Portal:County Kilkenny

Green's Bridge on the river Nore in 2010

Green's Bridge, or Greensbridge, is an elegant, Palladian-style, limestone arch bridge that crosses the river Nore in Kilkenny, Ireland. The bridge is a series of five elliptical arches of high-quality carved limestone masonry with a two-arch culvert to the east. Its graceful profile, architectural design value, and civil engineering heritage endow it with national significance. Historian Maurice Craig described it as one of the five-finest bridges in Ireland. It was built by William Colles and designed by George Smith, and was completed in 1766. The bridge was 250 years old in 2016.

The bridge's location on the north side of Kilkenny has been a ford since at least the middle of the 10th century. The first bridge there was built in the 12th century by settlers from Flanders and has been rebuilt many times due to frequent floods. The bridge itself is known from medieval times; it was described as "the Bridge of Kilkenny", "the big bridge of Kilkenny", and "Grines Bridge"; the origin of the name Green's Bridge, however, is uncertain. The "Great Flood of 1763" destroyed the previous bridge.

Green's Bridge was designed by George Smith and built by William Colles. Colles was the owner of a marble works and an inventor of machinery for sawing, boring, and polishing limestone. Smith designed an almost-true copy of the Bridge of Tiberius (Italian: Ponte di Augusto e Tiberio) in Rimini, Italy, as described by Andrea Palladio in I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) (1570). Parapets were added during a renovation in 1835. (Full article...)

Butler (Irish: de Buitléir) is the name of a noble family whose members were, for several centuries, prominent in the administration of the Lordship of Ireland and the Kingdom of Ireland. They rose to their highest prominence as Dukes of Ormonde. The family has produced multiple titles such as Baron Cahir, Baron Dunboyne, Viscount Ikerrin, Viscount Galmoye, Viscount Mountgarret, Viscount Thurles, Earl of Carrick, Earl of Kilkenny, Earl of Ormond, Earl of Ossory, Marquess of Ormonde and Duke of Ormonde. Variant spellings of the name include le Boteler and le Botiller. The Butlers were descendants of Anglo-Norman lords who participated in the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. The surname has its origins in the hereditary office of "Butler (cup-bearer) of Ireland", originating with Theobald Walter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland. The arms of later family members depicted three cups in recognition of their original office. (Full article...)

Kilkenny Castle (Irish: Caisleán Chill Chainnigh pronounced [ˈkaʃlʲaːnˠˈçiːl̪ʲˈxan̪ʲiː]) is a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland, built in 1260 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol of Norman occupation, and in its original 13th-century condition, it would have formed an important element of the town's defences with four large circular corner towers and a massive ditch, part of which can still be seen today on the Parade.

In 1967, Arthur Butler, 6th Marquess of Ormonde, sold the castle for £50 to the Castle Restoration Committee for the people of Kilkenny. The castle and grounds are now managed by the Office of Public Works, and the gardens and parkland are open to the public. The Parade Tower is a conference venue. Since 2002, ceremonies for conferring awards and degrees on the graduates of the Kilkenny Campus of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, have been held at the castle. (Full article...)

Fassadinin (Irish: Fásach an Deighnín, meaning 'Wilderness along the River Dinin'), sometimes written Fassadining, is a barony in the north of County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is one of 12 baronies in County Kilkenny. The size of the barony is 276.2 square kilometres (106.6 sq mi). There are 19 civil parishes in Fassadinin. The chief town today is Castlecomer. The N78 Kilkenny/Athy road bisects the barony. Fassadinin is currently administered by Kilkenny County Council. (Full article...)

Location in Ireland

Castlecomer (Irish: Caisleán an Chomair, 'castle at the confluence') is a town in the north of County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is positioned at the meeting of N78 and R694 roads about 16 km (9.9 mi) north of Kilkenny city. At the 2016 census of the Central Statistics Office, the town's population included 1,502 people. The town is in a townland and civil parish of the same name. (Full article...)

The River Suir (/ʃʊər/ SHOOR; Irish: an tSiúr [ənʲ ˈtʲuːɾˠ] or Abhainn na Siúire [ˌəun̠ʲ n̪ˠə ˈʃuːɾʲə]) is a river in Ireland that flows into the Atlantic Ocean through Waterford after a distance of 185 kilometres (115 mi). The catchment area of the Suir is 3,610 km². Its long term average flow rate is 76.9 cubic metres per second (m³/s), about twice the flow of either the River Barrow (37.4 m³/s) or the River Nore (42.9 m³/s) before these join, but a little less than the Barrow's flow when it meets the Suir 20 km downstream (over 80 m³/s). (Full article...)

Towpath of the River Barrow near Borris, County Carlow, part of the Barrow Way

The Barrow Way (Irish: Slí na Bearú) is a long-distance trail in Ireland. It is 100 kilometres (62 miles) long and begins in Robertstown, County Kildare and ends in St Mullin's, County Carlow, following the course of the River Barrow and the Barrow Line of the Grand Canal through counties Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny and Laois. It is typically completed in four days. It is designated as a National Waymarked Trail by the National Trails Office of the Irish Sports Council and is managed by Waterways Ireland. (Full article...)

• ... that Cerball mac Dúnlainge was King of Osraige ?
• ... that St. Mary's Cathedral (pictured) has a noted sculpture by Giovanni Maria Benzoni? (Full article...)

William Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby (of Imokilly), PC (Ire) (15 September 1744 – 5 November 1806) was a leading Irish Whig politician, being a member of the Irish House of Commons, and, after 1800, of the United Kingdom parliament. Ponsonby was the son of the Hon. John Ponsonby, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the 3rd Duke of Devonshire. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor of Ireland in 1784. He served as Joint Postmaster-General of Ireland (1784–1789). (Full article...)

John O'Donovan (Irish: Seán Ó Donnabháin; 25 July 1806 – 10 December 1861), from Atateemore, in the parish of Kilcolumb, County Kilkenny, and educated at Hunt's Academy, Waterford, was an Irish language scholar from Ireland. (Full article...)

Thomas F. Kilroy (23 September 1934 – 7 December 2023) was an Irish playwright and novelist. (Full article...)

William Ulick O'Connor Cuffe, 4th Earl of Desart (10 July 1845 – 15 September 1898). He succeeded to the title of 6th Baron Desart, 4th Viscount Desart and 4th Earl of Desart on 1 April 1865 (Full article...)

Maeve Esther "Flumpy" Enid Kyle, OBE, née Shankey (born 6 October 1928), is an Irish Olympic athlete and hockey player. She was born in Urlingford, County Kilkenny.

She competed in the 100m and 200m in the Melbourne Olympics and subsequently in the Rome Olympics and Tokyo Olympics (where she reached the semi-finals of both the 400m and 800m). She took bronze in the 400m at the 1966 European Indoor Athletics Championships in Dortmund. (Full article...)