Tipperary

Tipperary stands on a gentle slope above the River Ara, a tributary of the Suir. An Anglo-Norman settlement took shape here in the late twelfth century, with a motte and bailey guarding the approach to the town. Its market served the surrounding agricultural country, and the town grew along the route through the district. In the seventeenth century Erasmus Smith received extensive lands in and around Tipperary and established an educational charity, linking the town's later institutions to the redistribution of land in Ireland.