Plassey is an area of
County LimerickCounty Limerick is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Munster. It was named after the city of Limerick ....
on the
River ShannonThe River Shannon is, at 386 km , the longest river in Ireland. It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...
, near
CastletroyCastletroy is a rapidly-growing, and predominantly middle-class suburb of Limerick, Ireland.Historically, the district was entirely separate to Limerick, and consisted of little development aside from the Annacotty village and Monaleen.. With the creation of the University of Limerick, as well as...
and
LimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland,
[Information based on Central Statistics Office figures from 2006, which is the most recent census information available.] and the principal city in County Limerick...
, not to be confused with the
Plassey estateIn 1761, Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive gave orders for his estate in County Clare, centred around the townland of Ballykilty, to be renamedPlassey `the name of the place where we gained our great victory in India to which I owe all my good fortune'...
in
County ClareCounty Clare commonly referred to as simply Clare, is a county of Ireland and part of the wider province of Munster. Clare is one of the 26 counties within the Republic of Ireland and it provides a basis for local government, in the form of its own constituency within the Dáil Éireann...
owned by
Robert Clive, 1st Baron CliveMajor-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB , also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown...
. Both were named after the
Battle of PlasseyThe Battle of Plassey , 23 June, 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in India which expanded over much of South Asia for the next 190 years...
1757, part of the
British Conquest of IndiaThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
.
Plassey House passed through the hands of several Limerick families including the Maunsells, the Russells and the Baileys before it was acquired in 1933 by Patrick Keating, a Clareman who had made his fortune in China. On Patrick Keating's death the estate was purchased by the Rehabilitation Institute of Ireland from whom the new
National Institute for Higher EducationA National Institute for Higher Education was a category of higher education institution established in the Republic of Ireland to provide higher level technical education above the standard of the then established Regional Technical College system but at university level...
acquired it in 1970.
http://www.ul.ie/~ul25/plassey.html
The Black Bridge in the grounds of Plassey House crosses the Shannon from Limerick (Mill side) into County Clare.
Plassey is an area of
County LimerickCounty Limerick is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Munster. It was named after the city of Limerick ....
on the
River ShannonThe River Shannon is, at 386 km , the longest river in Ireland. It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...
, near
CastletroyCastletroy is a rapidly-growing, and predominantly middle-class suburb of Limerick, Ireland.Historically, the district was entirely separate to Limerick, and consisted of little development aside from the Annacotty village and Monaleen.. With the creation of the University of Limerick, as well as...
and
LimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland,
[Information based on Central Statistics Office figures from 2006, which is the most recent census information available.] and the principal city in County Limerick...
, not to be confused with the
Plassey estateIn 1761, Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive gave orders for his estate in County Clare, centred around the townland of Ballykilty, to be renamedPlassey `the name of the place where we gained our great victory in India to which I owe all my good fortune'...
in
County ClareCounty Clare commonly referred to as simply Clare, is a county of Ireland and part of the wider province of Munster. Clare is one of the 26 counties within the Republic of Ireland and it provides a basis for local government, in the form of its own constituency within the Dáil Éireann...
owned by
Robert Clive, 1st Baron CliveMajor-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB , also known as Clive of India, was a British soldier who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Southern India and Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown...
. Both were named after the
Battle of PlasseyThe Battle of Plassey , 23 June, 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in India which expanded over much of South Asia for the next 190 years...
1757, part of the
British Conquest of IndiaThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
.
Plassey House passed through the hands of several Limerick families including the Maunsells, the Russells and the Baileys before it was acquired in 1933 by Patrick Keating, a Clareman who had made his fortune in China. On Patrick Keating's death the estate was purchased by the Rehabilitation Institute of Ireland from whom the new
National Institute for Higher EducationA National Institute for Higher Education was a category of higher education institution established in the Republic of Ireland to provide higher level technical education above the standard of the then established Regional Technical College system but at university level...
acquired it in 1970.
http://www.ul.ie/~ul25/plassey.html
The Black Bridge in the grounds of Plassey House crosses the Shannon from Limerick (Mill side) into County Clare. Approaching Plassey across the bridge allows a view of picturesque sections of the community. Swans nest near a worn pathway lined with trees. On the left is the beautiful lock house (Annabeg house) owned by the Ryan Family. To the right, there is a stony area of the river known as "Jim Stones". This is a very special spot for fishermen and is named after the late Jim Ryan who lived in Annabeg House (a private home), Plassey until the 1980s. The family still live here.
A pub owned by teh Shanny family once stood on the Clare side of eth Plassey bank. The building is no longer standing though foundations must remain below the grass. A wine coloured board was fastened on to the wall between the parlour window and the front door stating the following "Catherine Shanny Licensed to sell Beer wine and spirits to be consumed on the premises" The Abbey fisherman on their way upstream rarely passed the door of this old public house. It was usual to see a pair of Brecauns pulled up on the grass below the pub. Fishing rods resting against the gable told their own tales.
" The rods at the thatch and the door on the latch"
The decline in the fortunes of the pub set in when three salmon anglers were drowned in February 1930, only a few months after the Abbey fishermen had been forced off the river for ever.
Soon all traces of the house disappeared. But fond memories of the old tavern have been preserved in two poems written after its dissolution.
Following a visit to the spot where the pub had stood one writer recalled the old place in these lines:
"This is the spot where Shanny's
stood,
By the stream near Plassey Wood.
Here, where the three sisters toiled,
The nettles now grow, dark and wild.
No trace of thatch or garden bright,
No friendly sounds or becks,
No clink of glass is heard within,
Nor Kate's shrill voice above the din
No voices in the evening air,
Linger in this place so bare,
Nothing but this mouldering mound
To mark the pub on Plassey's ground".
Two verses from another poetic epitaph of Shanny's
"An Old Angler's Dream". Conveys all the sadness and nostalgia for Plassey and it's pub in times past:
"I oft-times think as my days draw nigh
Of a pub near Plassey Mill,
Of a field and hedge, all blossom starred,
Where the anglers drank at will;
And when the dark would shroud the scene,
Hushing the merry din,
Ann Shanny would look around and
ask:
'Well, boys, are ye coming in?'
Those memories cling as the waters ring
O'er the falls midst rocks and sand;
Those islands small, past the Garrison Wall,
And the angler with rod in hand.
As the salmon leaps and wild life peeps
From shuttering rock and rill,
I can hear Ann say, in her old dear way: 'Well, boys, are ye coming in?"
In the 1970s a
technical collegeA National Institute for Higher Education was a category of higher education institution established in the Republic of Ireland to provide higher level technical education above the standard of the then established Regional Technical College system but at university level...
, which later became the
University of LimerickThe University of Limerick was established in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick and became a university by statute in 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989...
, was built at Plassey.
Thomond College of Education, LimerickThomond College of Education, Limerick was established in 1973 in Limerick, Ireland as the National College of Physical Education to train physical education teachers...
was also located on the same campus and was later dissolved and integrated into the university.