Ardbraccan

[2] The area is said to have maintained strong druidic traditions until St. Brecan converted the local Uí Borthim tribe in the 6th century.

[2][5] The current name of Ardbraccan originates from the Irish placename Ard Breacáin, meaning the heights or hill of Breacán[1].

[6] On this high point, a monastery and a succession of churches were built, each larger than the last to accommodate the growing number of religious worshippers.

Ardbraccan is mentioned in Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib as the site of a victory of the Uí Néill over the Vikings sometime in the mid-9th century.

In this period, Ardbraccan possessed two churches; St. Mary's (which was located in the Bishop's residence) and St. Ultan's, which was named after a local saint who had lived in St. Braccan's day.

Dr. Daniel Augustus Beaufort, remained in use until 1981 when it was deconsecrated due to the dwindling size of the Church of Ireland community in Ardbraccan.

While the Church of Ireland community used the name 'Ardbraccan' to refer to its parish, the nearby Roman Catholic parish in the 19th century opted to use a different name[citation needed], Bohermeen, from the Irish An Bóthar Mín, meaning 'the smooth road',[16] referring to a famous stretch of road that two thousand years before[citation needed] had passed through the neighbourhood and went to Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland.

These schools were intended, in the words of their programme, "to rescue the souls of thousands of poor children from the dangers of Popish superstition and idolatry, and their bodies from the miseries of idleness and beggary.