Ennis (Co. Clare)

Ennis (Inis – “island”)(pop. 25,000), the administrative capital of County Clare, attractively situated on the River Fergus, is fun!

Ennis street (Photo – www.genslin.us)

Until recently one of Irelands fastest growing towns, Ennis has retained a strong community identity, right down to a peculiar sense of humour all its own. Its narrow streets and lanes are full of life, gossip and music, with tastes ranging eclectically from traditional to heavy metal. As a major tourist centre, Ennis enjoys a wide choice of pubs, eateries and accommodation options, making it a good base for visiting the many other attractions nearby.

Ennis History

Inis Cluain Ramh Fhada (”long rowing meadow island”) in the River Fergus lay opposite Clonroad Fort, erected in 1210 by the O’Brien kings of Thomond. Land on the island was donated in 1242 by Donnchadh O’Brien to the Franciscan Order, who began construction of a splendid Friary. This developed over the next four centuries into a major religious centre and theological college, housing up to 600 seminarians a year until closed by King Henry VIII’s 1540 Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Clare became a county in 1586, under Queen Elizabeth I, and Ennis was chosen as its administrative capital because of its central location and the influence of the O’Brien Earls of Thomond. A grant from King James I to hold fairs and markets in 1610 was followed in 1613 by the first of two Charters for a Corporation with a Provost, Free Burgesses, Commonalty and a Town Clerk.

The lack of defensive walls may have attracted Roman Catholic merchants, forbidden by the Penal Laws to reside walled towns such as Limerick City. Ennis continued to expand in a slow but steady fashion, mainly as a market town and later as a milling, and manufacturing centre, with textile factories, a brewery and a distillery. Many commodities were shipped downriver to Clarecastle for shipment abroad.

Although the 1832 cholera epidemic seriously affected Ennis, it was the Great Famine of 1845-49 and its aftermath that reduced the population most considerably.

Ennis is associated with some of the leading nationalist politicians of Irish history. Daniel O’Connell was returned to parliament in the famous Clare Elections of 1828. Charles Stewart Parnell propounded the policy of boycott in a speech delivered in Ennis in 1880. Eamon de Valera was selected to contest the East Clare by-election in 1917, thus beginning his long association with the town and county.