Annacotty
Encyclopedia
Annacotty is a town on the outskirts of Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, 7 km (4.3 mi) from the centre of the city. It is situated where the old N7 main road between Limerick and Dublin crosses the Mulkear
River Mulkear
The Mulkear River rises in the Slievefelim and Silvermine Mountains, flows through the east of County Limerick before joining the River Shannon near Annacotty, Co. Limerick. The Mulkear flows through both Counties Limerick and North Tipperary. The principal tributaries are the Dead River, the...

 River, 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) upstream of where it flows into the River Shannon
River Shannon
The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . 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...

.

The village originally grew up around the grain mills which harnessed the water power of the Mulkear. One was beside the bridge itself and has now been restored as bar and restaurant and the second was 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) upstream at Ballyclough. Annacotty Co-Operative Society was founded in the 1890s and butter was made at the creamery up to the 1960s when it was taken over by Black Abbey Co-operative of Adare
Adare
-General information:Adare's origin is as a settlement by a crossing point on the river Maigue. It is situated 16 km from Limerick City. Renowned as one of Ireland's prettiest villages, Adare is designated as a Heritage Town by the Irish government...

 (which, after a succession of mergers, became part of the Dairygold Co-op). The creamery had been transformed into a hardware store but is currently closed.

With the expansion of Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

 from 1990, Annacotty has been swallowed up into the rapidly growing suburb of Castletroy
Castletroy
Castletroy is a rapidly growing and predominantly middle-class suburb of Limerick, Ireland and is the largest suburb in Munster. Its population is estimated at 40,000 as of 2010....

. The N7, which originally ran though the main street, bypassed the village as it was then, in 1980 when a new bridge was built over the Mulkear 100m downstream. That, in turn, was superseded by the building of the Limerick Southern Ring Road which crossed the river 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) upstream at Ballyclough.

Annacotty Industrial Estate was built on the former site of the Ferenka factory. Opened in March 1972 by the AKZO Group
Akzo Nobel
Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people. Sales in 2010 were EUR...

 to manufacture steelcord, it achieved notoriety when its Dutch managing director Tiede Herrema
Tiede Herrema
Dr Tiede Herrema is a Dutch businessman.In the 1970s, Herrema ran a wire factory, Ferenka, in the city of Limerick, Ireland. At the time, he was the city's biggest employer, with approximately 1,400 workers. On 3 October 1975 he was abducted near his home by two members of the Provisional Irish...

 was kidnapped by IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...

 Volunteers
Volunteer (Irish republican)
Volunteer, often abbreviated Vol., is a term used by a number of Irish republican paramilitary organisations to describe their members. Among these have been the various forms of the Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army...

 Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle
Marion Coyle
Marion Coyle is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army .Marion Coyle was born on July 1954 in Derry, Northern Ireland, and lived in the Duncreggan Road, a rather middle-class and fashionable area of Derry...

 in October 1975 and freed four weeks later following a protracted siege in Monasterevin
Monasterevin
Situated 63 km from Dublin on the R445 road, Monasterevin has been relieved of much through traffic by the opening in 2004 of a new section of the M7 motorway bypassing the town on the N7 Dublin to Limerick route...

, County Kildare
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...

. After sustaining continuing losses and experiencing numerous industrial disputes from the day it opened, the factory closed down in December 1977 with the loss of over 1,400 full-time jobs.

Annacotty is the birthplace of the renowned Limerick hurler Jackie Power
Jackie Power
Jackie Power was an Irish sportsperson. A renowned dual player, he played both hurling and Gaelic football with his local club Ahane and with the Limerick senior inter-county teams in both codes from 1935 until 1949. He later played with the Kerry senior hurling team.-Early life:Jackie Power was...

 and a statue of him of him stands on the main street. Former Irish rugby international Peter Clohessy
Peter Clohessy
Peter Martin Noel Clohessy is a former Irish rugby union footballer. Clohessy played for Munster and Ireland...

 also comes from the town.

Transport

Annacotty railway station opened on 8 August 1858, but finally closed on 9 September 1963.

See also

  • List of towns and villages in Ireland
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