22nd March 2018. I took a train from Dublin. Monasterevin (population 4,000) is about 63 kilometres from Dublin. Once a national joke because of the traffic congestion as traffic from south west and west travelled to and from Dublin, it is now by-passed by modern roads.
Situated on the River Barrow and Grand Canal.
The strange thing is the streets in a grid pattern and a lot of care went into the layout by the landowners (Moores)
Known as the Venice of Ireland, the name survives in the name of a pub.
The monument to Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet, who was a regular visitor.
The Celtic Cross commemorates the 1798 Rebellion and specifically Father Edward Kavanagh, a local priest who was executed. Fr Kavanagh was not a revolutionary but did minister to wounded in the rebel camp.
John McCormack the famous Irish tenor lived in Monasterevin and I think it might have been the big house behind these gates.
Monasterevin was headline news for two weeks in the 1970s when Dutch businessman, Tiede Herrema was held hostage by IRA in a house in the town.
Ireland: The Final Frontier 