Thurles

In the billiard room of Hayes's Hotel on 1 November 1884, seven men founded the Gaelic Athletic Association to save hurling and Gaelic football from dying out. The GAA now has some 2,200 clubs on five continents, and Semple Stadium in the town is one of the great hurling grounds.

Thurles is Durlas Éile, the strong fort of Éile — more fully Durlas Éile Uí Fhogartaigh, of the O'Fogartys, who held the barony of Eliogarty and gave the town its name. Éile itself was named after a prehistoric people, the Eli, about whom little is known. By the early 13th century the Norman Butlers had become the dominant power, and the town owes much of its early growth to them; two of their castles still stand, the Black Castle near the centre and O'Fogarty Castle by the Suir. Their ancestor Theobald Walter was made Chief Butler of Ireland, and in 1328 his descendant James Butler became Earl of Ormond.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Thurles ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

• Liathmore · round tower · 9 km
• Ballynahow Castle · castle · 5 km
• Killahara Castle · castle · 6 km
• Loughmoe Castle · castle · 8 km
• Grallagh Castle · castle · 10 km

Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.

• The Devil's Bit · The devil bit a chunk from this mountain and spat it out — where it became the Rock of Cashel. The gap in the ridge is his tooth-mark.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.