ORIGIN River Shannon - Co Cavan Ireland - River Origins, Destinations and Confluences on Waymarking.com

The Shannon is named after Sionnan, who was the granddaughter of Manannan Mac Lir, or God of the Sea. She came to this spot to eat the fruit of the forbidden, or the Tree of Knowledge, which was planted by the Druids. As she began to eat it, the waters of the pool sprang up and overwhelmed her, drawing her down into it to flow out later across the land, thus the River Shannon sprung up.

The river began flowing along its present course after the end of the Ice Age. Vikings settled in the region in 10th century and used the river to raid the rich monasteries deep inland. In 937 the Limerick Vikings clashed with those of Dublin on Lough Ree and were defeated.

In the seventeenth century, the Shannon was of major strategic importance in military campaign in Ireland, as it formed a physical boundary between the east and west of the country. In the Irish Confederate Wars of 1641-53, the Irish retreated behind the Shannon in 1650 and held out for two further years against English Parliamentarian forces. In preparing a land settlement, or plantation after his conquest of Ireland Oliver Cromwell reputedly said the remaining Irish landowners would go to "Hell or Connacht", referring to their choice of forced migration west across the river Shannon, or death. Thus freeing up the landholdings for the incoming English settlers.

In the Williamite war in Ireland (1689-91), the Jacobites also retreated behind the Shannon after their defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Athlone and Limerick, cities commanding bridges over the river, saw bloody sieges. (See Sieges of Limerick and Siege of Athlone).

As late as 1916, the leaders of the Easter Rising planned to have their forces in the west "hold the line of the Shannon". However, in the event, the rebels were neither well enough armed nor equipped to attempt such an ambitious policy.

The Shannon river is closely bound up with Ireland's social, cultural, military, economic and political history

Text in part from Wikipedia:

Parking Coordinates: N 54° 14.223 W 007° 55.331 Relevant Web Site: [Web Link] Trailhead Coordinates: Not listed

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