Traditionally a market town serving the large agricultural hinterland, Mullingar remains a significant commercial location. It had a tradition of cattle-trading until 2003, when its cattle market was closed for development of a mixed commercial and residential scheme called Market Point. However, in 2014 the local County Council have allowed an annual Christmas Market to take place on Mount Street.
Among Mullingar’s major exports are items of pewterware produced by Mullingar Pewter. Also associated with Mullingar is Genesis Fine Art, which produces gift items. The “Pilgrims” sculpture on Mullingar’s Austin Friars Street, at which location there once stood an Augustinian Friary, was crafted by Genesis on foot of a commission by the Mullingar chapter of Soroptimists International. Mullingar’s commercial sector has expanded in recent years from just a few shops on the town’s main thoroughfares – Oliver Plunkett Street, Austin Friars Street, and Mount Street – to several major shopping areas. There is an out-of-town retail park at Lakepoint (about 1.6 km from the town centre), the Harbour Place Shopping Centre near the town centre, and a new development at the Green – on the site of the former Avonmore and Penneys units. The town has several hotels
Mullingar’s most notable building is the cathedral of Christ the King Mullingar, the cathedral of the Diocese of Meath. The Cathedral was dedicated on the day World War II broke out. Designed to replace the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (1836-1936), planning commenced in 1920. William Byrne & Sons of Dublin designed the cathedral to be basillican in form and renaissance in style. Its distinctive twin towers, surmounted by bronze crosses, rise to a height of about 55 metres. It was built with a seating capacity of 5,000. Building began in March 1933 and the foundation stone was laid on 6 August of that year by Bishop Thomas Mulvany. Murphy of Dublin were the builders, while much of the artistic decoration work was completed by Earley & Co. of Camden Street, Dublin and Oppenheimer Ltd., of Old Trafford, Manchester. The formal opening and dedication of the new cathedral took place on 6 September 1936. At the request of Pope Pius XI, it became the first cathedral in the world to be dedicated to Christ the King. It was solemnly consecrated on 13 August 1939.
