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 The
picturesque Ulster village of Moira, approximately 16
miles south west of Belfast on the M1 Motorway at
Junction 9, is once again the setting for the
10th Anniversary
National Countrysports Fair on 31 May
& 1 June 2008.
The village has a
reputation of being one of the most beautiful in
Northern Ireland and has won several competitions
including, Ulster in Bloom and Best Kept Small Town. It
has featured in Britain in Bloom and reached the
European finals of the Entente Florale. For most of the
year the village is a mass of flowering shrubs, roses,
flowerbeds and hanging baskets.
This sixteen century village has a rich history dating
back to the Vikings and, indeed, the Celts before that.
The name Moira originated from the Irish, Magh Rath,
meaning, The Plain of Ringed Forts. A one-thousand year
old Viking settlement is located at the edge of the
village.
Moira is also historic for being the site for the
bloodiest battle in early Irish history. In AD637,
Domhall, High King of Ireland fought Congal, King of
Ulster. Congal and his army were slaughtered near to
Berwick Hall, a thatched yeoman's cottage of the 1700s
that is located just outside the village, close to Moira
Station, the oldest operating railway station in
Ireland.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, visited Moira on
two occasions. In 1756 and again in 1760.
Coincidentally, a thriving Methodist Church still exists
in village to this day.
Today
Moira is one of the fastest growing communities in
Northern Ireland. It is located just a two minute drive
from the M1 Motorway and is at the hub of Northern
Ireland's road network system. The Port of Belfast and
the International Airport are only 30 minutes away.
Just over
a one-hour drive away is the Port of Larne,
which is accessed via dual-carriageway and Motorway for
virtually all the journey.
 Moira has excellent
facilities and a first-rate infrastructure with modern
 supermarkets, restaurants, bed & breakfast
establishments and comfortable hotel facilities just a
short drive away.
Even
though Moira is a thriving, growing community, it has a
lost little of its charm. It is a village that
feels like a real town. It even has a Town Hall
built around 1800. The
village with its wide main street, lined with red
berried Rowans and eighteenth century black-stone
houses, divided by carriage archways, was built mostly
by Sir Arthur Rawdon, arguably its most famous son. Alas his famous formal gardens have long since vanished
but the Demesne he established still
remains and it is here on 31 May & 1 June 2008 where Ireland's
National
Countrysports Fair will be held.
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