08 May County Tipperary
We have all heard the song ….ITS A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY !!!
Tipperary is an inland county in the province of Munster. The county, divided for administrative purposes into North and South Ridings, covers 1,662 square miles and has a population of approx. 140,000. Tipperary became known worldwide through the World War I song “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” The county has a varied and beautiful landscape, ranging from the Golden Vale, to the Knockmealdown and Galtee Mountains. The legendary peaks Galtymore and Slievenamon are immortalized in song and story. Tipperary is agriculturally one of the richest counties in Ireland, with an active dairy industry centered in the fertile plain known as the Golden Vale. Rising dramatically out of this rich landscape, the Rock of Cashel consists of a round tower, Cormac’s Chapel (twelth century), and a Gothic cathedral, all perched on what was once the seat of the MacCarthy (MacCarrthaigh) kings of Munster. The county has a wealth of important historic monuments, with castles at Cahir, Nenagh, Roscrea, and Carrick-on-Suir, and the abbeys of Holy Cross and Lorrha. In 1890, the Derrynaflan hoard, a treasure of early medieval metalwork, was discovered. Medieval high crosses can be seen at Ahenny, near the Kilkenny border.
Tipperary consists of a number of small to medium sized prosperous towns, including Clonmel, the county capital, Thurles, where the Gaelic Athletic Association(GAA) was established in 1884, and Tipperary town – from the Irish name Tiobraid Arann, “well of Ara.” Natives of Tipperary include Gaelic poet Geoffrey Keating; Laurence Sterne, author of Tristam Shandy and the novelist Charles Kickham.
County Tipperary…well worth seeing on tours of Ireland