Lurgan (from Irish An Lorgain, meaning 'the long low ridge') is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Belfast.

[3] The Mac Cana (McCanns) were a sept of the O'Neills and Lords of Clanbrassil prior to the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century.

[4] Around 1610, during the Plantation—and at a time when the area was sparsely populated by Irish Gaels[4]—the lands of Lurgan were granted to the English lord William Brownlow and his family.

During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Brownlow's castle and bawn were destroyed, and he and his wife and family were taken as prisoners to Armagh, and then Dungannon, County Tyrone.

William Brownlow died in 1660, but the family would continue their contributions to the development of the linen industry, which peaked in Lurgan in the late 17th century.

There were a number of reasons for this sudden surge in population; the opportunities provided by the booming linen industry of the day led many workers to abandon their likely-meagre living (in rural areas), relocating to Lurgan with the hopes of gaining employment.

Eventually, the excess numbers of poorer workers moving into town resulted in issues of over-crowding, poor sanitation and a very low general standard of living.

When the potato crop failed for a second time in 1846, the subsequent famine in-turn led to a workhouse which had exceeded its 800-person capacity, by the end of that year.

The relief committee raised money by subscriptions from local landowners, gentry and members of the clergy, with the funds being matched from Dublin.

In an attempt to provide employment, and thereby give the destitute the means to buy their own food items, Lord Lurgan devised a scheme of land-drainage on his estate.

The sort of dedicated bicycle and pedestrian paths that were built in Craigavon were also incorporated into newer housing areas in Lurgan, additional land in and around the town was zoned for industrial development, neighbouring rural settlements such as Aghacommon and Aghagallon were developed as housing areas, and there was an increase in the town's population, although not on the scale that had been forecast.

The textile industry remained a main employer in the town until the late twentieth century, with the advent of access to cheaper labour in the developing world leading to a decline in the manufacture of clothing in Lurgan.

[13] Lurgan and the associated towns of Portadown and Craigavon made up part of what was known as the "murder triangle"; an area known for a significant number of incidents and fatalities during The Troubles.

[15] The legacy of the Troubles is continued tension between Roman Catholics and Protestants, which has occasionally erupted into violence at flashpoint 'interface areas'.

[16] On 5 March 1992, a 1,000 lb truck bomb, believed to have been planted by the IRA, exploded in Market Street causing mass damage to commercial properties.

The two main formations in north Armagh are an area of estuarine clays by the shore of the lough, and a mass of basalt farther back.

[6] The oldest part of the town, the main street, is built on a long ridge in the townland (baile fearainn) of Lurgan.

The councillors for the DEA are: For census purposes, Lurgan is not treated as a separate entity by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

A fairly accurate population count can be found by combining the data of the electoral wards that make up the Lurgan urban area.

[45] There was a Synagogue at 49 North Street for the Lurgan Hebrew Congregation, founded prior to 1906 by Joseph Herbert (originally Herzberg) from Tukums in Latvia, but this closed in the 1920s around the time of the founder's death.

This has had a detrimental effect on the retail trade in Lurgan in the same way that out-of-town shopping developments in other parts of Northern Ireland have damaged other traditional town centres.

The town is a frequent recipient of derision by the BBC Northern Ireland comedy panel show The Blame Game.

[56] In 1893, the land was purchased by Lurgan Borough Council and opened as a public park in 1909 by Earl Aberdeen, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

A grey granite hexagonal temple-shaped war memorial sits at the entrance to Church Place, topped by a bronze-winged statue representing the spirit of Victorious Peace.

[62] Brownlow House, known locally as 'Lurgan Castle', is a distinctive mansion built in 1833 with Scottish sandstone in an Elizabethan style with a lantern-shaped tower and prominent array of chimney pots.

It began in ancient times as a simple double ring fort, the outline of which is still noticeable,[64] and is today an historic burial site holding the remains of people who lived in the earliest days of the town's existence, including the Brownlow family.

[66] It was eventually found to be too small given the growth of the town, and the Irish Parliament granted permission to build a replacement in 1725 one mile away on the 'Green of Lurgan', now known as Church Place, where it stands to this day.

This was a radical departure from traditional church architecture with its grey plaster finish, copper roof, slim spire, hexagonal angles and modern design throughout.

It was designed to cope with the extra demand for worship space following the growth of the surrounding Taghnevan and Shankill housing estates.

[89] The gasworks used to be in North St., but there is no longer any town gas since it was abolished in Northern Ireland in the 1980s by the Thatcher government for being uneconomical,[90] although it was restored to the greater Belfast area in 1996.