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Appendix A. Principal Charters of Limerick.-Limerick grants, and where to be
found, not abstracted.-Charters and Grants of Fairs, etc.-Cather-
kenlish, Limerick County, etc.-Charters to Kilmallock Boro'.-Askea-
ton Boro'.

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Appendix E. Grants under the Commission of Grace.-MSS. Brit. Mus.-The Walls

and Gates of Limerick.-The crossing of the Shannon by the Williamites.

-The Ruined House at Singland.-The English Lines.-A Pluralist.—

A Hero of the Siege.-Penal Laws.-Articles of Limerick.—The King's

Island.

Appendix F. Miscellaneous Notes." The Fifteen Corporations".—The Limerick
Cemeteries.-Castle Troy.-Occupants of Houses in Limerick.-The
Recordership of Limerick.-Limerick Athenæum.-The Environs of
Limerick." Monster Houses".-Newspapers.-Sarsfield Testimonial.—
Clock Tower.-The First Mayor of Limerick.
Appendix G. The Limerick City Regiment of Militia.-County of Limerick Regiment
of Militia.-Volunteer Corps of the County.

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HISTORY OF LIMERICK,

ANCIENT AND MODERN.

CHAPTER I.

FOUNDATION AND OCCUPATION OF THE CITY BY THE DANES-ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF LIMERICK-EARLIEST NOTICES-INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO

WARS OF THE DANES, ETC.

THE City of Limerick, the principal part of which is built on an island on the South side of the Shannon, is situated in 52° 40′ north latitude, and 8° 35′ west longitude, at the interior extremity of the estuary of the river Shannon, between the counties of Limerick and Clare, and 129 miles W.S.W. from Dublin. It is a maritime county of a city, occupying an area of 60 square miles, or 38,863 acres, and contained a population of 53,448 in 1851, and of 44,476 in 1861. It is connected by Railway with Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Ennis, Nenagh, Roscrea, and all the intermediate towns, and a line of steamers, the property of the Limerick and London Steam Shipping Company, plies between it and London and Glasgow, &c. AtSpring tides vessels of 600 tons burden can moor at its quays; whilst large docks, which were opened in 1853 by Lord St. Germans, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, add to the accommodation for vessels of heavy burden; and from the advantage and beauty of its situation, and the extent of navigation which it commands, it must have been regarded from the earliest times as a port of great importance, although situated so high up the river, and although its navigation is still partially obstructed. The site may have been selected as the first part of the Shannon fordable above its mouth; considering its many advantages, it is not surprising that in distant ages it attracted the attention of those adventurous strangers, who, coming from the rugged coasts and islands of the Baltic, found here what they never met in their various wanderings, a good climate, a rich soil, and peculiar facilities for carrying on their commercial enterprises. Though known to the annalists, as we shall presently have occasion to remark, long before the Danish invasion of Ireland, the building of the city is generally referred to the same time and cause as the foundation of Dublin and Waterford, the time being after the second coming of the Scandinavians, who on this latter occasion chose the best parts of the island, which they fortified in such a way as the exigencies of the times and the circumstances of the locali

1 Stanihurst.

ties required, and made them the centres and bases of their commercial and military enterprises. Whilst Dublin and Waterford could boast of superior advantages from their closer proximity to the sea, Limerick possessed an admitted superiority in other respects. It commanded a noble river, crowded with fish, which bore the ships of the strangers in safety into the interior of a wealthy country, which with many other recommendations, made a strong impression in after times on King John of England, and caused the city of Limerick long to retain its pride of place as "the fairest of all the cities in Munster."

Limerick has been the capital of North Munster (Tuath Mhumha), which, according to Keating, extended from Leim Choncuhulainn (Loop Head) to Bealach Mor (Ballaghmore, in Upper Ossory), and from Shebh Echtghe (Slieve Aughty, on the frontiers of the counties of Clare and Galway) to Shebh Ebhlinne (now Sleibhte Fheidhlinmidh, in the county of Tipperary). The southern boundary of this great territory is still preserved in that of the diocese of Killaloe. The kings of Limerick, according to the Book of Rights, gave tribute to the kings of Cashel."

3

The notices which occur in ancient writers of the history of Limerick, anterior to the coming of the Danes, are neither numerous nor reliable. It has been supposed to be the Regia of Ptolemy, a writer who derived his information from the discoveries made by the Romans between the age of Augustus and the Antanines, but the name of Rosse-de-Nailleagh, as it is designated in the Annals of Multifarnham, is of higher antiquity, and that of Luimneagh, occurring in the Psalter of Cashel, so far back as A.M. 2870, and A.M. 3973, when Ireland was divided, and Luimneach fixed as the western extremity of the southern half.

Hollinshed, who describes Limerick as being amongst the principal cities of Ireland of his own time, viz., in the middle of the sixteenth century, gives an explanation of the origin of the name of Limerick which more authentic enquiries prove to be apocryphal. Admitting the building of the city by Yvorus, he says that at an epoch previous to its foundation, the ground which it subsequently occupied was an island stored with grass, upon which in old times one of the Irish potentates, while waging war against another native king, had encamped; and of which his numerous cavalry eat up the grass in the space of twenty-four hours. From which circumstance he says the place was called "Loum-ne-augh," that is to say, made bare, or eaten up by horses. But in a very ancient legend, which is preserved in the Books of Lecan and Ballymote, and which describes the origin of the name in words translated for us from the original by the late lamented Professor O'Curry, a dialogue takes place in which, in reply to the question, "Luimneach, why so called ?" the

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