Athlone Town.

Baile Atha Luain or Luan's ford.

Athlone sits on the River Shannon south of its entrance into Lough Ree. It is the largest town and is known as “the heart of Ireland”. Athlone is also a popular base for boating, angling, and golfing holidays. Local industries include electronics and computer software, and the manufacture of medical equipment and agricultural machinery.

There is a Franciscan abbey Friary in the town, erected by Cathal O’Conor, King of Connaught, in 1241. It is the birthplace of the 19th century journalist and politician Thomas Power O’Connor and also the tenor John McCormack.

The town was occupied by the Anglo-Normans in 1199, who built a castle on the western bank of the River Shannon in the early 13th century.