Qualla: Drogheda https://qualla.com/drogheda en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Drogheda https://qualla.com/drogheda Drogheda: Introduction https://qualla.com/drogheda/ In St Peter's Catholic Church on West Street, behind glass in a brass reliquary on the north wall, is the preserved severed head of Saint Oliver Plunkett. He was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, executed for treason in London in 1681 on perjured evidence, and the last Catholic martyr of England. His head has been displayed in Drogheda since 1921. Tourists pause in front of it. Schoolchildren on history trips peer up at the dark, leathery face behind the glass. It is the most extraordinary religious relic in Ireland, and it sits in the centre of an Irish port town that has spent the last eight centuries being important in ways that did not always end well for the people who lived here.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Drogheda: Bridge at the Ford https://qualla.com/drogheda/ The name Drogheda comes from the Irish Droichead Átha - bridge at the ford. The town sits at the lowest crossing of the River Boyne, where the river bends through the last meadows before reaching the Irish Sea four miles downstream at Mornington. The Norman lord Hugh de Lacy buil...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-bridge-at-the-ford.mp3 0:06 2 full Drogheda: Poynings' Law https://qualla.com/drogheda/ Drogheda was a walled town of the English Pale - the medieval band of English-controlled territory along the east coast - and the Irish Parliament frequently met within its walls. In 1494, the Parliament moved here under Sir Edward Poynings and passed what would become one of the...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-poynings-law.mp3 0:06 3 full Drogheda: The Boyne and the Head https://qualla.com/drogheda/ Twelve miles upstream of Drogheda, at Oldbridge, the Battle of the Boyne was fought on 1 July 1690 - a defeat for the Catholic James II and his Jacobite-French army at the hands of his Protestant son-in-law William of Orange. The battle is commemorated on the Boyne valley today b...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-the-boyne-and-the-head.mp3 0:06 4 full Drogheda: Pope on His Knees https://qualla.com/drogheda/ In September 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Ireland and stopped in Drogheda. He arrived less than a month after the IRA had assassinated Lord Mountbatten on his fishing boat at Mullaghmore in Sligo - one of the most shocking acts of the Troubles. The pope spoke to 300,000 people...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-pope-on-his-knees.mp3 0:06 5 full Drogheda: Forty-Four Thousand Now https://qualla.com/drogheda/ Modern Drogheda is the largest town in the Republic of Ireland - 44,135 people at the 2022 census, technically still classed as a town rather than a city, although its population has long since outgrown that distinction. It is a commuter town for Dublin to the south and Belfast t...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/3/drogheda-wp/gce3-drogheda-forty-four-thousand-now.mp3 0:06 6 full