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| STREET IN BALLINASLOE, COUNTY GALWAY.- The sketch shows one of the chief streets of the pleasant and prosperous town of Ballinasloe, mainly situated on the county Galway bank of the river Suck, but with a handsome suburb on the Roscommon side of the stream. The Suck at this point divides itself into several branches, so that the highroad from Athlone to Galway City passes over a series of birdges and causeways for a distance of 500 yards. The magnificent demesne of Garbally-the seat of the Earl of Clancarty-is in the neighborhood of the town. This Earl's family name is Trench, and he is said to be lineally descended from the artillery officer who shot down the Franco-Irish commander-in-chief, St. Ruth, at the battle of Aughrim. That famous field is only about four miles distant from Ballinasloe. After the fall of Athlone, through the over-confidence of St. Ruth, the Irish army retreated to Ballinasloe, and many of the officers proposed to defent the fords of the Sack against the Anglo-German-Dutch army, under DeGinkel. St. Ruth, however, told them he "had found a better place," and so marched off his men to the hill of Kilcommodan, above Aughrim village, where he bravely fought and fell on Sunday, July 12. As he left no order of battle, having quarreled with Satsfield, second in command, his death turned what would have been a splendid victory into a terrible defeat. Ballinasloe is celebrated for its great November fair. In Gaelic, it is called Bel-atha-na-sluaigheadh-the Mouth of the Ford of Hosts-indicating that it must have been a great master-place for the earliest times. |
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