Just now, yet a dream.
Tomorrow, perhaps, reality.
The River Shannon Expedition, Ireland.
Here’s one to look forward to. The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland, rising in northwestern County Cavan and flowing for about 161 miles (259 km) in a southerly direction to enter the Atlantic Ocean via a 70-mile (113-kilometre) estuary below Limerick city. It drains an area of 6,060 square miles (15,695 square km). As the main river draining the central lowland of Ireland, it is surrounded by marshes and bogs for much of its course and widens at various points into lakes, many with islands.
The river began flowing along its present course after the end of the last glacial period.
According to Irish mythology, the river was named after a woman named Sionann (older spelling: Sínann or Sínand), the granddaughter of Lir. She went to Connla’s Well to find wisdom, despite being warned not to approach it. In some sources she, like Fionn mac Cumhaill, caught and ate the Salmon of Wisdom who swam there, becoming the wisest being on Earth. However, the well then burst forth, drowning Sionann and carrying her out to sea. A similar tale is told of Boann and the River Boyne. It is believed that Sionann was the goddess of the river. Patricia Monaghan notes that “The drowning of a goddess in a river is common in Irish mythology and typically represents the dissolving of her divine power into the water, which then gives life to the land”.
The Shannon reputedly hosts a river monster named Cata, first appearing in the medieval Book of Lismore. In this manuscript we are told that Senán, patron saint of County Clare, defeated the monster at Inis Cathaigh. Cata is described as a large monster with a horse’s mane, gleaming eyes, thick feet, nails of iron and a whale’s tail.
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 17th century, the Shannon was of major strategic importance in military campaigns 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 eastern 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.
(source: wikipedia)