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Central Catholic Library

Central Catholic Library

The Central Catholic Library is a library located in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by Fr. Stephen Brown, S.J. on June 25, 1922 with the goal of helping the laity to educate themselves. It is a voluntary subscription library (the last remaining in the Republic of Ireland) and open to visitors six days a week. It has a lending section, a reference section and several collections stored in different parts of the building. It is located at 74 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.HistoryThe Library was founded by Fr. Stephen Brown in 1922. From the outset, it provided reading rooms which were open seven days a week from 11 am. to 10 pm. Four daily newspapers were provided as well as Catholic weeklies from England, USA, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.The facilities of the reading rooms were provided free of charge and were readily availed of by people from all walks of life. Members of all denominations were welcomed - a policy which still prevails.The Library continued to grow and expand over the following years, but on 9 March 1932 disaster struck: a serious fire destroyed the garage underneath the Reading Room. The Library suffered severely as the floor of the Lending Department became unsafe and the windows and doors were destroyed.Two valuable collections, the Healy Collection and the Works on Sacred Art and Archaeology, were almost completely destroyed either by fire or water. The Library was forced to close for two months.
Slane Castle

Slane Castle

Slane, Slane ,
Slane Castle is located in the town of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family home of the Conyngham family since the 18th century.It holds the Slane Concert event within its grounds, with the Irish Independent claiming in 2004 that "Slane today is the kind of internationally-recognised venue that can claim even Madonna's attention". Its sloping lawns form a natural amphitheatre.HistoryOverlooking the River Boyne, just a few kilometres upstream from Newgrange and the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne, Slane Castle in its existing form was constructed under the direction of William Burton Conyngham, together with his nephew The 1st Marquess Conyngham. The reconstruction dates back to 1785 and is principally the work of James Gandon, James Wyatt and Francis Johnston. Francis Johnston was also the architect responsible for the gothic gates on the Mill Hill, located to the east of the castle.The Conynghams are originally a Scottish Protestant family, who first settled in Ireland in 1611, during the Plantation of Ulster in County Donegal. At that time (and during the rest of both the 17th century and 18th century), the family gained extensive lands around the village of Mountcharles, near Donegal Town in the south of County Donegal. The family also gained an extensive estate in West Donegal, especially in The Rosses district.
Lismore Castle

Lismore Castle

Lismore, Lismore ,
Lismore Castle is a stately home located in the town of Lismore in County Waterford in Ireland, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. It was largely re-built in the Gothic style during the mid-nineteenth century by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire.Early historyThe castle site was originally occupied by Lismore Abbey, an important monastery and seat of learning established in the early 7th century. It was still an ecclesiastical centre when Henry II, King of England stayed here in 1171, and except for a brief period after 1185 when his son King John of England built a 'castellum' here, it served as the episcopal residence of the local bishop. In 1589, Lismore was leased and later acquired by Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh sold the property during his imprisonment for High Treason in 1602 to another infamous colonial adventurer, Richard Boyle, later 1st Earl of Cork.The Earls of Cork & BurlingtonBoyle came to Ireland from England in 1588 with only twenty-seven pounds in capital and proceeded to amass an extraordinary fortune. After purchasing Lismore he made it his principal seat and transformed it into a magnificent residence with impressive gabled ranges each side of the courtyard. He also built a castellated outer wall and a gatehouse known as the Riding Gate. The principal apartments were decorated with fretwork plaster ceilings, tapestry hangings, embroidered silks and velvet. It was here in 1627 that Robert Boyle The Father of Modern Chemistry, the fourteenth of the Earl's fifteen children, was born. The castle descended to another Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork & 3rd Earl of Burlington, who was a noted influence on Georgian architecture (and known in architectural histories as the Earl of Burlington).
University College Hospital Galway

University College Hospital Galway

Newcastle Road, Galway ,
University Hospital Galway is the main acute hospital in Galway, Ireland.
Leap Castle

Leap Castle

Leap Castle is a castle in County Offaly, Ireland, about four miles north of the town of Roscrea on the R421. There are varied accounts as to when exactly the main tower/keep was constructed; ranging anywhere from the 13th century to the late 15th century, but most likely around 1250 AD. It was built by the O'Bannon clan and was originally called "Léim Uí Bhanáin" (as was the fertile land around the castle which was associated with the Bannon clan), or "Leap of the O'Bannons". The O'Bannons were the "secondary chieftains" of the territory, and were subject to the ruling O'Carroll clan. There is evidence that it was constructed on the same site as another ancient stone structure perhaps ceremonial in nature, and that that area has been occupied consistently since at least the Iron Age (500 BC) and possibly since Neolithic times.The Annals of the Four Masters record that the Earl of Kildare, Gerald FitzGerald, tried unsuccessfully to seize the castle in 1513. Three years later, he attacked the castle again and managed to partially demolish it. However, by 1557 the O'Carrolls had regained possession.Following the death of Mulrooney O'Carroll in 1532, family struggles plagued the O'Carroll clan. A fierce rivalry for the leadership erupted within the family. The bitter fight for power turned brother against brother. One of the brothers was a priest. The O'Carroll priest was holding mass for a group of his family (in what is now called the "Bloody Chapel"). While he was chanting the holy rites, his rival brother burst into the chapel, plunged his sword into his brother and fatally wounded him. The butchered priest fell across the altar and died in front of his family.
Beaumont Hospital, Dublin

Beaumont Hospital, Dublin

Beaumount Road, Dublin ,
Beaumont Hospital, is a public voluntary hospital located in Beaumont, Dublin, Ireland. It is the second largest hospital in the Republic of Ireland. It is managed by a Hospital Board and provides acute care hospital services, including a 24-hour emergency department,for the population of North East Dublin city and North County Dublin, Dublin. It also provides several regional and national specialist services. In 2008, the hospital served 149,559 out-patients, and 21,576 in-patients, with an average stay of 10.5 nights. 75.9% of admissions were made via the accident and emergency department or 16,515 patients. In 2007, 46,335 patients presented to the emergency department. The hospital saw 38,796 day cases in the same year.
Donegal Castle

Donegal Castle

Donegal Castle is a castle situated in the centre of Donegal town, County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. For most of the last two centuries, the majority of the buildings lay in ruins but the castle was almost fully restored in the late 1990s.The castle consists of a 15th-century rectangular keep with a later Jacobean style wing. The complex is sited on a bend in the River Eske, near the mouth of Donegal Bay, and is surrounded by a 17th-century boundary wall. There is a small gatehouse at its entrance mirroring the design of the keep. Most of the stonework was constructed from locally sourced limestone with some sandstone. The castle was the stronghold of the O'Donnell clan, Lords of Tír Conaill and one of the most powerful Gaelic families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries.HistoryDonegal , translates as Fort of the Foreigner possibly coming from a Viking fortress in the area destroyed in 1159. However, due to hundreds of years of development, no archaeological evidence of this early fortress has been found. The elder Sir Hugh O’Donnell, wealthy chief of the O’Donnell clan, built the castle in 1474. At the same time, he and his wife Nuala, built a Franciscan monastery further down the river. A local legend tells of a tunnel connecting the two but no evidence for this has been found. The castle was regarded as one of the finest Gaelic castles in Ireland. This was indicated by a report by the visiting English Viceroy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney, in 1566, in a letter to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, describing it as "the largest and strongest fortress in all Ireland", adding: