MACROOM  , a

market town in the western part of county Cork, Ireland, on the river Sullane, an affluent of the Lee, 242 M . W. of Cork by the Cork & Macroom railway, of which it is the ter-minus . Pop . (1901), 3016 . Besides a fine Roman Catholic church, a court house and barracks, Macroom possesses a modernized castle, which is said to have been founded by King John, though it is more probably attributable to Norman invaders . It was besieged more than once in the 17th century, and is said to have been the birthplace of Admiral Sir William Penn, whose more famous son founded Pennsylvania . Here some rebels of 1798 were executed and their heads exhibited on the spikes of the castle gate . Macroom has trade in corn-milling, leather-work and dairy produce, and is a good centre for salmon and trout fishing . It is governed by an urban district council .