Killaloe Co
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Killaloe (Irish: Cill Dálua meaning Lua's church) is a town in County Clare in the midwest of Ireland. Killaloe is on the south end of Lough Derg, where the settlement spreads across the River Shannon, with the County Tipperary side known as Ballina. The town owes its origin to a sixth century monastic settlement founded by St. Molua, or Lua, originally on an island in the Shannon 1km below the present Killaloe Bridge. St. Lua's oratory, built between 1000 and 1150, was moved from Friar's island to the site of the Catholic church when the hydroelectric scheme at Ardnacrusha was constructed in the 1920s. In the tenth century it was base for Brian Boru as it controlled the strategic crossing of the Shannon above Limerick, where the Vikings were in control. His palace, Kincora (Ceann Coradh), stood on the high ground where the current Catholic church stands. Brian Boru was the High King of Ireland between 1002 and 1014 therefore Killaloe was effectively the capital of all Ireland. Brian Boru’s fort, Beal Boruma, stood on the site of an iron age ring at the head of Lough Derg, where a ford crossed the river. The word Boruma comes from the tribute paid by those crossing and is thought to be the origin of Brian Boru's name. St Flannan's Cathedral was built between 1185 and 1225, with an oratory for the same saint, who had been the abbot of Killaloe in the seventh century and it became the centre of the diocese. The cathedral was destroyed and rebuilt in the fourteenth century and only a romanesque arch survives of the original building. In Elizabethan times, Ennis (Innis) was chosen as the county town of Clare and the importance of Killaloe declined. In the 12th century Killaloe emerged as the ecclesiastical centre of the newly formed diocese of the same name. The diocese of Killaloe is the second largest diocese in Ireland. In 1650, Cromwell spent 10 days on the opposite side of the Shannon at Ballina, exploring ways to cross the river which was the defensive line of catholic and royalist forces, before the Siege of Limerick. 40 years later, Patrick Sarsfield was the leader of the Jacobite forces hereharrying the Williamite forces advancing on Limerick. The earliest mention of a (wooden) bridge across the river is in 1013. A 17 arch stone bridge was constructed in the early eighteenth century which was later reduced to 13 arches. The Shannon Steam Navigation Company had their headquarters here in the nineteenth century and constructed a canal to bypass the rapids below the town.
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