Roscommon

Roscommon stands in the heart of Connacht, close to the great limestone castle built for the English Crown in the thirteenth century. The town also grew around an older religious foundation and a Dominican friary. Its castle, intended to secure royal authority in a contested province, became a stronghold of the Gaelic O'Conors for more than two centuries.

The O'Conor Don surrendered the castle in 1569. Nine years later it and its estates were granted to Sir Nicholas Malby, governor of Connacht, who transformed the medieval fortress into a fortified Elizabethan residence. The change in its appearance reflected a change in power: a stronghold held by the O'Conors for generations had become the seat of an English governor seeking to establish Crown authority in the west of Ireland.