Early modern times
Harman Murtagh
The Shannon continued to influence
Irish history from Tudor times when it
was frequently used as an important line of defence. When
more settled times gradually became
established, some of the new
ascendancy began to take up residence along its shores.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of upheaval and
change in Ireland. Traditionally depicted in
terms of military conquest, confiscations,
colonisation and Reformation, what was
taking place can also be viewed as the
forceful modernisation of a highly conservative and even archaic society. The eighteenth century, in contrast was a more settled era, at least until its final decades were
disturbed by the impact of revolution.
These developments naturally influenced
the contemporary history of the Shannon
and the evolution of settlement patterns in
its adjoining countryside, towns and villages.
Tudor Times
Tudor administrators were impressed by
the potential of the waterway. Sir Francis
Walsingham, secretary of state to Queen
Elizabeth I, was told of 'the commodious
havens and harbours, the beauty and commodity of this river of Shannon'. In 1571 a
water bailiff was appointed and given two
galleys to 'scour' the river, one to be based
above and the other below Athlone; 'boats,
cots, wherries and other vessels' were also
mentioned at this time. By 1580 the navigation between Athlone and Limerick had
been 'found out' and the Shannon was an
important artery of communication in the
savage conquest of Munster.
Even before this, Connacht was opened
up to government control by the building
of a new stone bridge across the river at
Athlone and the old medieval castle there
was adapted as a headquarters for the new
provincial administration. The number of
crossing-points increased as a succession of
further stone bridges were erected in the
centuries that followed: that at
Shannonbridge, which has recently been
renovated, dates from 1757.
Jacobite Wars
The concept of the river as a barrier
between competing armies evolved during
the confused wars of the confederacy and
Cromwellian conquest, 1641—53, and
reached its fullest expression a generation
later in the Jacobite war when, in 1690—1,
the Irish army doggedly defended
Connacht and Clare from behind the line
of the Shannon. Athlone and Limerick were
each beseiged twice and smaller centres,
such as Lanesborough, Jamestown and
Boyle, were also the scenes of military
engagement. The reverse strategy was
adopted during the conflict with revolutionary France,
1793—1815, when the government of the day strongly fortified the
middle-Shannon crossings, with the idea of
confining any newly landed French force in
the west until the defending army could be
mustered from its numerous garrisons east
of the river to confront the invaders. Town
wall fortifications of the seventeenth century can be seen at Jamestown, Athlone and
Limerick, and the extensive defences of the
Napoleonic era are still substantially intact
at Meelick, Banagher and Shannonbridge.
The New Ascendancy
In the wake of conquest came settlement. In the 1620s there were formal
plantation schemes in Leitrim, Longford and
Offaly, which saw the development of new
urban centres such as Jamestown,
Lanesborough and Banagher. Older towns
like Limerick and Athlone also revived and
expanded. In general the new settlers preferred more comfortable
and well-lit 'horizontal' residences to living in the grim
vertical towers of late medieval Ireland, and the
new styles they introduced were imitated
by the older inhabitants. However, the insecurity of the times meant that the new
houses were often fortified, so that they
represent a transitional style. Examples can
be seen at Cootehall, Athlone (Court
Devenish) and, most spectacularly,
Portumna. Two older tower houses,which
were 'modernised', are Rathcline and
Portlick on Lough Ree.
The Cromwellian and Williamite victories greatly consolidated the position of the
new ascendancy and gave them the confidence and resources to erect on their
estates numerous unfortified residences in
the classical idiom. Two early examples,
close to the Shannon, are at Eyrecourt and
neighbouring Clonfert, both dating from
the late seventeenth century and now sadly
dilapidated. Rockingham, the magnificent
Nash villa overlooking Lough Key, which
was built for the King family about 1810,
has been totally demolished. But, in nearby
Boyle, an earlier house of the Kings, probably to the design of Sir Edward Lovett
Pearce or his assistant, William Halfpenny,
survives from about 1730 and has recently
been handsomely restored. Other notable
examples of classical villas on the river are
Drominagh, Castlelough, Bellevue, Belle Isle
and Youghal on Lough Derg, and Killinure
and the ruined Mount Plunkett on Lough
Ree. In the centre of Carrick-on-Shannon,
the well-maintained Hatley Manor, dating
from about 1830, marks the transition to a
new era: the street front is in the older classical
style whereas the garden front is neoGothic. The handsome courthouse nearby,
by the architect William Farrell, is slightly
earlier in date and would benefit from conservation. The magnificent battlomonted
Castle Forbes, on the shores of Lough
Forbes, dating from about 1830 is one of
the finest examples of neo-Gothic romanticism in the country. Splendid mid- to late-
nineteenth-century villas on Lough Derg are
Tinarana, the Italianate Slevoir near
Terryglass, and Kilteelagh, a well-maintained example of high-Victorian style. Of
the Shannon towns, the city of Limerick
has, after Dublin, the most important classical streetscapes in the country, and much
of the architecture of the smaller centres
retains a Georgian or Victorian flavour.
The End Of The Monastic Period
A direct consequence of the
Reformation was the dissolution of the
Shannon’s numerous monastic houses.
Their buildings were demolished, or simply
fell into decay, and the remainder of their
property (with much of the other endowment of the medieval
church) passed to laymen. But the Counter-Reformation, which
the Franciscans spearheaded in the midlands, ensured that the
majority of the population kept the old faith. In 1631 the Poor
Clare nuns founded the first post-Reformation convent in Ireland at a remote
site, which they named Bethlehem, on the
shores of Lough Roe. Shortly afterwards the
Franciscans established a new house in the
plantation town of Jamestown. In 1648
Cardinal Rinuccini, who was being rowed
upstream from Shannonbridge to Athlone,
broke his journey to view the ancient
churches of Clonmacnois, where he was
entertained to breakfast by the resident
Franciscan bishop. A generation later, in
the 1680s, the Franciscans commenced the
building of a new church in Athlone, but
the work had to be abandoned in the wake
of the Williamite victory in 1691. However,
Roman Catholic parish churches were
erected in growing numbers from 1750
onwards and there are numerous nineteenth and twentieth-century examples,
large and small, along the river.
For the Church of Ireland, the Board of
First Fruits was responsible for the construction of many handsome parish churches
and globe houses, especially between 1800
and 1830. Of several on the Shannon, perhaps the most strikingly situated is
Annaduff, near Drumsna, in Co Leitrim.
Early Pleasure Boating
The use of the waterway for recreation
is recorded as early as 1731, when there is
a reference to a regatta at Athlone and to
musical evenings 'on the delightful River
Shannon, which was made infinitely more
so by the company of the ladies'. The date
1770 is claimed for the foundation of
Lough Ree Yacht Club, which makes it the
second oldest in the world. Lough Derg
Yacht Club, dating from about 1836, is
also amongst the most senior in the country.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
prior to the invention of motor cars,
an essential requirement of watersports
enthusiasts was lakeside accommodation.
One solution was the erection of lodges,
around which the landscape was generally
improved by the planting of trees. Today,
those residences are among the most
attractive on the great lakes.
