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| THURLES CATHEDRAL, COUNTY TIPPERARY. -The name of this olden Irish town is pronounced as if written Thur-less, with the accent slightly on the first syllable, and it derives its name from the Gaelic Durias-a strong fort. Here was fought one of the bloodiest battles between the Irish and the Danes in the tenth century. The town stands on the banks of the winding river Suir, and is connected by railway with Dublin and Cork. The country around it is very fertile, and fifty years ago, the region was about the centre of the fierce agrarian warfare between the landlords and the people, in which the former were shot by the dozen and the latter hanged by the score. Hundreds of tenant farmers, suspected of complicity, were transported to the English penal settlements at the Antipodes, and there was mourning throughout the length and breadth of the fair county. Near Thurles, in the fall of 1857, John Ellis, a Scotchman, agent for Mr. Trant, of Dovea, was shot. Two brothers, named William and Daniel Cormack, were hanged at Neuagh for the crime on glaringly inconclusive evidence. The unprincipled Judge Keogh presided at the trial. Thurles is a cathedral city and the Archibishop of Cashel and Emly resides there. The cathedral-a spacious modern structure-is shown in the sketch. |
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