History
The area of Cratloe is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, where it is recorded that in 376 AD, Crimthann mac Fidaig, King of Munster and High King of Ireland died in the Cratloe area from poison administered by his sister, Mongfind, who wished for her son Brión mac Echach Muigmedóin to be High King. Mongfind herself also died later, as she drank the poison to convinve the king to take some. In the end, however, Brian had to settle for the Kingdom of Connaught, while the High Kingship went to his half brother, who was to be later known as Niall of the Nine Hostages.
In the 9th century, when the McNamaras territory was invaded by warriors from the Kingdom of Aileach in Ulster, the invaders chopped down oak trees in Cratloe Woods and brought them back to Ulster in order to use them for the roof of the Aileach Royal Palace. Cratloe woods has since been known for its oak trees, and wood from the Cratloe forests have been used in many important buildings throughout Europe.
It was recorded in 940 that King Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks and his forces, found that Cretshalach, as it was then known, was the worst passageway during their Circuit of Ireland. In ancient times the passageway through Cratloe ran over a steep hill, and was the main route in getting from Munster into Connacht. The army stayed the night on top of the mountain where High King Crimthann was murdered, Sliabh-Suidhe-an-riogh, or in English, The Mountain Of The Death Of The King.
Cormacan the Poet, the Chief Bard
"We were a night at Ath-Caille,
On the very brink of the Shannon:
I did not meet, since I left my home,
A pass like unto Cretshalach."
In 1510, an Anglo-Irish army led by Gerald Mór FitzGerald, the 8th earl of Kildare, marched on Thomond, and was met and defeated near Cratloe by an army of the O'Brien, McNamara, Sil-Aedha and Clanrickard clans led by Turlough O'Brien, son of Teige Mac Murrough O'Brien, the Lord of Thomond. The invading army were defeated with ease as the entire force had taken the short cut through Cratloe into Limerick, and as a result were ambushed by the Gaelic army.
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