THURLES, county of Tipperary, Ireland, a market-town and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated on the river Suir, in 52' 42' N. lab., 7' 47' W. long., distort 29 miles N. from Clonmel, 90 miles S.W. from Dublin by road, and 364 miles by the Great Southern and Western railway. The population was 5921 in 1851. Thurles Poor Law Union comprises 22 electoral divisions, with an area of 143,350 acres, and a population in 1841 of 62,639; in 1851 it was 48,539.
The town of Muriel; consists of several streets on both sides of tho river, which are intersected by the main street. which crosses the river from east to west. In the town are a neat parish church.
erected in 1812; a large Roman Catholic chapel, the cathedral of Cashel, which cast 10,0001., and ranks among the finest ecclesiastical bnildings in Ireland ; a convent of Urauline and one of Presentation nuns ; a monastery* of religious brothers; and a chapel for Baptists.
St. Patrick's Roman Catholic College is a seminary fur ecclesiastical and general education, with a president and seven professors. There ere a new court-house, a market-house, bridewell, infantry barracks, dispensary, and Union workhouse. The town has a savings bank. It has an extensive retail trade, and there are considerable sales of grain at the two weekly markets. Quarter and petty sessions are held. Fairs are held on Easter Monday, August 21st, December 21st, and on the first Tuesday of every month. The market-days are Tuesday and Saturday. Thurles is a place of considerable antiquity, and was in the 10th century the scene of a severe battle between the native Irish and the Danes. A Carmelite monastery was founded here about the year 1300.