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Faughart

County LouthUse Hiberno-English from November 2021

Faughart (also written Fochart) is an early Christian ruins and shrine site just north of Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. As a popular site for modern pilgrimages, it was the birthplace of St Brigid in 451 AD, and one of her relics is held in a church in nearby Kilcurry. Edward Bruce, a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, is buried in the graveyard on the hill above the shrine (54°03′06″N 6°23′03″W). Bruce, who had taken the title King of Ireland, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughart in 1318. Landmarks include St Brigid's stone and pillar, her shrine and well, and modern religious sites devoted to the saint that attract thousands of pilgrims and tourists, providing a massive boost to the local economy. Ruins include an Iron Age fort, a Norman motte-and-bailey castle, and a medieval church. Situated 3 km north of Dundalk and 6 km south of Forkill, and standing at the southern end of the Gap of the North/Moyry Pass, Faughart held huge strategic importance for many centuries and was the scene of many battles; one such legendary battle was fought by Cú Chulainn in the Táin.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Faughart (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

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Latitude Longitude
N 54.043055555556 ° E -6.3847222222222 °
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A91 FFP3 (Ballymascanlan ED)
Ireland
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1989 Jonesborough ambush

The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car, a red Vauxhall Cavalier, was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, who the policemen had taken for British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was forced to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.Nobody has been charged with killing the two officers. There have been allegations that the attack was the result of collusion between the Gardaí and the Provisional IRA. As a result, Canadian judge Peter Cory investigated the killings in 2003; his findings were published in a report. This led to the Irish government setting up the Smithwick Tribunal, a judicial inquiry into the killings which opened in Dublin in June 2011 and published its final report in December 2013. In the Judge Peter Smithwick report he was unable to find direct evidence of collusion but said 'on balance of probability', somebody inside the Dundalk Garda station had passed on information to the IRA regarding the presence of Breen and Buchanan. He added that he was "satisfied there was collusion in the murders".