town information ireland

The famous skeleton on the city's coat-of-arms is said to depict the association with another aristocratic family, the Norman de Burgos, who built their great fortress at Greencastle at the entrance to Lough Foyle....

This Blue Flag beach is located in north west Clare. Its waters are safe to swim in and it's always patrolled by lifegaurds.
Formerly known as Leath Inse, or peninsula, from its water-bound location, its present Irish name derives from a prominent member of the O'Connor clan who is buried here.

Lahinch, some 3km west of Ennistymon is a very popular holiday resort, noted for its bathing beach and even more famous for its championship links and 18-hole golf course. There...

The village of Portroe has a commanding view of the countryside, and another pleasant church in cream gritstone.

A simple headstone in the churchyard commemorates a Tipperary hurler-author of the landmark 1926 USA tour, Tommy Kenny, and his son Sean (1930-1973), who crossed the Atlantic with three others in an open ketch, Ituna studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Arizona and became a celebrated designer for the London stage. The signpost indicated a German -owned tube factory origi...

A resort town, 12 km from Ross, built along a fine beach in Moore Bay, the entrance which is protected from the full force of the Atlantic by a reef known as the Duggerna Rocks.

Kilkee has, of course, like virtually every townland in Ireland, an early history of saints and warriors but its career as a seaside resort took off in early Victorian times. The affluent families of Limerick City built themselves summer villas, "lodges", near the beach which offered safe swimming, ocean bree...

From an unpretentious crossing point on the Shannon, the ford of Luan, Athlone, grew to be the largest town in Westmeath.; The possession of the ford of Athlone has been disputed from earliest times. In 1001 Brian Boru marched there with a great army; in 1129 King Turlough O'Conor erected a wattle bridge there and in 1199 the Normans occupied the town and in 1257 built the town walls, part of which can still be seen. After their defeat at the Boyne in 1690, the Irish withdrew to Athlone and m...

Derry is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in Ireland. The earliest historical references date to the sixth century A.D. when a monastery was founded there, but for thousands of years before that people had been living in the vicinity. These 'prehistoric' people left traces of their existence in the various archaeological sites and objects which often come to light in this area....

Cushendun was part of the ancient kingdom of Dalriada which included much of County Antrim and the western seaboard of Scotland. The harbour was a busy port ferrying passengers and goods to and from Kintyre.

The completion of the Antrim Coast Road in 1843 opened up the Glens to the rest of Ireland and the area's dependence upon Scotland quickly declined.

In this century the village was transformed by Ronald McNeill the MP for the area who later became Lord Cushendun. He c...

A picturesque area not found on all tourist maps is Moyne, situated on the Longford-Cavan road, 12km (7 miles) from Drumlish and close to the Cavan border. Rolling hills, bogland and a myriad of small fishing lakes are features. There is a new Community School opened in 1974 replacing the famous Latin School in which hundreds of missionary priests and a protestant bishop were educated....

Clare Island is a charming island of 16 sq km at the mouth of Clew Bay. The quartzite hills on the north-west rise to 461m in the peak of Knockmore, with some flat land of the east and south. Its early archaeological remains include a court-tomb at Lecarrow, ancient cooking-sites, standing-stones, promontory forts and other sites from later times. One of the most interesting places is the remains of the late fifteenth century Cistercian friary, which was originally founded by monks from Abbeykno...