Athlone

Sister cities

• Châteaubriant

History

{{Historical populations |state=collapsed |1821|7543 |1831|11406 |1841|6393 |1851|6199 |1861|5902 |1871|6565 |1881|6755 |1891|6742 |1901|6617 |1911|7472 |1926|7540 |1936|7257 |1946|8379 |1951|9015 |1956|10369 |1961|10767 |1966|10987 |1971|11611 |1981|14426 |1986|15571 |1991|15358 |1996|15544 |2002|15936 |2006|17544 |2011|20153 |2016|21349 |2022|22869 |footnote= Throughout the wars that wracked Ireland in the 17th century, Athlone contained the vital, main bridge over the River Shannon into Connacht. During the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–53), the town was held by Irish Confederate troops until it was taken in late 1650 by Charles Coote, who attacked the town from the west, having crossed into Connacht at Sligo. Forty years later, during the pan-European War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97), the town was again of key strategic importance. In the Irish phase of the conflict (the Williamite War in Ireland of 1688–1691), Athlone was one of the Jacobite strongholds that defended the river-crossings into the Jacobite-held Province of Connacht following the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690. That same year, Colonel Richard Grace's Jacobite forces in Athlone repelled an attack by 10,000 men led by Commander Douglas. In the following year's campaign, the Siege of Athlone saw a further assault by a larger allied force, during which the invading troops of King William and Queen Mary eventually overran the entire city. The defenders were forced to flee further west, toward the River Suck, at such speed that eyewitness accounts record that they "flung their cannons into the morass" as they fled. The most recently discovered account of the Siege of Athlone, written after the attack, on 5 July 1691, was found in 2004 in an archive in the Netherlands. The account was penned by the…