Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe
The Diocese of Killaloe is a Roman Catholic diocese in mid-western Ireland. It is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel; the cathedral church of Ss Peter and Paul is situated in County Clare. The incumbent bishop of the diocese is Fintan Monahan; the diocese is divided into a number of groups of parishes. Most are located in County Clare, followed by County Tipperary. There are five parishes in County Offaly, one group parish in County Laois and one parish in County Limerick; the main towns in the diocese are Birr, Kilrush, Nenagh and Shannon. The following lists the ten most recent bishops. Patrick Kennedy Daniel Vaughan Michael Flannery Thomas J. McRedmond Michael Fogarty Joseph Rodgers Michael Harty William Walsh Kieran O'Reilly Fintan Monahan Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe Middle Third Thomond Diocese of Killaloe at Catholic-Hierarchy.org
Cashlaungar
Cashlaungar Cashlaungarr, Cashlaun Gar or Cashlán Gar, is a stone ringfort and National Monument located in The Burren, a region in County Clare, Ireland. Cashlaungar is located in the centre of The Burren, 2.7 km south of Carran, overlooking the Kilnaboy–Carran road to the west. It lies at an elevation of116 m, it is located in the townland of Tullycommon, parish of Kilnaboy, not far from the larger ringfort Cahercommaun and Tullycommon Wedge Tomb. The townland of Tullycommon is the Tuluauch-comyn held by O'Brien in 1298 as given in the Pipe rolls. Through it in 1317 the army of Diarmait O'Brien marched on his way to Corcomroe Abbey, "along the fortress-begirt tracks" between Leana and Crughwill. Hugh Roe O'Donnell's troops plundered it in their great raid into Thomond in 1599. Excavation unearthed middens, deer and ox bones; this cashel is a stone fort situated on the top of a steep-sided rocky outcrop. When antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp visited it in the 1910s, the ramparts of the ringfort were preserved in three places and built of long worked blocks.
They reached their greatest height in a thickness of 2.7 to 3.0 m. The gate opened to the edge of a steep 10 m high slope. At the foot of the slope were rock fragments the broken lintels of the gatehouse; the fort measures internally about 40 m from north to 23 m from west to east. The gate was 3 m above ground level and was reached by ladder; the ruins of four round huts and one beehive hut were found on Cashlaungar
Mullaghmore, County Clare
Mullaghmore is a 180m limestone hill in the Burren in Glenquin, County Clare, Ireland. It is part of a hiking trail called the Mullaghmore Loop in the Burren National Park. Throughout the 1990s, a long running conflict about a proposed visitor centre caused "major divisions in the local communities" between those for and against developing a site near Mullaghmore as a visitor center to the Burren. In April 1991, the Minister of State of the Irish Department of Finance announced a plan for the construction of an interpretative visitors’ centre at Mullaghmore by the Office of Public Works; this would have made use of EU Regional and Social funds earlier allocated by the European Commission after a general approval of the Irish tourism program that did not, take a stand on any specific projects. The proposal resulted in opposition from a number of groups and individuals; these different groups came together in the Burren Action Group or BAG. They worked out an alternative proposal for a visitor centre.
However, there was a counter-mobilisation by prominent representatives of local communities. These included groups such as the Irish Farmers' Association, the Gaelic Athletic Association, as well as politicians from the centre-right, their coalition became known as Burren National Park Support Association and emphasized the economic potential of the OPW proposal as well as the prospect of much needed jobs in a high unemployment area. In June 1991, the WWF UK lodged a complaint against the project with the European Commission, it was joined by An Taisce. They argued that the project would be in violation of Community law regarding the protection of groundwater. In February 1992, OPW published an environmental impact assessment, at the request of the Commission. This, as well as a follow-up study, were criticized by the WWF. In early 1992 a car park was cleared at the site, sewage works commenced and foundations for the centre were constructed. In October 1992, the Commission stated that it would not initiate a procedure against the Irish government on this issue.
By November 1992 seven key members of the BAG had sought an injunction at the Irish High Court against the construction work. This argued that the OPW’s exemption from the need for planning permission was unconstitutional and that the OPW lacked the statutory power to build the visitor centre. In December 1992, the WWF and An Taisce brought an action at the European Court of Justice, claiming that 2.7 million Irish pounds of Community funds allocated to the project should be suspended. The Court, dismissed the application. In January 1993, a key political ally of BAG, Michael D. Higgins became Minister for Arts and Gaeltacht. In early 1993 work at the proposed site stopped; the High Court found in February that the OPW had unconstitutionally and illegally initiated construction and that it did indeed lack the relevant statutory power. OPW appealed. However, in June 1994 the High Court found that the OPW had the right to resume work under the State Authority Management Act. Minister Michael D. Higgins stopped the project.
By March 1995 the state had abandoned plans to complete the centre and the OPW application for construction was withdrawn. This resulted in heavy criticism from those, in favour of the project, including local Fianna Fáil politicians. Minister Higgins commissioned a new overall plan for the Burren National Park; this aimed at retaining the majority of EU funding for a new centre to be based on more consensus. Some of the Community funds were to be used for the demolition of those structures constructed; the OPW did try to go ahead with a scaled down version of the centre. This was supposed to consist of an entry point to the park, ranger accommodation and a roofed area on the site of the planned interpretive centre. There were plans for a car park for 76 cars and to retain an existing water treatment facility on the site of a nearby quarry. In 1999 the Clare County Council refused planning permission for this new version; this was challenged by both sides of the controversy. On the one hand, the Minister for the Arts and the Islands, Sile De Valera and the OPW claimed that the centre would have minimal visual impact and no significant adverse effects on the area.
On the other hand, An Taisce and the Burren Action Group appealed. However, they wanted to strengthen the planning refusal, they argued that the centre's concept was not environmentally sustainable. In particular, placing the visitor centre in the middle of the park rather than on its border would prevent the local communities from benefitting from it. According to them, the large number of visitors would have caused substantial environmental damage to the ecosystem the National Park was supposed to protect. In 2000 An Bord Pleanála confirmed the ruling by the Clare County Council to refuse planning permission for the scaled down version; the Burren Action Group and An Taisce welcomed this decision. An Bord Pleanála argued that the centre would have involved unacceptable damage to the environment and to the fragile local ecology and would have detracted from the scenery and rural character of the area. However, supporters of the scheme argued that a focal point for tourism in the Burren National Park would still be needed, as it would stop visitors from entering private lands.
In 2001 existing structures at the centre site were demolished. In 2012, the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service lodged a planning application with Clare County Council for a 27 space car park on the site of the overflow car park of the original interpretative centre; this is supposed to reduce p
Irish round tower
This is about Irish-style round towers. See Round tower for other types of towers. Irish round towers are early medieval stone towers of a type found in Ireland, with two in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man; as their name Cloigtheach indicates, they were bell towers, though they may have been used for additional purposes. Found in the vicinity of a church or monastery, the door of the tower faces the west doorway of the church. In this way it has been possible to determine without excavation the approximate site of lost churches, where the tower still exists. Surviving towers range in height from 18 metres to 40 metres, 12 metres to 18 metres in circumference; the masonry differs according to date, the earliest examples being uncut rubble, while the ones are of neatly joined stone work. The lower portion is solid masonry with a single door raised two to three metres above accessible only by a ladder. Within, in some, are two or more floors of wood, it is thought that there were ladders in between.
The windows, which are high up, are slits in the stone. The cap, is of stone conical in shape, although some of the towers are now crowned by a circle of battlements; the main reason for the entrance-way being built above ground level was to maintain the structural integrity of the building rather than for defence. The towers were built with little foundation; the tower at Monasterboice has an underground foundation of only sixty centimetres. Building the door at ground level would weaken the tower; the buildings still stand today because their round shape is gale-resistant and the section of the tower underneath the entrance is packed with soil and stones. The distance from the ground to the raised doorway is somewhat greater than that from the first floor to the second. Excavations in the 1990s, revealing postholes, confirm. However, the use of ladders prior to the construction of such steps cannot be ruled out; the towers were built between the 9th and 12th centuries. In Ireland about 120 examples are thought once to have existed.
There are three examples outside Ireland. Two are in north-eastern Scotland: the Brechin Round Tower and the Abernethy Round Tower, the other is in Peel Castle on St. Patrick's Isle, now linked to the Isle of Man. Famous examples are to be found at Devenish Island, Glendalough, while that at Clondalkin is the only Round Tower in Ireland to still retain its original cap. With five towers each, County Mayo, County Kilkenny and County Kildare have the most. Mayo's round towers are at Aughagower, Killala and Turlough, while Kildare's are located at Kildare Cathedral, at Castledermot, Oughter Ard and Old Kilcullen; the only known round tower with a hexagonal base is at Kinneigh in County Cork, built in 1014. The round tower at Ardmore, County Waterford, believed to be the latest built in Ireland, has the unique feature of three string courses around the exterior; the purpose of the towers has been somewhat unclear until recent times. A popular hypothesis in the past was that the towers were a redoubt against raiders such as Vikings.
If a lookout posted in the tower spotted a Viking force, the local population would enter, using a ladder which could be raised from within. The towers would be used to store other plunderables. However, there are many problems with this hypothesis. Many towers are built in positions which are not ideal to survey the surrounding countryside and would not work efficiently as watch towers for incoming attacks. In addition, the doors to these towers would have been wooden and therefore burned down. Furthermore, due to the chimney-like design of the towers, the smoke from the burning door would have been carried upwards inside the tower causing any occupants to suffocate. Indeed, the round towers at Dysert O'Dea and Aghagower show evidence of fire damage around the doorway. There are records of people being burned to death in round towers. Therefore, it is more that the primary reason for the round tower was - as the name cloigtheach indicates - to act as a belfry; the Irish word for round tower, cloigtheach meaning bellhouse indicates this, as noted by George Petrie in 1845.
The Irish language has evolved over the last millennium. Dinneen notes the alternate pronunciations and cuilceach for cloigtheach; the pronounced cloichtheach means stone-house or stone-building. The round tower seems to be the only significant stone building in Ireland before the advent of the Normans in AD 1169-71. UCD Professor of Archaeology Tadhg O'Keeffe has suggested that the towers were high status royal chapels, citing how two of them were scenes of regicide, he suggested that the windows were arranged clockwise to imitate the order of relic-carrying procession from the elevated door to the top. Daniel O'Connell's tomb at Glasnevin Cemetery had a round tower built above it after his burial in 1847. At what is now the Irish National Heritage Park at Ferrycarrig in County Wexford, there is a 19th-century copy of a round tower, it was erected to the memory of the Wexford men. At St Ita's Hospital in Portrane, County Dublin
Bunratty Lower
Bunratty Lower is a barony located in County Clare, Ireland. This ancient unit of land division is in turn divided into fourteen civil parishes. Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of Ireland as divisions of counties and were used the administration of justice and the raising of revenue. While baronies continue to be defined units, they have been administratively obsolete since 1898. However, they continue to be used in land registration and in specification, such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier Gaelic túath. Bunratty Lower is a division of the former barony of Bunratty; this belonged to the Macnamara family, was called Dangan-i-vigin. It is bounded by the barony of Tulla Lower. To the south, the River Shannon separates it from County Limerick. To the west, the River Fergus separates it from the baronies of Islands; the barony covers an area of 69,083 acres. The land is able to support large numbers of sheep. Lower Bunratty contains the parishes of Bunratty, Drumline, Kilconry, Kilfintinan, Kilmurry and Tomfinlough, as well as part of the parishes of Killeely, St. Munchin's and St. Patrick’s.
The main towns are Sixmilebridge. More Shannon has become an important town. Shannon Airport Bunratty Castle Citations Sources
Inchiquin Lough
Inchiquin Lough is a freshwater lake in the Mid-West Region of Ireland. It is located in The Burren of County Clare. Inchiquin Lough measures 1 km wide, it is about 15 km north of Ennis near the village of Corofin. The lake lies along the River Fergus. Fish species in Inchiquin Lough include brown trout, rudd, tench; the lake is part of the East Burren Complex Special Area of Conservation. List of loughs in Ireland Media related to Lough Inchiquin at Wikimedia Commons
Francis G. Neylon
Francis G. Neylon was an Irish flute player of Irish traditional music, he was inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Hall of Fame for the Northeast Region of the North American Province on February 19, 2000. Francis G. "Frank" Neylon was born in Co.. Clare, Ireland, he played the concert flute with the Kilfenora Ceili Band and played on Radio Éireann while in Ireland. He came to the United States in July, 1949 and settled first in Cambridge, MA, Somerville, MA. An accomplished Irish musician of the traditional school, self-taught and playing by ear, Neylon won many medals at Feis in Boston and New York City in the 1950s. While in the U. S. he played the concert flute with The Tara Ceili Band, The New State Ceili Band, The Connaught Ceili Band and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Hanafin-Cooley branch. He recorded a series of 78 rpm records for the Copley record label with Paddy Cronin, along with other sessions with Joe Derrane and Jerry O’Brien in the early 1950s, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 1981
