tv audience Fai cup final

**pineapple stu** · 08/12/2005, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu

The size thing isn't an urban myth. It's EU related. It's why Kilkenny was threatened with losing status.

Wikipedia notes that "There is no one standard international definition of a city" and that in the UK, a city is made so by royal charter "which is normally granted on the basis of size, importance or royal connection (traditional pointers have been whether the town has a cathedral or a university)."

There are surely smaller cities in Ireland than Kilkenny anyway? The likes of Newry and Armagh or others in the North, for example?

**bluemovie** · 08/12/2005, 12:53 PM

You'd know it was the close season when people are reduced to discussing the census. The lack of football is really starting to kick in already. I'd love to be going to a game tomorrow night. Three more months.

**dcfcsteve** · 08/12/2005, 2:17 PM

Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu

The size thing isn't an urban myth. It's EU related. It's why Kilkenny was threatened with losing status.

Simply not true. The smallest City in Britain is Wells in Somerset - population 15,000.

The EU doesn't give a feck about the size of cities, and certainly isn't in the business of forcefully stripping city or town status off anyone.

Are you going to roll-out that EU-knocking urban myth about the required curviture of bananas next......?

**dcfcsteve** · 08/12/2005, 2:21 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Wikipedia notes that "There is no one standard international definition of a city" and that in the UK, a city is made so by royal charter "which is normally granted on the basis of size, importance or royal connection (traditional pointers have been whether the town has a cathedral or a university)."

There are surely smaller cities in Ireland than Kilkenny anyway? The likes of Newry and Armagh or others in the North, for example?

There are 5 cities in the north (in order of size) : Belfast, Derry, Lisburn, Armagh, Newry. I've no idea how big Kilkenny is, so can't give a comparison, but wouldn't surprise me if Newry was smaller.

The last 3 are very recent additions - Newry and Lisburn being added for the millenium. Lisburn, which is essentially a glorified suburb of Belfast, was only added to act as a balance to nominating a nationalist town like Newry. Ridiculous....

From memory Armagh got formal city status in the 1980-90's.

**Aberdonian Stu** · 08/12/2005, 3:21 PM

Oh God knows. I believe all cities in Ireland were granted said status by a monarch however their are now other ways for municipalities to gain city status the primary one is reaching criteria laid out by the EU. The only criterion I recall is population but I believe there are other.

**Aberdonian Stu** · 08/12/2005, 3:27 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Simply not true. The smallest City in Britain is Wells in Somerset - population 15,000.

The EU doesn't give a feck about the size of cities, and certainly isn't in the business of forcefully stripping city or town status off anyone.

Are you going to roll-out that EU-knocking urban myth about the required curviture of bananas next......?

I normally don't quote entire posts but in this case it is relevant. Firstly this is not an 'EU-knocking' myth. For starters anyone who has followed my posts knows that I'm pro-Europe.

Secondly there was a big deal over Kilkenny's city status circa 2001 because of an EU-related assessment which initially reported it as having less than the required number of inhabitants (possibly less than Wells). The initial assessment didn't give a fair approximation of the city's boundaries and was in fact later found to have over 30,000 folk living within the technical boundary.

To the best of my knowledge no city, anywhere, has ever been stripped of it's status by the EU. The only loss of status I know of on this island was Armagh which later regained its status by charter.