Location

Granard is the second largest town in County Longford and serves as one of the larger towns on the N55 route from the Midlands Region to the Northern Counties

Its location offers:

·        easy access to Dublin with drive time of one hour & thirty minutes.

·        excellent roads and rail networks

·        daily National and private coach service to Dublin and other major towns in both Southern and Northern Ireland.

·        Rural Transport Initiative Scheme for its rural local countryside, incorporating a wheelchair service. 

·        due to County Longford’s central location in the heart of Ireland drive time to the west or east coast is approximately one hour thirty minutes or less with drive time to the most northern and southern points of the island been approximately three hours & thirty minutes. 

Property and Job Opportunities

Longford is a tax designated county under the Rural Renewal Incentive scheme.  Owner Occupiers can deduct 5% of the qualifying expenditure per annum from their taxable income for a period of 10 years.  Investors providing rented residential accommodation can deduct 100% of the qualifying expenditure in 1 Year from their Irish income; any excess is carried forward against future Irish rental income. 

Granard offers quality affordable housing and significant opportunities for both commercial and industrial development. Employment is good with Pat the Baker, HKM Milling, and Lite-Pac Ltd being among the larger employers.  There are also numerous smaller employers encompassing all services and trades.

Recreation, Sport, Life & Leisure

Granard is a well-developed urban town with a strong community spirit. (population circa 1,500). It boasts a couple of hotels, a number of quality restaurants, Tea-Rooms, and a great variety of lively puts with both a traditional and modern music scene, serving good food and drink and offering the best of Irish hospitality.  The adjacent towns are hosts for a variety of night clubs.

Numerous shows and festivals take place in the town on an annual basis; these include:

·       an open air music festival, the traditional and famous Harp Festival (www.granard.harp.net),

·        angling competitions

·        a motor rally

·       annual show, various sporting activities and pony shows.  The latter along with horse jumping, the town is particularly famous with some of the all time greats in Irish horse riding history hailing from Granard such as Eddie Macken.

Its rural beauty is outstanding, surrounded by abundant fishing water-ways and many beautiful lakes and forests, such as Derrycassin Woods located in nearby state lands; which has recently been opened to the public and offers 179 acres of beautiful walkways along the shores of Lough Gowna.  The lakes have been a major boost to the local economy for many years with fishermen from home returning year after year.  Granard has strong historical links and further information can be found on http://www.longford.ie/community/townsection.asp

There are good sports and leisure facilities with GAA being very popular and competitive in the area. Granard hosts:

·        a Sports Complex and a Fitness Centre

·        a Pitch & Putt Club

·        a Clay pigeon Shooting Club

·        a Gun Club

·        the Granard Dernaferst Water Ski Club

·        a Literature and Music Society

·        many acclaimed Golf clubs such as Longford, Glasson, Cavan, Slieve Russell and Mullingar are within a short driving distance as are the

-         Longford Tennis Club

-         Rugby Club,

-         Soccer Club

-         Grey Hound Racing Track

-         Go-Kart Racing Track

-          Bowling Club

-         a wide variety of Fitness Centre, Health Clubs and Swimming Pools

·        The new “Carriglass” Golf & Country Club, designed by Retief Goosen is presently under construction and is only 10 miles from Granard

Education

The Granard region offers a wide variety of both town and country schools.  Granard town has two excellent second level schools which service a catchment area.  Both schools have excellent reputations.  There is also a good choice of facilities for pre-school children.

Famous people associated with Granard

·         Kitty Kiernan, born in Granard (1892-1945) Kitty was the fiancee of Michael Collins, a person well  known in the history of Ireland

·         The film called 'The Big Fella' starring Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson was about the life of Michael and Kitty

·         Frank Berry who has been national hunt champion jockey of Ireland on a number of occasions

·         Larry Cunningham the famous country singer of songs like 'A tribute to Jim Reeves'

·         Eddie Macken show jumper of international fame

·        Brendan O'Reilly of television fame is a direct decendant of John Dungan, who started the Granard Harp Festival, back in 1781

St Patrick is reported to have spent some time in Granard, as is also Queen Maeve