Macroom
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Macroom Maigh Chromtha
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View of the Castle Arch, showing the relocated Olive Ardilaun's cannons
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 Macroom
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| Coordinates: 51°54′16″N 8°57′25″W / 51.904354°N 8.956947°WCoordinates: 51°54′16″N 8°57′25″W / 51.904354°N 8.956947°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Cork |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 3,879 |
| Irish Grid Reference | W337729 |
| Website | www |
Macroom (/mə.ˈkruːm/; Irish: Maigh Chromtha) is a market town and civil parish in the barony of Muskerry West, County Cork, Ireland. It is situated in a valley of the River Sullane, about halfway between Cork city and Killarney. The name in Irish Gaelic may mean "meeting place of followers of the god Crom" or "crooked oak", the latter a reference to a large oak tree that grew in the town-square during the reign of the English King John. Macroom is traditionally known as "the town that never reared a fool." The broader urban area recorded a population of 3,553 in the 2006 national census.
The area was at one time a meeting place for the Druids of Munster, and is first mentioned in 6th century records. It was the site of a major battle c 1014 involving Brian Boru. In the following centuries Macroom was invaded by a succession of warring clans, including the Murcheatach Uí Briain and Richard de Cogan families; they built a series of tower houses around the area, many of which survive. In the 17th century the MacCarthy family won control and led Macroom towards prosperity through milling, markets and fairs. This fortune was short lived and followed by the Williamite wars of the 1690s when authority over the town castle waxed and waned between the Irish MacCarthys and a number of ambitious English families.
Macroom became a centre point of conflict in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The population was decimated in the 1840s by famine and emigration, the former evidenced by the remains of a workhouse, now the district hospital, and a mass graveyard to the west, near Clondrohid. During the late 18th and early 19th century a number of Anglo-Irish families, including the Masseys, settled in the area; many of their estate houses were burned out by rebels during and after the Irish War of Independence as the town was caught up in a turmoil of IRA activity.
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