Keady

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Town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland

title: "Keady" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["towns-in-county-armagh", "civil-parish-of-keady"] description: "Town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland" topic_path: "general/towns-in-county-armagh" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keady" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
official_name	Keady
irish_name	An Céide
static_image_name	Kinelowen St Keady, Co. Armagh.jpg
static_image_width	250
static_image_caption	Kinelowen Street
map_type	Northern Ireland
coordinates
irish_grid_reference	H844340
population	3,327
population_ref	(2021 census)
unitary_northern_ireland	Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
lieutenancy_northern_ireland	County Armagh
constituency_westminster	Newry and Armagh
country	Northern Ireland
post_town	ARMAGH
postcode_area	BT
postcode_district	BT60
dial_code	028
constituency_ni_assembly	Newry and Armagh
::

::callout[type=note] the village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland ::

Keady () is a small town and civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is south of Armagh and near the border with the Republic of Ireland. It is situated mainly in the historic barony of Armagh with six townlands in the barony of Tiranny. It had a population of 3,327 people in the 2021 census.

A tributary of the River Callan, known as the Clea, flows from its source in Clea Lake (also spelled as Clay Lake) through the middle of the village. The River Clea once powered Keady's millwheels. In the middle of the town, on the banks of the river, stands the Old Mill, which has been converted into workshops and offices.

History

The Troubles

For more information see The Troubles in Keady, which includes a list of incidents in Keady during the Troubles resulting in two or more deaths.

Transport

The railway arrived in Keady in 1909, with the opening of the Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh Railway line (owned by the Great Northern Railway Ireland) from Armagh, which was extended to Castleblayney in 1910. Keady railway station opened on 31 May 1909, closed for passenger traffic on 1 February 1932 and finally closed altogether on 1 October 1957. As a cross border line, when the Irish Free State was created in 1922, it lost all passenger traffic in 1923, with freight being withdrawn from the cross border section from Castleblayney to Keady in 1924. The Armagh to Keady freight service was withdrawn on 1 October 1957.
There is a railway viaduct in Keady as well as one of the more interesting artifacts of Irish railway history, the tunnel for the Ulster and Connaught Light Railway. This was a proposal for a narrow gauge line from Greenore, County Louth to Clifden, County Galway, for which the tunnel under the railway embankment at Keady was built, but never used. Ulsterbus now use part of the tunnel as a bus garage.
Ulsterbus operates a few routes through the town to Armagh, these include the 69/a (Darkley)/c (Castleblayney).

People

Cathal Boylan, Sinn Féin MLA
Michael Colgan, actor
Jimmy Jones, footballer
Tommy Makem, singer, musician, and songwriter
Sarah Makem (18 October 1900 – 20 April 1983) Traditional Irish singer
Dessie O'Hare, Irish republican paramilitary
John Dillon Nugent (1869 – 1 March 1940) Irish nationalist politician
Louisa Watson Peat (1883–1953) was an Irish-born writer and lecturer.

Churches in Keady

St Patrick's Church, Keady, is one of the largest churches in the Archdiocese of Armagh in regard to seating capacity. Built in 1860, it was extended and extensively renovated in 1989.
Keady Baptist Church, Pastor Paul McAdam
The Temple Presbyterian, Rev Ian Abraham
Second Keady Presbyterian, Rev Alan Marsh
St Matthew's Church of Ireland

Schools

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/St._Patrick's_High_School,Keady-geograph.org.uk-_1635320.jpg" caption="St Patrick's High School"] ::

Demography

Keady is classified as an intermediate settlement by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with a population between 2,500 and 4,999 people). At the 2011 census, the population of Keady was 3,051, accounting for 0.17% of the NI total. Of these:

21.53% were aged under 16 years and 14.00% were aged 65 and over
48.90% of the population were male and 51.10% were female
87.45% were from a Catholic background and 10.32% were from a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' background

Civil parish of Keady

The civil parish contains the villages of Darkley and Keady.

Townlands

The civil parish contains the following townlands:

References

"Bunachar Logainmneacha na hÉireann".
"Keady".
"Keady in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (Northern Ireland)".
"Keady station". Railscot - Irish Railways.
Stanley Kunitz, Marie D. Loizeaux (1952) ''Wilson Library Bulletin'', Vol. 27. p. 682
[[Anne Innis Dagg]] (2001) ''The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945.'' p. 236-237
"Welcome Statement".
(March 2015). "Review of the Statistical Classification and Delineation of Settlements". [[Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency]] (NISRA).
"Census 2011 Population Statistics for Keady Settlement". [[Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency]] (NISRA).

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::