"Lisburn City (As of 2002)" a Lisburn Travel Page by arty_girl

Lisburn is a city in the north-east of Northern Ireland, UK, close to Belfast. It was previously known as Lisnargarvey, originating from the Irish "Lios na gCearrbhach" meaning "fort of the gamblers". The history of Lisburn as a town mainly begins in 1600. It was a dramatic year in which scores of Irish chieftains were in arms against the rule of the English in Ireland, and among them was the chief of “Killultagh” whose stronghold the tiny village of Lis-na-garvoch - formed the nucleus of the modern town of Lisburn.

When this last rising of Gaelic Ireland failed, the territory of Killultagh passed into the hands of Sir Fulke Conway who invited English and Welsh tenants to settle in his village of Lisnagarvey. When the Conway Castle was built in 1627, fifty ­three tenements constituted the settlement. In 1641, Bridge Street, Castle Street and the Market Square area, the basic street formation of modern Lisburn, were already in existence.

Of the great rebellion in 1641, in which Lisburn remained loyal to England and King Charles 1, the records have this to say: "More than 300 of the insurgents were slain in Bridge Street and 300 in Castle Street and in the meadows behind the houses." The rebels, unable to take the town, reduced it to ashes, whereupon the name of Lisnagarvey began to change to that of Lisburn.

In 1707, another great fire halted the growth of Lisburn. Once again it was reduced to ashes, this time even the great castle falling to the flames. The castle was never rebuilt, but its gardens remained to become the property of the people of Lisburn in the later nineteenth century.

(with thanks to Lisburn.com for a lot of this info)

The story of the massive expansion will continue shortly