THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL. NUMBER 39. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1841. VOLUME I. [Illustration: THOMOND BRIDGE AND THE CASTLE OF LIMERICK.] There is scarcely in all Ireland a scene which has so many exciting associations connected with it as that which we have chosen as the pictorial subject for the present number of our Journal. The bridge is indeed a new one; but it is erected on the site of that most ancient one which was the scene of so many a hard-fought battle for all that men hold dear; and the castle--ruined and time-worn, it is true--is the same fortress which served in turn the race by whom it was erected, and, as if partaking of the change which our soil is said to make in the feelings of all those who settle on it, became the last and most impregnable stronghold of those it was designed to subdue. But some of the events connected with this scene--and these events, too, the most important--though honourable to the manly character of all concerned in them, and such as all the members of the great family of the British empire may now feel a pride in--are still associated with remembrances which to many are of a saddening cast, and which require to be softened by distance or time before they can be distinctly awakened without giving pain--like our country’s music, of which even some of the most exhilarating movements have strange tones of sorrow blended with them, which to many temperaments are too touching if strongly accented. And we do not therefore regret that in the short notice of Limerick Bridge and Castle which we have to present to our readers, neither our plan nor our space will permit us to give any sketch of their history but such as may be read by all, if not with pleasure, at least without pain. The Castle and Bridge of Limerick owe their origin to the first Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, and were erected to secure their possessions and facilitate the extension of them. It is probable, however, if not certain, that the site of the castle had been previously occupied by a stronghold of the Ostmen or Danes who settled in Limerick in the ninth century, and with whom, if they were not its founders, its authentic history as a city at least begins; for the earlier historical notices connected with it relate only to its church or churches.