Dunmanway

Dunmanway Dúnmaonmhuí
Dún Mánmhaí
A statue of Sam Maguire in the town square.
Flag
Dunmanway
Coordinates: 51°43′15″N 9°6′46″W / 51.72083°N 9.11278°W / 51.72083; -9.11278
Country	Ireland
Province	Munster
County	Cork
Town charter	23 November 1693
Population (2011)
• Total	2,377
Demonym(s)	Doheny
Time zone	WET (UTC0)
• Summer (DST)	IST (UTC+1)
Area code(s)	023
Website	www.dunmanway.ie

Dunmanway (Irish: Dúnmaonmhuí, official Irish name: Dún Mánmhaí) is a town in County Cork, in the southwest of Ireland. It is the geographical centre of the region known as West Cork. It is the birthplace of Sam Maguire, an Irish Protestant republican, for whom the trophy of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is named.

There is disagreement over the meaning and origin of the town's name. Various sources list its meaning when translated from Irish as "the castle of the yellow river," "the castle on the little plain," "the fort of the gables (or pinnacles)," and "the fort of the yellow women." The town centre is built on and around two rivers, each of which are tributaries of the larger River Bandon, which passes by at the east end of the town.

The town is twinned with Quéven, France. Dunmanway won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1982. More recently, the town came to national and international attention thanks to a visit by Liverpool Football Club for a pre-season soccer friendly.

The population of Dunmanway and its environs at the 2011 census was 2,377.

Dunmanway has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as testified by a Bronze Age trumpet in the British Museum. 19th century references date the founding of Dunmanway to the late 17th century, when the English crown settled a colony there to provide a resting place for troops marching between Bandon and Bantry. By 1700, about thirty families lived in the town.

Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1703 to 1707, was the town's most important early patron. Cox obtained a grant from King William III to hold market days and fairs in the town and strongly encouraged the development of the local flax industry. To that end, Cox imported artisans from Ulster to teach the required skills. He sponsored numerous incentives for local residents involved in making linen, including rent-free housing for top producers, bonuses for efficient labourers, rewards for schoolgirls who showed strong loom skills, and production contests with generous prizes. In 1735, the town consisted of forty houses and two to three hundred people. By 1747, the linen industry was well established, and Cox's personal census recorded 557 people. Two years later, it rose to 807.