Craigavon is a settlement in north County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was a planned settlement that was begun in 1965 and named after Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon. It was intended to be a linear city incorporating Lurgan and Portadown, but this plan mostly failed and less than half of the proposed work was finished. Among locals today, "Craigavon" refers to the mainly residential area between the two towns. Craigavon sometimes refers to the much larger Craigavon Urban Area, which includes "Craigavon Centre, Brownlow, Lurgan, Portadown, Waringstown and Bleary" with a population of 57,685. Craigavon was planned as a 'New City' for Northern Ireland that would mirror cities such as Milton Keynes in Great Britain. It was conceived as a linear city that would link the towns of Lurgan and Portadown to create a single urban area and identity. The argument for a new town was based on projections indicating population increases over the following decades that would require large scale house building. Similar projects had been successfully completed in Great Britain so it was in some ways a symbol of Northern Ireland as both modern and a