Corofin (Corrofin, County Clare
Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved: 2011-11-22. or ''Coradh Finne'') is a village on the

River Fergus The River Fergus ( ga, An Forghas) is a river within the Shannon River Basin which flows in County Clare, Ireland. The river begins at Lough Fergus in north Clare and flows into the Shannon Estuary. The source is at Lough Fergus in the townl ...

in northern

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

and also a parish of the same name in the Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. The 2016 population was 776, up from 689 in 2011.

Name

The name Corofin means "the white or foam-flecked ford" from the ga, Finn Coradh, the earliest form of the name to be found in the literature: "fearann re hucht Finn Coradh". - � hUidhrín, 15c. Topographical PoemA different translation is "Finne's weir". The town is sometimes spelled "Corrofin". Corofin also styles itself as "The Gateway to the Burren" or "The Angler's Paradise".

Geography

The village is north of the county town of

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

, at the crossroads of the R460 and R476 regional roads. It is on the southern edge of the upland limestone region of The Burren. Corofin is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of Kilnaboy in the Barony of Inchiquin. It lies across the townlands of Baunkyle, Laghtagoona and Kilvoydan. It lies in the Kilnaboy parish of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe The Diocese of Killaloe ( ; ga, Deoise Chill Dalua) is a Roman Catholic diocese in mid-western Ireland, one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and Emly. The cathedral church of the diocese is the Cathedral of ...

. The parish has three churches, St Brigid's in Corofin, St Joseph's in Kilnaboy and St Mary's in Rath.

Places of interest

On Church Street is the former

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

, ''St. Catherine's Church'', built between 1715 and 1720 by Catherine Kneightly. It was renovated c. 1820 and by 1829 the steeple had been added. The building is now in use by the Clare Heritage and Genealogical Research Centre. Inchiquin Castle exterior

Inchiquin Castle is located a few kilometers from Corfin, on the north side of Lake Inchiquin. It was possibly built by Teige-an-Chomhaid O'Brien (d. 1466). In 1542, it belonged to Turlough, son of Murrough, first Baron of Inchiquin. Murrough O'Brien, the fourth Baron, was in possession in 1580. During the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

it was attacked, and towards the end of the 17th century it was abandoned. Today the castle is a ruin surrounded by pastures. Part of the older castle tower is still extant as is a portion of the later 17th-century banquet hall.

Town twinning

Corofin is twinned with Tonquédec in France.

Notable people

* Chartres Brew, 19th century Gold commissioner, Chief Constable and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility ...

in the Colony of British Columbia * Frederick William Burton, 19th-century painter and director of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...

, London * Tony Killeen, (born 1952), Fianna Fáil politician, former

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parliam ...

(TD) for the Clare constituency and Minister for Defence * Benjamin Lucas, soldier of the 17th century * Gerry Quinn,

Hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

left-wing back (born 1980)

References

;Sources * Michael Mac Mahon, ''The Parish of Corofin: A Historical Profile'', .

External links

Corofin on Clare Library Website

{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe Towns and villages in County Clare Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe