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NENAGH |
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NENAGH is usually jam-packed with heavy traffic trying to plough its
way through on the main Dublin-Limerick road. It has one singular
historical remain, a colossal round castle keep with walls 20ft thick,
its five storeys reaching a height of 100ft and topped with nineteenth-century
castellations. Totally gutted within, this final retreat tower was
originally one of five round towers which, linked by a curtain wall,
formed a Norman stronghold. Founded by Theobald Walter, a cousin of
Thomas à Becket, it was occupied by the Butlers, then captured in turn
by the O'Carrols of Eile, Cromwell, went back to James II and then to
and fro between Ginckel (King William's chief general) and O'Carrol in
the Williamite war. And there the fighting stopped until many centuries
later when a farmer, wanting to get rid of a nest of sparrows that were
feeding on his crops, stuck some gunpowder in the walls of the keep and
blew another hole in the fortress. A few reinforced concrete steps help
you to get near the top, but there's little to be seen.
Across the road from the keep, the Nenagh heritage centre (Easter-Oct
Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm; £2/¬2.54) is set in the old jail, now a Convent of
Mercy school. Housed in the octagonal Governor's House, up the driveway,
it has a display room housing temporary exhibitions, a mock-up of an old
schoolroom with a four-foot mannequin nun, and a re-created old post
office, bar and telephone exchange. In the basement are the usual
agricultural items and a faithfully reproduced but clinical-looking
forge. Back at the entrance arch, the cells of the jail have their
original hefty iron cell doors, and you can also see the former exercise
yard, tiny and cluttered.
Buses from Dublin and Limerick stop right in the centre of town, some
also stop at the train station , which is on the Thurles side of town, a
short walk from the town centre. The tourist office is on Connolly
Street (mid-May to mid-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-1pm & 2-5.30pm; tel
067/31610). There's reasonably priced B&B at Sun View , on Ciamaltha
Road (tel 067/31064; £33-40/¬41.90-50.79), quite close to the bus and
train stations, and you can get excellent home-cooked meals at Country
Choice Deli & Coffee Bar , 25 Kenyon St; the shop stocks superb Irish
cheeses.
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