Castleconnell
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Castleconnell An Caisleán Uí gConaing
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| Town | |
Castleconnell town centre
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 Castleconnell
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| Coordinates: 52°43′00″N 8°31′12″W / 52.716667°N 8.52°WCoordinates: 52°43′00″N 8°31′12″W / 52.716667°N 8.52°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Limerick |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 1,917 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | R660627 |
Castleconnell (Irish: Caisleán Uí gConaing) is a scenic village in County Limerick on the banks of the River Shannon, some 11 km (6.8 mi) from Limerick city and within a few minutes walk of the boundaries with counties Clare and Tipperary.
The ruins of the 'Castle of Connell' (in fact the castle of a family named Gunning), from which the name of the village derives, was built on a rock outcrop overlooking the bend of the river. It was destroyed in a siege by the army of General Ginkel, fighting in support of the Army of William of Orange at the end of the 17th century. Even today a large chunk of the castle wall lies some fifty feet from the castle, thrown clear across the road by siege cannons. A footbridge over the Shannon - built during the 1939-1945 Emergency by the Irish Army under Captain Carley Owens - connects counties Limerick and Clare. The nearby Mountshannon House is a testament to John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, who in the late 18th century was the Attorney-General for Ireland and subsequent Lord Chancellor of Ireland. FitzGibbon was a Protestant hardliner and helped usher in the Acts of Union 1800, which resulted in the Irish parliament's abolition. The house where he and his descendants lived was burnt to the ground by the IRA in the 1920s.
Many fine nineteenth-century buildings overlook the Shannon in Castleconnell. One of these, the former schoolhouse, is now home to the Irish Harp Centre. Another, the former convent, is now the Castleoaks House Hotel. A little south of the village lies the ruins of the once-grand Mountshannon house, a Palladian mansion gutted by fire early in the 20th century.
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