Macroom 5.26

Macroom is a market town in County Cork, Ireland, in the valley of the River Sullane, halfway between Cork city and Killarney. Its Irish Gaelic name may mean "meeting place of followers of the god Crom" or "crooked oak", the latter a reference to a large oak tree that allegedly grew in the town-square during the reign of the English King John. Its population has grown and receded over the centuries as it went trough periods of war, famine, forced emigration and intermittent prosperity. In a 2011 consensus, the broader urban area was recorded as 3,879.Macroom began as a meeting place for the Druids of Munster. It is first mentioned in 6th century records and was the site of a major battle c. 987 involving the Irish king Brian Boru. During the middle ages Macroom was invaded by a succession of warring clans, including the Murcheatach Uí Briain and Richard de Cogan families. In the early modern period the MacCarthy family wrestled control and led the area into prosperity via milling, markets and fairs. The MacCarthy's built a series of tower houses, many of which survive. Their fortune was short lived, and followed the hardships of Williamite wars of the 1690s, when authority over the town castle waxed and waned between the MacCarthys and a number of ambitious, warring, English families. In the 17th century, Macroom became a central point of conflict in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.