Armagh, United Kingdom

After Christianity spread to Ireland, the pagan sanctuary was converted into a Christian one, and Armagh became the site of an important church and monastery. According to tradition, Saint Patrick founded his main church there in the year 445, and it eventually became the head church of Ireland. Muirchú writes that a pagan chieftain named Dáire would not let Patrick build a church on the hill of Ard Mhacha, but instead gave him lower ground to the east. One day, Dáire's horses died after grazing on the church land. He told his men to kill Patrick, but was himself struck down with illness. They begged Patrick to heal him, and Patrick's holy water revived both Dáire and his horses. Dáire rewarded Patrick with a great bronze cauldron and gave him the hill of Ard Mhacha to build a church. Dáire has similarities with the Irish god the Dagda.

By the 7th century, Armagh had become the site of the most important church, monastery and monastic school in the north of Ireland. The Book of Armagh was produced in the monastery in the early 9th century and contains some of the oldest surviving specimens of Old Irish.

Armagh was at the heart of the kingdom of the Airthir, a part of the Airgíalla federation. The church at Armagh looked to both the Airthir and neighbouring Uí Néill for patronage. The Uí Néill High King, Niall Caille (Niall of the Callan), was buried at Armagh in 846 after drowning in the River Callan. His son, High King Áed Findliath, had a house at Armagh.

The first Viking raids on Armagh were recorded in 832, with three in one month, and it suffered at least ten Viking raids over the following century. A hoard seemingly lost by Vikings in the River Blackwater shows the high quality of metalwork being made in Armagh at this time.

Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, visited Armagh in 1004, acknowledging it as the head church of Ireland and bestowing it a large sum of gold. Brian was buried at Armagh cathedral after his death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Armagh's claim to being the head church of Ireland was formally acknowledged at the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111. The 1171 Council of Armagh freed all Englishmen and women who were enslaved in Ireland.

Following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, Armagh was attacked by Anglo-Normans led by Philip de Worcester in 1185 and by John de Courcy in 1189. It was also raided by Ruaidrí mac Duinn Sléibe of Ulaid in 1196 and 1199.

Archbishop Máel Patraic Ua Scannail rebuilt Armagh cathedral in 1268 and founded a Franciscan friary, whose remains can still be seen. There was also a small Culdee community in Armagh until the 16th century.

During the 16th century Tudor conquest of Ireland, Armagh suffered greatly in the conflict between the English and the O'Neills. Armagh was strategically important as it lay between the English Pale and the O'Neill heartland of Tyrone, and the town changed hands many times during the wars. In the 1560s, English troops under Thomas Radclyffe occupied and fortified the town, which was then attacked and largely destroyed by Shane O'Neill. After the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598, the routed English army took refuge at Armagh before surrendering to Hugh O'Neill. By the end of the Nine Years' War, Armagh lay in ruins, as shown on Richard Bartlett's 1601 map.

Following the Nine Years' War, Armagh came under English dominance and the cathedral came under the control of the Protestant Church of Ireland. The cathedral was rebuilt under Archbishop Christopher Hampton and the town began to be settled by Protestants from Britain, as part of the Plantation of Ulster. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, many British settlers fled to Armagh cathedral for safety. After negotiations with the besieged settlers, Catholic rebels under Felim O'Neill occupied the town. In May 1642, following several rebel defeats and massacres by settlers elsewhere, the rebels in Armagh seized the settlers' property and set fire to the town.

The parliamentary borough of Armagh was a two-seat constituency in the Irish House of Commons prior to 1801. It continued as a one-seat constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1801 to 1885. It had a municipal corporation which was abolished under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840.

Armagh has been an educational centre since the time of Saint Patrick, and thus it has been referred to as "the city of saints and scholars". The educational tradition continued with the foundation of the Royal School in 1608, St Patrick's College in 1834 and the Armagh Observatory in 1790. The Observatory was part of Archbishop Lord Rokeby's plan to have a university in the city. This ambition was finally fulfilled, albeit briefly, in the 1990s when Queen's University of Belfast opened an outreach centre in the former hospital building.