Plassey, County Limerick

Plassey is an area of County Limerick on the River Shannon, near Castletroy and Limerick, not to be confused with the Plassey estate in County Clare owned by Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive. Both were named after the Battle of Plassey 1757, part of the British Conquest of India.

The Black Bridge in the grounds of Plassey House crosses the Shannon from Limerick (Mill side) into County Clare. Approaching Plassey across the bridge allows a view of picturesque sections of the community. Swans nest near a worn pathway lined with trees. On the left is the beautiful lock house (Annabeg house) owned by the Ryan Family. To the right, there is a stony area of the river known as "Jim Stones". This is a very special spot for fishermen and is named after the late Jim Ryan who lived in Annabeg House (a private home), Plassey until the 1980s. The family still live here.

A pub owned by the Shanny family once stood on the Clare side of the Plassey bank. The building is no longer standing though foundations must remain below the grass. A wine coloured board was fastened on to the wall between the parlour window and the front door stating the following "Catherine Shanny Licensed to sell Beer wine and spirits to be consumed on the premises" The Abbey fisherman on their way upstream rarely passed the door of this old public house. It was usual to see a pair of Brecauns pulled up on the grass below the pub. Fishing rods resting against the gable told their own tales.

       " The rods at the thatch and the door on the latch"

The decline in the fortunes of the pub set in when three salmon anglers were drowned in February 1930, only a few months after the Abbey fishermen had been forced off the river forever. Soon all traces of the house disappeared, but fond memories of the old tavern have been preserved in two poems written after its dissolution. Following a visit to the spot where the pub had stood one writer recalled the old place in these lines: "This is the spot where Shanny's stood, By the stream near Plassey Wood. Here, where the three sisters toiled, The nettles now grow, dark and wild. No trace of thatch or garden bright, No friendly sounds or becks, No clink of glass is heard within, Nor Kate's shrill voice above the din

No voices in the evening air, Linger in this place so bare, Nothing but this mouldering mound To mark the pub on Plassey's ground".

Two verses from another poetic epitaph of Shanny's "An Old Angler's Dream". Conveys all the sadness and nostalgia for Plassey and it's pub in times past:

"I oft-times think as my days draw nigh Of a pub near Plassey Mill, Of a field and hedge, all blossom starred, Where the anglers drank at will; And when the dark would shroud the scene, Hushing the merry din, Ann Shanny would look around and ask: 'Well, boys, are ye coming in?' Those memories cling as the waters ring O'er the falls midst rocks and sand; Those islands small, past the Garrison Wall, And the angler with rod in hand. As the salmon leaps and wild life peeps From shuttering rock and rill, I can hear Ann say, in her old dear way: 'Well, boys, are ye coming in?"

Another building, Plassey House, passed through the hands of several Limerick families including the Maunsells, the Russells and the Baileys before it was acquired in 1933 by Patrick Keating, a Clareman who had made his fortune in China. On Patrick Keating's death the estate was purchased by the Rehabilitation Institute of Ireland from whom the new National Institute for Higher Education acquired it in 1970.[1] In the 1970s a technical college, which later became the University of Limerick, was built at Plassey. Thomond College of Education, Limerick was also located on the same campus and was later dissolved and integrated into the university.