KILKENNY, a city and municipal borough, the capital of Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, on the Nore, 81 m. S.W. oif Dublin by rail. Pop. (1926) 10,056.
Kilkenny proper owes its origin to an English settlement in the time of Strongbow, and it received a charter from William Marshall, who married Strongbow's daughter. This charter was confirmed by Edward III., and from Edward IV. Irishtown re ceived the privilege of choosing a portreeve independent of Kil kenny. By Elizabeth, the boroughs, while retaining their distinct rights, were constituted one corporation, which in 1609 was made a free borough by James I., and in the following year a free city.
James II. constituted the city and liberties a distinct county, to be styled the county of the city of Kilkenny, the burgesses of Irish town continuing, however, to elect a portreeve until the passing of the Municipal Reform Act. Frequent parliaments were held at Kilkenny from the 14th to the 16th century. In 1642 it was the meeting-place of the assembly of confederate Catholics. In 165o it surrendered to the parliamentary forces.
It consists of Englishtown (or Kilkenny proper) and Irishtown, separated by a rivulet, but although Irishtown retains its name, it is now included in the borough of Kilkenny. The present cathedral of St. Canice, from whom the town takes its name, dates from about 1255. The see of Ossory, which originated in the monastery of Aghaboe founded by St. Canice in the 6th cen tury, and was named after the early kingdom of Ossory, was prob ably moved to Kilkenny about the year '200. In 1835 the diocese of Ferns and Leighlin was united to it. The cathedral has a length from east to west of 226 ft., and a breadth along the transepts from north to south of 123 ft. It is mainly in Early English style, but was extensively restored in 1865. The north transept
incorporates the parish church. The adjacent library of St. Canice contains many ancient books. A short distance from the south transept is a round tower zoo ft. high. The episcopal palace near the east end of the cathedral was erected in the time of Edward III. and enlarged in 1735. The Protestant church of St. Mary is of earlier foundation than the present cathedral; that of St. John includes a portion of the hospital of St. John founded about and the Roman Catholic cathedral, of the diocese of Ossory, dedicated to St. Mary is a cruciform structure in the Early Pointed style. There are important remains of two monasteries—the Dominican abbey founded in 1225, and now used as a Roman Catholic church ; and the Franciscan abbey on the banks of the Nore, founded about 123o. The castle stands on a precipice above the Nore. It was built by Strongbow, but rebuilt by William Marshall after the destruction of the first castle in 1175. The Protestant college of St. John, originally founded in the 16th century, and re-endowed in 1684, stands near the river opposite the castle. In it Swift, Farquhar, Congreve and Bishop Berkeley received part of their education. The Roman Catholic college of St. Kyran (Kieran) was completed about 1840.
In the neighbourhood are collieries as well as long-established quarries for marble, the manufactures connected with which are an important industry of the town. The city also possesses corn mills, breweries and tanneries. Not far from the city are the limestone caverns of Dunmore, which have yielded numerous human remains.