Drogheda

Drogheda stands astride the River Boyne near its mouth, where a bridge and a harbour made it a gateway between Dublin and Ulster. The medieval town grew on both banks, protected by walls and gates and enriched by trade through its port. Its churches and merchant streets reflected a prosperity founded on the river and the fertile country beyond it.

The town endured a long siege by an Ulster Irish army in 1641–42. In 1649 Oliver Cromwell marched north from Dublin and besieged its Royalist garrison. After his artillery breached the walls, Parliamentarian troops stormed Drogheda; many defenders and some inhabitants were killed. The assault became one of the most notorious episodes of the conquest of Ireland. In 1690 the Battle of the Boyne was fought upstream between the armies of James II and William III. After the Jacobite defeat, Drogheda surrendered to William's forces. The river that had sustained the port thus also carried armies into the heart of the struggle for the Irish kingdom.