Towns in County Westmeath.

(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.

(Carr's mill.)

Mullingar is the county town of Westmeath and the market town for an area renowned for cattle rearing, a market is held in the town each Tuesday. The town has an exceptionally fine selection of shops, many internationally known names are represented. The Royal Canal running from Dublin to Clondra on the Shannon pass through Mullingar.

The fisherman will find Mullingar a paradise, one angler who fished the area once said "The fish seem to queue to take your hook." He may just have been lucky. The profusion of lakes rivers and canals in close proximity means you can easily fish several venues on the same day.

The Cathedral of Christ the King, completed in 1936, it has mosaics of SS Patrick and Anne by the Russian artist Boris Anrep. Other places of interest are an ecclesiastical museum, a military museum, and the Market House museum of local history. The writer James Joyce had Mullingar connections.

Four miles WNW of the town is Slanemore Hill 152 metres (499 ft.) Slanemore and adjoining Slanebeg are thought to be the Slemain Mid, where the Ulster forces are described as camping in the Tain Bo.