Killaloe

Killaloe, a town of county Clare, Ireland, in the east parliamentary division, at the lower extremity of Lough Derg on the river Shannon, at the foot of the Slieve Bernagh mountains. Pop. (1901), 885. It is connected, so as to form one town, with Ballina (county Tipperary) by a bridge of 13 arches. Ballina is the terminus of a branch of the Great Southern and Western railway, 15 m. N.E. of Limerick. Slate is quarried in the vicinity, and there were formerly woollen manufactures. The cathedral of St Flannan occupies the site of a church founded by St Dalua in the 6th century. The present building is mainly of the 12th century, a good cruciform example of the period, preserving, however, a magnificent Romanesque doorway. It was probably completed by Donall O’Brien, king of Munster, but part of the fabric dates from a century before his time. In the churchyard is an ancient oratory said to date from the period of St Dalua. Near Killaloe stood Brian Boru’s palace of Kincora, celebrated in verse by Moore; for this was the capital of the kings of Munster. Killaloe is frequented by anglers for the Shannon salmon-fishing and for trout-fishing in Lough Derg. Killaloe gives name to Protestant and Roman Catholic dioceses.