Qualla: Killaloe

Killaloe: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris55 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The bridge has thirteen arches and no place for two cars to pass. Traffic between Killaloe in County Clare and Ballina across the river in County Tipperary moves under signal control, one direction at a time, the way it has since 1825. Floods used to take the bridges here in every generation. This one has held. Below, the River Shannon slides slow and dark out of Lough Derg toward the Atlantic, three hundred kilometres south. Above, on the Clare bank, the road climbs past the cathedral toward a low earthwork mound that is, by local tradition, the birthplace of the High King who broke the Vikings at Clontarf.

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Image: Chris55 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Killaloe: Brian Boru's River

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Discover Lough Derg, CC BY-SA 2.0. Brian Boru was born here in 941, give or take. He rose through the dynasties of Munster, took the High Kingship of Ireland in 1002, and spent the rest of his life at war with one province or another. At the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 his Munster forces broke the alliance of Leins...

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Image: Discover Lough Derg | CC BY-SA 2.0

Killaloe: The Shannon's Stubborn Drop

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MarkusMark, CC BY-SA 3.0. Above Killaloe the Shannon runs almost flat through three great lakes - Lough Allen, Lough Ree, and the long sprawl of Lough Derg. Below the village, the river turns serious: thirty metres of fall in twenty kilometres, with waterfalls, all the way to the tidal estuary at Limerick...

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Image: MarkusMark | CC BY-SA 3.0

Killaloe: Cromwell at Ballina

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris55 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Shannon has always been a barrier as much as a road. In 1650 Cromwell's army was held up at Ballina for ten days, casting about for a way across to take Limerick. The cathedrals on the Killaloe side, the Catholic St Flannan's and the older Church of Ireland building, both dat...

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Image: Chris55 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Killaloe: Between the Waters

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SteveFE, CC BY 2.0. The canal runs parallel to the Shannon on the western side here, and the narrow island of land caught between them carries the name Between the Waters - a farmer's market every Sunday, walking paths, the slow rituals of small-town Ireland. Boat trips into Lough Derg sail out of K...

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Image: SteveFE | CC BY 2.0