Qualla: Portadown https://qualla.com/portadown 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: Portadown https://qualla.com/portadown Portadown: Introduction https://qualla.com/portadown/ They called it the Hub of the North. Not for any romantic reason. In the 1850s, the Great Northern Railway pushed lines outward from Portadown in four directions at once: north to Belfast, south to Dublin, west toward Armagh and Derry, and east toward Warrenpoint. The town that grew up at the meeting point became one of the most important transit nodes in Ulster, and a town of linen mills, victualling yards, and railway hotels. The hub function is mostly gone now. What is not gone is the river, the Drumcree parish church on its little hill above town, and a long history that takes in everything from Bramley apples to the most internationally watched parade dispute of the late 20th century.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Portadown: Plantation And Industry https://qualla.com/portadown/ Portadown was founded during the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century, when much of the surrounding land was granted to English and Scottish settlers. The town remained a small market settlement for two centuries before the Victorian railway transformed it. The first ra...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-plantation-and-industry.mp3 0:06 2 full Portadown: The River Bann https://qualla.com/portadown/ Portadown sits where the Upper Bann becomes navigable, and the river runs through the town from south to north, then on into Lough Neagh. The Newry Canal opened in 1742, connecting the Bann at Portadown to the sea at Newry; it was the first summit-level canal built in either Irel...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-the-river-bann.mp3 0:06 3 full Portadown: Drumcree https://qualla.com/portadown/ On a low hill in the parish of Drumcree, just outside the town centre on the western bank of the Bann, stands the Church of the Ascension, a small Church of Ireland parish church built in the 1850s. Each year on the Sunday before the Twelfth of July, members of the Portadown Dist...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-drumcree.mp3 0:06 4 full Portadown: Robert Hamill And Rosemary Nelson https://qualla.com/portadown/ Portadown was the site of two of the most disturbing killings of the late Troubles. Robert Hamill, a 25-year-old Catholic father of four, was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in central Portadown on 27 April 1997 while four police officers sat in a Land Rover twenty feet away. N...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-robert-hamill-and-rosemary-nelson.mp3 0:06 5 full Portadown: The People's Park And The Wrap https://qualla.com/portadown/ Portadown's People's Park, on the northern side of town, dates from 1909 and has a lake, ornamental gardens, and one of the best collections of rare trees in Northern Ireland, including several Northern Champion trees that are the largest specimens of their kind in the province. ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-the-peoples-park-and-the-wrap.mp3 0:06 6 full Portadown: Apples And Music https://qualla.com/portadown/ Of all the things Portadown is now known for, the orchards remain the most quietly beloved. Half a million apple trees grow in the surrounding country, mostly Bramleys, and the Apple Blossom Festival in May is one of the most popular small festivals in the north. The novelist Mau...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/m/portadown-wp/gcem-portadown-apples-and-music.mp3 0:06 7 full