THURLES  , a

market town of Co . Tipperary, Ireland, pleasantly situated on the Suir, and on the main line of the Great Southern & Western railway, 87 m . S.W. of Dublin . Pop . (1901), 4411 . Thurles is the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cashel; and the cathedral of St Patrick is a beautiful building . The town is the seat of other important Catholic establishments, including an Ursuline convent; a Presentation convent; St Patrick's Catholic College (1829) for ecclesiastical students, where was held in 185o the synod of Thurles; and an establishment of Christian Brothers, who devote themselves to the instruction of boys on the Lancasterian method . The town has a considerable agricultural and retail trade, and there is a monthly horse fair largely attended by English and continental buyers . Thurles is governed by an urban district council . Originally the town was called Durlas O'Fogarty . In the loth century it was the scene of.a defeat of the Irish by the Danes . A preceptory was founded here by the Knights Templars, who possessed themselves of a castle, of which there are remains, erected early in the 13th century .

A castle was subsequently erected by

James Butler, first lord palatine of Tipperary, of which the keep collapsed in 1868 . There were several other strongholds in the vicinity . South-west of the town, at a distance of 32 m., stands the Cistercian abbey of Holy Cross, one of the finest ruins in Ireland . It was founded by Donnell O'Brien, king of Thomond (1168—1194) ; and owes its foundation and name to the presentation to his family of a portion of the true Cross, which attracted numerous pilgrims . The shrine of this relic is in the Ursuline convent at Blackrock, Co . Cork . The ruins, beautifully placed on the bank of the river, embody a cruciform church, transitional Norman in style, and exhibiting the carving of the period in its highest development . There is a fine Perpendicular tomb in the choir . A large portion remains of the adjoining buildings, including chapter-house, sacristy, cloisters and dormitory .