Counties & Villages of Ireland

Sligo,a county in the province of Connaught, northwestern Ireland. It is bounded by Counties Leitrim (east), Roscommon (southeast), and Mayo (southwest); an arm of the Atlantic Ocean forms its other borders. The town of Sligo is the county seat. Nearly half of Sligo is rough pasture, predominantly in the mountains, hills, and peat bogs. On the east the boundary with Leitrim runs southward through the coastal lowland to the limestone Dartry Mountains, including Ben Bulben (1,730 feet [527 metres]), which possess spectacular scarped edges. The archaeological studies suggest that Sligo may have been one of the earliest places of human settlement in Ireland. The megalithic cemetery of Carrowmore dates back to the Stone  Age and is part of a huge complex of remains connecting Carrowkeel in south Sligo to the Ox Mountains, to the Cuil Irra Peninsula, where Queen Maeve's tomb, Miosgán Médhbh, dominates the western skyline from the crest of Knocknarea Mountain.

Famous medieval manuscripts written in County Sligo include the Book of Ballymote, the Great Book of Lecan, and the Yellow Book of Lecan. The patron of the Annals of the Four Masters was Ferghal O Gadhra of Coolavin in south County Sligo. Sligo was not officially a county until after the Nine Years War, in 1603. Its boundaries reflect the Ó Conchobhair Sligigh overlordship of Íochtar Connacht (Lower Connacht) as it was at the time of the Elizabethan conquest. This overlordship consisted of the territories of Cairbre Drumcliabh, Tír Fhíacrach Múaidhe, Tír Ollíol, Luíghne, Corann and Cúl ó bhFionn. Each of these was made into an English-style barony, hence Carbury, Tireragh, Leyny, Tirerril. Corran and Coolavin. The capital of the newly shired county was placed at Sligo.

Benbulben is a majestic mountain that overlooks the beautiful North Sligo countryside known as Yeats Country. Benbulben means Jaw Peak and the mountain was shaped that way by glaciers during the Ice Age. The mountain is also the setting of several Irish legends. It is believed to have been one of the hunting grounds of the Fianna and the resting pace of Diarmuid and Grainne.  Benbulben features prominently in the poetry of W. B. Yeats, after whom Yeats Country is named and County Sligo is considered integral to the poet’s work.

Probably one of Ireland's most striking mountains is Benbulben, with its height of 526m , Benbulben can be spotted from all around County Sligo. Benbulben was shaped during the ice age when Ireland was buried underneath glaciers. When the glaciers moved, they shaped the plateau into its distinct formation as we know it today. Benbulben really stands out with its distinctive large flat-top, making it into Ireland's table top mountain. It forms part of the Dartry mountains. Benbulben is home to a huge variety of plants, some of which can nowhere else be found in Ireland. Many of the plant on the top are arctic-alpine plants which are robust enough to survive the harsh climate. 
Deep within the Dartry mountains is Benbulben Barite mine. Once a busy underground world used to unearth barite, the work has long halted and the mines have been closed. While the buildings are long gone, the mine has left old disused mineshaft which are too dangerous to enter (and located on private land) and old rusty pylons and wire ropes once used to transport the barite down the mountain.   One of the legends surrounding Benbulben is that against the flanks of this majestic mountain,  a "fairy door" can be seen which provides  the fairies with an entrance to our world. And it is claimed that it is the only place in ireland where fairies are visible to mortals. Even the poet WB Yeats wrote about this famous door referring to it as a white square in the limestone.

The origins of Markree Castle date back to the 17th Century where the Cooper family acquired the Markree Castle estate under the 1662 Act of Settlement of King Charles II. At this time, it was not a castle as such, but more a fort guarding a ford on the Unshin river. By the end of the 17th Century, with Markree Castle officially now a manor, the Cooper family had become one of the biggest land owners in the country. In 1727, following the purchase of Lord Collooney’s estate, the family were presiding over 40,000 acres, with Markree Castle at its peak. In keeping with the expansion, Markree Castle at this stage was transformed from a fort into a much more comfortable manor house.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the architect Francis Johnson, a very well-known architect, was employed to extend, improve and enlarge Markree Castle. Johnson had the GPO in Dublin, the castellated gate to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, the chapel in Dublin castle and Charleville Castle all amongst his notable work. This major remodel and expansion are the basis for Markree Castle as it is today. In 1834, work was begun on an Observatory in Markree Castle. This included the world’s first cast-iron telescope, with the largest refractor lens in the world at the time. In 1848, a minor planet or asteroid called Metis was discovered in Markree Castle’s observatory, the first and only asteroid discovered in Ireland up until 2008.

By the early 20th Century, the land owned by the Cooper family was reduced from 40,000 acres to 5,000. This century was unkind on Markree Castle, particularly during the Irish Civil War 1921-1922, where considerable damage was done to the castle, and left virtually unused up to 1947. In the 1980’s, Charles Cooper and his wife Mary became the 10th generation of the Cooper family to live in the castle. At this point, Charles who worked in hotel management, along with his wife decided to renovate the virtually ruined castle into a hotel. In October 1990, they even had legendary singer Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter stay in the now castle hotel.

Cork  is a county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. The largest county in Ireland, Cork is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean (south)andbyCounties Waterford and Tipperary (east), Limerick (north), and Kerry (west). The county seat, Cork city, in the south-central part of the county, is administratively independent. Cork has long east-west ridges forming uplands and hills. Less than one-third of the area is rough pasture, and farmlands climb as high as 800 feet (245 metres) and line the valleys of such east-flowing rivers as the Blackwater, the Bride, the Lee, and the Bandon. In east and central Cork are broad valleys and lowlands, which give way in the west to narrower valleys with coastal lowlands backed by high mountains. Around Bantry and Dunmanus bays are long, scenic peninsulas such as Beare Peninsula. At the head of Bantry Bay is Glengariff, where subtropical vegetation survives because of the mild winters.

Cork is also a seaport and seat of County Cork, in the province of Munster, Ireland. It is located at the head of Cork Harbour on the River Lee. Cork is, after Dublin, is Ireland’s second largest city. The city is administratively independent of the county. Cork Harbour is one of the best natural harbours in Europe, which facilitated the founding of one of the world’s first yachting clubs in 1720. The port of Cork is divided between terminals at Tivoli on the outskirts of the city and deepwater facilities (including an automobile ferry) at Ringaskiddy. The port of Cobh is on Great Island at the head of the outer harbour. There is an international airport just outside the city. Tourism contributes to the regional economy, and the city is a gateway for visitors to southwestern Ireland. The city’s industrial base, once dominated by assembly works for tractors and automobiles, now depends on electronics, petrochemicals, and the pharmaceutical industry. The traditionally nomadic minority indigenous to Ireland known as the Irish Travellers, some 1,200 of whom live in Cork and surrounding areas, received official recognition by the national government as an ethnic group in 2017.

In 1919–20 Cork became a centre of Irish nationalist resistance to British military and police repression, and parts of the city were burned by British forces in retaliation for an ambush on a convoy carrying members of the elite Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Two of the city’s lord mayors, Thomas MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney, both of whom were also local republican leaders, died in 1920: MacCurtain was shot dead in his bed by the RIC, and his successor, MacSwiney, died in Brixton prison after a 74-day hunger strike. Further devastation followed the conclusion of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, when Irish republican forces unwilling to accept the treaty held the city for a time.

The city has a thriving cultural life, with a municipal art gallery (the Crawford), a major theatre (the Cork Opera House), a vigorous arts centre (the Triskel), a civic museum (Cork Public Museum), and many art galleries (notably that of the Cork Arts Society) and bookshops. It is also the storehouse for the flourishing craft workers of West Cork, which is home to numerous indigenous and foreign artists and writers. The former butter market now houses a number of craft workshops, and the nearby Firkin Crane Centre is a dance development centre. The city is home to the long-established Guinness Jazz Festival. A covered market is one of Cork’s most notable attractions, with many specialty foods and examples of local produce as well as traditional meat, poultry, and fish stalls.

The burning of Cork (Irish: Dó Chorcaí) by British forces took place on the night of 11–12 December 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. It followed an Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush of a British Auxiliary patrol in the city, which wounded twelve Auxiliaries, one dead. In retaliation, the Auxiliaries, Black and Tans and British soldiers burned homes near the ambush site, before looting and burning numerous buildings in the centre of Cork, Ireland's third-biggest city. Many Irish civilians reported being beaten, shot at, and robbed by British forces. Firefighters testified that British forces hindered their attempts to tackle the blazes by intimidation, cutting their hoses and shooting at them. Two unarmed IRA volunteers were also shot dead at their home in the north of the city.

More than 40 business premises, 300 residential properties, the City Hall and Carnegie Library were destroyed by fires, many of which were started by incendiary bombs. The economic damage was estimated at over £3 million (equivalent to approximately €150 million in 2021), while 2,000 were left jobless and many more became homeless.

British forces carried out many similar reprisals on Irish civilians during the war, notably the Sack of Balbriggan three months before and the burning of Knockcroghery six months later, but the burning of Cork was one of the most substantial. The British government at first denied that its forces had started the fires, and only agreed to hold a military inquiry. This concluded that a company of Auxiliaries were responsible, but the government refused to publish the report at the time. No one was held accountable for the burning.

Saint Augustine, who lived from 354-430 AD in Algeria, encouraged people to live together in communities bound by religion. Different communities which followed the word of the Saint, together came to be known as the Order of St. Augustine by the decree of the Pope in 1256. The Order came to Cork or Corcach, as it was then called, somewhere before the 1300. After seeing raids, expulsion and opposition over a century and half, the Augustinians, laid the first stone for the Church in 1780 and the construction was completed in 1781. The present day Church was built in 1942.

The shrine in the Church is devoted to Our Lady of Good Counsel as are other institutions that are Augustinian in origin. Every year, a feast day is celebrated on 26th April in honour of Our Lady. Along the altar, are the Mysteries of the Rosary which constitute prayers on love, devotion, peace, etc. through instances in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Designed by Gabriel Loire, the North and South Windows at this Church must not be missed. Both these windows are masterpieces of Loire’s work. The Northern window depicts the Interior Life of the Church. To the visitor, it speaks of the God as the source as well as the summit of Interior Life. It also gives the message of hope, perseverance and having faith in God.

Blackrock Castle was originally built on the Lee in 1582 by the citizens of Cork as a watch tower and fort to guard the river entrance against pirates and other invaders. In 1600 a round tower was constructed by the Elizabethan government at the request of the citizens of Cork to protect them from marauding pirates and other invaders.

Following a charter by James I in 1608, Blackrock Castle was handed over to the City of Cork. In 1722 the old tower was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt with an octagonal room topped with a cupola. The castle was used at this time as the Corporation banquet hall and for “throwing the dart”. The original fortified structure, which survives at lower levels at Blackrock Castle, is today a National Monument and probably the oldest surviving structure still in use in the city of Cork.

Titanic Experience Cobh is a visitor centre located in the original White Star Line Ticket Office in the centre of Cobh town (formally known as Queenstown), in what was the departure point for the final 123 passengers who boarded the Titanic. The visitor experience is presented in two parts. At the heart of Titanic Experience Cobh lies the personal stories of 123 men women and children, who travelled to Cobh (then known as Queenstown*) on April 11th 1912, to board Titanic bound for New York. Four days later they found themselves fighting for their lives in one of history's most tragic maritime disasters.

Brief History of Waterford,Ireland

Waterford is derived from the Viking name Vadrarjfordr, situated on the River Suir, the area is the only Irish city to retain its Viking name, Veðrafjǫrðr which previously believed to mean either Fjord of the Castrated Rams or Windy Fjord, neither of which sounded particularly attractive. As a bi-lingual island, the Irish name used for Waterford is Port Láirge which translates in English as ‘Port of a Thigh’ with one origin story attributing the name to the tragic fate of a young prince named Rot. He was attracted to sea by sirens, the winged mythical female creatures, perhaps seeking an intellectual conversation when he is then torn limb from limb with his thigh bone washing ashore at Port Láirge.

Waterford displayed to be the hometown of Luke Wadding, a Franciscan friar in the 17th century, who established St. Patrick’s Day as a feast day to Thomas Francis Meagher, an enigmatic figure in the cause of Irish nationalism in the 19th century who later fought in the American Civil War. The tradition of firsts in the city would continue with Meagher flying the Irish tricolour for the first time in March 1848. The colours of the flag have a symbolic meaning also, the green representing the Catholic community of the island, orange the Protestant and white symbolising peace between the two communities.

Such religious tolerance is a unique characteristic of the city of Waterford with groups such as the Quakers, Jews and French Huguenots, the latter settling in the south-east of Ireland in the late 17th century. A legacy of the Huguenots comes in the form of a bread called the ‘blaa’, a doughy white bread bun being square in shape and covered with white flour. Such culinary innovations are further illustrated by the invention of the bacon rasher by Henry Denny in 1820 to the creation of the cream cracker in 1885 by WR Jacob. At one time, Waterford was the medieval wine capital of Ireland and was the head of the curve in relation to coffee culture, with John Aikenhead being the first to brew and distribute coffee in Ireland in the late 17th century.

Lishmore Castle

Lismore Castle is the Irish home of the Duke of Devonshire, located in County Waterford, Ireland, it has been significantly rebuilt over the years: the current structure dates predominantly to the mid 19th century. Originally built as a sister castle to the nearby Ardfinnan in 1185, it was closely linked to Lismore Abbey, and remained a site with ecclesiastical connotations well into the 13th and 14th centuries. It was also a strategic site, built to guard the river crossing, and was in the possession of the Earls of Desmond for much of the Medieval period. In 1589, Lismore was briefly leased to Sir Walter Raleigh, and then in 1602, it was sold to Richard Boyle, late the 1st Earl of Cork, where he made Lismore his principle seat, transforming the castle into a residence fit for an Earl – adding a gatehouse, castellated outer wall and gabled ranges. The house was damaged in the Cromwellian wars: restoration work was undertaken to make the house habitable again, but the Earls of Cork never lived at Lismore again.

Lismore Castle was part of the dowry of Lady Charlotte Boyle on her marriage to the Marquess of Hartington (and future Duke of Devonshire and Prime Minister) in 1755. The 6th Duke of Devonshire was the one to carry out major works, turning the castle into the building it is today. The style is Gothic Revival, and the noted architect A. W. N. Pugin designed large parts of Lismore, including overseeing the renovation of the old Bishop’s Palace into a banqueting hall. The castle remains in the possession of the Dukes of Devonshire today – while their primary residence remains Chatsworth, Lord Burlington oversees the running of Lismore. In 2005, the deserted west wing was transformed into a contemporary art gallery. The castle itself is available to rent for private groups, but is not open to the public,

Waterford Medieval Museum

The Medieval Museum tells the story of life in Historic Waterford City and incorporates several preserved medieval structures within its walls, not least the beautiful 13^th century Chorister’s Hall. Waterford city centre was excavated between 1986 and 1992 and all the unique discoveries were housed in The Museum for everyone to see.  The Museum was opened to the public on Friday 24th August 2012. Among the exhibits on display are the 4m-long Great Charter Roll dating from 1372, which was viewed by Queen Elizabeth II during her historic visit to Ireland, and the 15th century cloth-of-gold vestments one of Ireland’s finest late medieval treasures.

The Dalmatic vestment is one of the most important pieces from the set of Waterford vestments on display at the new Medieval Museum, Cathedral Square. The amazing Chorister’s Hall survives from the medieval period and is one of the centrepieces of the new Medieval Museum. A wonderful depiction of King Edward III of England fully armoured and on horseback, can be seen at the museum. From preserved vestments to art, the collection is extensive. One of the more remarkable finds in the Museum is a hat belonging to King Henry VIII which was a gift to the Mayor of Waterford William Wyse in 1536.

House of Waterford

The House of Waterford crafted since 1783, Waterford continues to be at the forefront of exquisitely designed and expertly crafted crystal creations. House of Waterford stands proudly as Waterford’s flagship store and showcases Waterford’s key values of craftsmanship, allowing visitors to experience the beauty of Waterford from initial concept to final product. The Waterford Crystals of today can be traced back the time of Bernard Fitzpatrick visited Charles Bacik shortly after World War II ended, in January 1946, and secured special permits to visit again in May. This time Bacik, his family home taken over by the USSR Armed Forces and his factories nationalised, accepted Fitzpatrick's proposal to restart glassmaking in Waterford, and they agreed on the organisation of the factory, with Bacik to secure key staff, and Fitzpatrick a site and permissions. Fitzpatrick agreed a location at Ballytruckle, by Waterford's greyhound track and a soccer ground with the City Manager, and shared the plans with the Department of Industry and Commerce.

In County Mayo, a town village Cong in Irish Gaelic term Cúnga Fheichin, meaning Saint Feichin’s narrows, reveals much about the geography of the area. The village is built on a narrow strip of cavernous limestone between Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. There is no trace today the remains of the monastery that Feichin founded in the 7th century. Cong Abbey, the ruins of which are in the centre of the village, was first built in the 12th century, burned in the early 13th and rebuilt between the 13th and 16th centuries. From the abbey grounds, a footbridge spans the river, passing the monk’s fishing house probably built in the 15th or 16th century, fish would have been an important part of the monks’ diet. This small house is built on a platform of stones over a small arch that creates a passage for water to flow under the floor. A trapdoor in the floor may have been used to allow a net to be cast into the river, and a fireplace kept the monks warm while they waited for their catch. It is said that a line was threaded from the fishing house to the abbey kitchen, to alert the cooks when there were fish to be cooked.

Cong is also popularly known for its location in the John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara movie, The Quiet Man, but real standout is the 12th century Augustinian monastery, a place of worship and learning until King Henry VIII disbanded all monasteries.  One can easily imagine a procession of psalm-chanting monks winding past the ornate stone carvings of the Market Cross with their beautiful Cross of Cong, a gold, bronze and crystal ceremonial crucifix now held in the National Museum.  Across the river is the Cong Forest Nature Trail in the monks’ woodland, which was enhanced with redwoods, giant sequoia and Monterey pine by Arthur Guinness (Lord Ardilaun) in the mid-19th century when he owned nearby Ashford Castle.