Not surprisingly, perhaps, given its position, Athlone has quite an interesting history attached, and at least one important legend. The name A?th Luain , the Ford of Luan, came from (or may perhaps have inspired) the SnA?m DA? A?n ("Swim of Two Birds"), a tale that tells of Estiu, wife of NA?r. She had a lover called Buide who used to come and visit her in the form of a bird with his foster-brother Luan. The magic of their song lulled all around to sleep, allowing the lovers to enjoy their trysts undisturbed. NA?r, however, questioned a druid about the coming of the birds and on learning the secret he set out for the place on the Shannon (near Clonmacnois) where Buide and Luan could be found and shot both of them with one cast of his sling. Buide was killed instantly, but Luan managed to fly as far north as the ford that marks Athlone today, where he dropped dead from the sky. An alternative derivation of the name comes from the TA?in , which describes how the remains of the white bull ( Finnbennach ) were deposited throughout the countryside as he died. His loins were left at a place that came to be known as A?th Luain , the Ford of the Loins.

In straight historical terms, this ford of the Shannon has always been strategically important. The first castle was erected in 1129 by Toirdelbach A? Conchobhair, King of Connacht, and replaced in 1210 by the Norman castle which, still stands today. It saw action many times, above all in the seventeenth century in the Cromwellian Wars and the Jacobite invasion. The former put a swift end to the predominantly Catholic nature of the town, placing most of the land and political power in the hands of Protestants. The later battles of 1690 to 1691 saw probably the most vicious fighting in the War of the Kings , as the Williamites captured first the Leinster part of town and, after 12,000 cannonballs had reduced much of it to rubble, the Connacht side.