History
Kilcock takes its name from the 6th century Saint Coca who founded a church beside the river Rye, and who is traditionally said to have been a sister of St. Kevin of Glendalough; by occupation she was an embroiderer of church vestments, including those for St. Colmcille. A holy well dedicated to Coca, formerly thought to be lost in the back-yards of Kilcock, is known locally to be in the area behind the Ulster Bank, and her feast is remembered on 6 June. However, this commemoration is a modern revival as when the Ordnance Survey of the area was being made in 1837 it was recorded that "there is no old church in ruins in this parish nor is any patron saint or day remembered ... the meaning of the name Cille Choc is not remembered." When the present parish church was dedicated in 1867 it was named for St. Coca, and it had cost £10,000 to build to the design of architect J.J. McCarthy.
In the 8th century there was a battle between rival kings near the church of St. Coca, then in the territory of Carbury and close to the border between Leinster and Meath. There is a gap of several hundred years until the next reference to Kilcock when, in 1303, it belonged to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham.
St Coca's Church is erected in her honour in the centre of town. A recently commissioned icon of Saint Coca can be viewed there.
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1821 | 1,497 | — |
| 1831 | 1,730 | +15.6% |
| 1841 | 1,327 | −23.3% |
| 1851 | 1,164 | −12.3% |
| 1861 | 873 | −25.0% |
| 1871 | 764 | −12.5% |
| 1881 | 721 | −5.6% |
| 1891 | 647 | −10.3% |
| 1901 | 662 | +2.3% |
| 1911 | 590 | −10.9% |
| 1926 | 562 | −4.7% |
| 1936 | 475 | −15.5% |
| 1946 | 492 | +3.6% |
| 1951 | 670 | +36.2% |
| 1956 | 722 | +7.8% |
| 1961 | 739 | +2.4% |
| 1966 | 815 | +10.3% |
| 1971 | 827 | +1.5% |
| 1981 | 1,150 | +39.1% |
| 1986 | 1,414 | +23.0% |
| 1991 | 1,551 | +9.7% |
| 1996 | 1,825 | +17.7% |
| 2002 | 2,985 | +63.6% |
| 2006 | 4,100 | +37.4% |
| 2011 | 5,533 | +35.0% |
Read more about this topic: Kilcock
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)