. The honour of being its founder is attributed to St Patrick. It was built on an eminence named Draimsailech, or the Hill of Willows; its present name is supposed to be a slight corruption of Ardmaca, the High Place or Field. In 448 a synod was held here, the canons of which are still in existence. During the period anterior to the arrival of the English in Ireland, it suffered extremely from the assaults of the Danes, by whom it was repeatedly plundered and burnt. Nor was its condition much bettered by the change of masters. De Courey, FitzAdelm, and De Lacy, pillaged it in turn in their attempts to subdue Ulster; and it was exposed to similar calamities during the wars by which the north of Ireland was desolated in the reign of Elizabeth. Her successor, James I., granted it a charter, according to which it has since been governed. Its decline was accelerated by the non-residence of the archbishops, who, in consequence of the unsettled state of the northern province, fixed their residence for many years at Drogheda. From this deplorable state it was raised by Lord Rokeby, better known by the name of Primate Robinson. When he determined to make it the seat of his permanent residence, this venerable city was little more than a collection of cabins. He erected in it an archiepiscopal palace, a college or grammar school for classical education, a public library, now containing about 14,000 volumes, and an observatory well furnished with astronomical instruments. Besides these, the city now contains a Roman Catholic
Armagnao chapel, a Roman Catholic cathedral in course of erection, three Presbyterian churches, and several places of worship for other religious denominations. Its other public buildings are, the cathedral, a cruciform building, repaired and beautified chiefly at the expense of the present primate, more remarkable for its antiquity than its architectural beauty, the court-house, the prison, the charter-school, the barrack, the county infirmary, the lunatic asylum, and the fever hospital, which last was erected and is maintained at the expense of Lord John George Beresford, the present primate. (II. 8—9.)