Longford, County, lies in the province of Leinster in the Republic of Ireland. It is a small county in the northern part of the central lowland of Ireland. It covers 403 square miles (1,044 square kilometers). The town of Longford is the county’s only large town. Most of the county’s people are Roman Catholics. Most of the remainder belong to the Church of Ireland or have no religious affiliation.
Economy.
County Longford is mainly rural. Its farmers raise beef and dairy cattle and hogs. For a long time, clothing and textiles were the leading manufactured products of the area. But employment in the clothing and textile industry has declined since the late 1900’s. Service industries in the county include education, health care, public administration, retail and wholesale distribution, and transport. The town of Longford is the main center for shopping and other services.
For many years, the people of County Longford used peat from the county’s bogs as a cooking fuel. Later, they burned it to produce electricity. Peat-fired power stations operated at Lanesborough on the River Shannon and at Lough Ree (Lake Ree). Peat bogs play an important role in storing carbon that can contribute to climate change. Growing recognition of the bogs’ value led to the closure of the county’s peat-fired plants and peat extraction facilities by the early 2020’s. Some areas of bog and wet soils have been planted with pine trees or native woodland species.
Land.
County Longford lies in the northwest of the province of Leinster, just southwest of the Ulster county of Cavan. County Westmeath borders County Longford to the east and south. The Connacht counties of Roscommon (to the west) and Leitrim (to the northwest) also border County Longford.
Most of County Longford is lowland, which rises gently from the River Shannon, with isolated hills. The underlying rock is limestone, with some slate and shale in the north. Most of the land is farmed, and about a fifth is bogland. Along the western boundary are the River Shannon and Lough Ree, into which flows the River Inny. Lough Gowna is in the north.
History.
What is now County Longford was once the territory of the O’Farrells of Annaly. Annaly was an earlier name of the area. This territory was the western extremity of the kingdom of Meath. In the 1100’s, the territory was granted by the English king to Hugh de Lacy, an Anglo-Norman nobleman, but there was little Anglo-Norman impact in the area. The O’Farrells remained powerful, and much of the county stayed under Irish control. In the 1600’s, the British government gave lands to British settlers. The town of Longford developed from around that time. County Longford suffered greater population loss than any other Leinster county from the Great Irish Famine in the 1840’s. More than one-fourth of the people died or emigrated.
