Down District Council has its headquarters in Downpatrick.

Horse racing has been held at Downpatrick under the charter of James II of England.

Downpatrick Cricket Club has won the Irish Senior Cup on two occasions, the NCU Senior League on six occasions and the NCU Challenge Cup on six occasions.

Downpatrick Golf Club has its own club grounds.

The town also has its own tennis club Downpatrick Tennis Club Downpatrick has several other clubs that use the facilities of the Down Leisure Centre ( run by Down District Council ) such as the Lecale Amateur Swimming Club, the Downpatrick School of Lifesaving and the East Down Athletics Club.

The Council has periodically had to provide funding to ensure that the Saint Patrick Visitor Centre in Downpatrick remains in operation.

-No. 1944 has been partially restored at the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway

Lord Downpatrick is the most senior person excluded from the line of succession for being a Roman Catholic under the Act of Settlement 1701, followed by his younger sister Lady Marina-Charlotte Windsor who also has been confirmed as a Roman Catholic.

The townland lies to the east of Downpatrick and has strong links with Saint Patrick.

In 1260 Brian O ' Neill ( Brian Ua Néill ), King of Tír Eoghain ( Tyrone ) and who had been acknowledged as High King of Ireland by Hugh O ' Conor of Connacht and Tadhg O ' Brien of Thomond marched to Downpatrick, a centre of English settlement, and, allied with a Connacht force under Hugh O ' Conor, fought the foreigners in the Battle of Down.

Downpatrick throughout the course of The Troubles had a significant paramilitary presence in the town, mostly through the presence of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( PIRA ) & Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA )

Downpatrick Racecourse Platform had opened on 8 March 1893, but closed in September 1949.

The following year he entered parliament as member for Downpatrick, obtaining the seat on petition, though he had been unsuccessful at the poll.

Upon her marriage in 1934, Princess Marina had become HRH The Duchess of Kent, Countess of St. Andrews, and Baroness Downpatrick.

He had previously represented Downpatrick in the Irish House of Commons.

:... the Earl of Ulster was treacherously seized while performing penance, unarmed and barefooted, in the churchyard of Downpatrick, on Good Friday, anno 1203, and sent over to England, where the king condemned him to perpetual imprisonment in the Tower ... After de Courcy had been in confinement about a year, a dispute happening to arise between King John and Philip Augustus of France concerning the Duchy of Normandy, the decision of which being referred to single combat, King John, more hasty than advised, appointed the day, against which the King of France provided his champion ; but the King of England, less fortunate, could find no one of his subjects willing to take up the gauntlet, until his captive in the Tower, the stout Earl of Ulster, was prevailed upon to accept the challenge.

Lord Dunleath, whose father had purchased the railway trackbed adjacent to his estate after the closure of the B & CDR in Downpatrick, gave the newly formed society a package of land on which to build the line and station for a peppercorn rent.

This was on the approaches to the old Downpatrick station, which had been demolished in the 1970s.

The Royal Air Force announced that Squadron Leader J. W. C. Simpson shot down one of the Heinkels over Downpatrick.

He was born on a farm in Dreghorn, North Ayrshire, and studied to be a veterinary surgeon at the Dick Vet, University of Edinburgh, a profession he pursued for nearly ten years at home, moving to Downpatrick, Ireland, in 1867.

In the final years, before the juniorate was closed in 1980, the students attended St. Patrick's High School in Downpatrick, run by the De La Salle Brothers.

Parts of it from Downpatrick to Inch abbey then opened as a tourist attraction in late 2009 to celebrate the closing of the line 60 years ago.

* Dr. Maurice Hayes, the former Northern Ireland Ombudsman, Chairman of the Ireland Funds and Taoiseach-appointed Senator in Seanad Éireann, was born and still lives in Downpatrick.

Closer to home, however, as chief engineer of the Belfast and County Down Railway ( founded in 1846 ), he was responsible for crossing the marshy estuary of the River Quoile ( the first bridge was constructed of timber piles driven into the riverbed ) to bring the line to Downpatrick in March 1859 ( part of the line is still operational from the town ’ s railway museum ).

County Down ( named after its county town, Downpatrick ) is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland.

He left teaching to become Town Clerk of Downpatrick the administrative centre of the county, succeeding his father in the role.

The 1837 Ordnance survey of the county of Londonderry concurs, and remarks " this mode of abbreviation is usual in Ireland, whenever the name of a place is compounded of two distinct and easily separable words ; thus [...] Carrickfergus is shortened into Carrick, Downpatrick into Down, [...] etc.

Katharine, Duchess of Kent ; her son and grandson, Lord Nicholas Windsor and Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, respectively, both of whose wives are Catholic, and her granddaughter, Lady Marina-Charlotte Windsor, as well as politicians such as Baroness Masham of Ilton and Ann Widdecombe, and, most recently, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose wife and children are Catholic, are prominent among laypeople who have converted.

There are also many youth teams such as the Celtic Bhoys, Ballynagross Shamrocks, Rossglass, Ballyvange and Patrician, who along with many other teams in the area, participate in the Downpatrick Youth

Downpatrick musician Ray Valentine recorded Ash's demos at his studio, Cosmic Rays.

* Ann Breen, a country singer, is from Downpatrick.

Her father, because he married a Roman Catholic, as well as her elder siblings, Lord Downpatrick and Lady Marina-Charlotte Windsor, both of whom also converted to and were confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church, are all ineligible to remain in the line of succession in accordance with the Act of Settlement 1701.

Most famous football side out of Downpatrick were Downpatrick Rec who won the Steel & Sons Cup in 1978.

In 2011 Downpatrick also won the PGL Midweek Division 2 title.

The parts of the relics which went to Ireland are reputed to be buried in Downpatrick, County Down, with St. Patrick and St. Brigid or at Saul Church neighbouring Downpatrick.

Downpatrick is approximately from Belfast with a regular bus service.

The name was superseded by the name Dún Lethglaise then Dún Dá Lethglas which in turn gave way, in the 13th century, to the present name of Dún Phádraig ( anglicised as Downpatrick )-from the town's connection with the patron saint of Ireland.

He marched north to with a force of 20 knights and 300 men and reached Downpatrick four days later.

* Downpatrick & County Down Railway is Ireland's only full-sized heritage railway, built on the town's former rail link to Belfast, links the town with Inch Abbey.

Downpatrick is classified as a medium town by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency ( i. e. with population between 10, 000 and 18, 000 people ).

He established Downe Veterinary Clinic in Downpatrick with his brother James Dunlop before moving to a practice in 38-42 May Street, Belfast.

Along with Newcastle and Downpatrick, it is one of the three largest towns of the Down District Council area.

Marys ' and one secondary school ' Saintfield High School ', with a large amount of its under-18 population travelling to schools in Downpatrick, Ballynahinch or Malone.

Of these seven later locos, one is preserved by the ITG at its Carrick-on-Suir base along with G601 above, and the ITG own another two which are on long term loan to the Downpatrick & Co Down Railway who themselves own another.

Bank official Christopher " Chris " Ward was taken from Poleglass to Downpatrick, the home of his supervisor, Kevin McMullan, while gunmen remained at his home with his family.

He is the author of three books of memoirs, Sweet Killough: Let Go Your Anchor ; Black Puddings with Slim: A Downpatrick Boyhood ; and Minority Verdict: Experiences Of A Catholic Civil Servant.