Qualla: Ennis https://qualla.com/ennis en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Ennis https://qualla.com/ennis Ennis: Introduction https://qualla.com/ennis/ Ennis never built a wall. Most Irish medieval towns started as defensive enclosures and grew outward from their gates; Ennis grew outward from a friary. The Franciscan church King Donnchadh O'Brien commissioned in 1240 became a centre for theological study, and the town spread around it organically as a place of commerce rather than fortification. By 1375 the friary held 600 students and 350 friars - one of the larger educational institutions in medieval Ireland. The medieval street pattern still survives in central Ennis: narrow lanes that curve and split because no one ever drew them on a grid, overshadowed by buildings that have stood there for centuries.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ennis: The Island in the River https://qualla.com/ennis/ The town's name comes from the Irish Inis - "island" - referring to a piece of ground formed by two courses of the River Fergus, called Inis Laoi ("Calf Island") or Inis Cluana Rámhfhada ("island of the long rowing meadow"). The river still runs through the centre of Ennis and is...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-the-island-in-the-river.mp3 0:06 2 full Ennis: The O'Brien Capital https://qualla.com/ennis/ The history of Ennis is tangled with the O'Briens, descendants of Brian Boru and Kings of Thomond. In the 12th century they left their seat at Limerick and built the Clonroad Fort in 1210 on the banks of the Fergus - a royal residence rather than a defensive stronghold. The Franc...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-the-obrien-capital.mp3 0:06 3 full Ennis: The Liberator at the Square https://qualla.com/ennis/ Outside the courthouse stands a monument to Daniel O'Connell - "The Liberator" - who won the famous Clare by-elections in 1828 and triggered Catholic Emancipation a year later. Standing in O'Connell Square, the column marks the site where O'Connell, a Catholic who under existing ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-the-liberator-at-the-square.mp3 0:06 4 full Ennis: Information Age Town https://qualla.com/ennis/ In September 1997, Ennis was named Ireland's first - and only - Information Age Town in a national competition run by Telecom Éireann. The £15 million prize bought 4,200 home computers, a computer lab for every school, and a computer in every primary school classroom. Elderly res...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-information-age-town.mp3 0:06 5 full Ennis: The Music That Stayed https://qualla.com/ennis/ Ennis is one of the unchallenged centres of Irish traditional music. The Fleadh Nua festival has run here every May since 1974, the second-largest traditional music festival in Ireland after the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann itself - which Ennis hosted in 2016 and 2017, the first tim...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-the-music-that-stayed.mp3 0:06 6 full Ennis: Shannon and the Atlantic https://qualla.com/ennis/ Ennis sits 14 kilometres from Shannon Airport, the regional airport that opened the west of Ireland to transatlantic aviation in the 1940s. Bus services run hourly between the town and the airport, on to Limerick and Cork and Galway and Dublin. The M18 motorway extended south to ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/ennis-wp/gc3s-ennis-shannon-and-the-atlantic.mp3 0:06 7 full