Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 4, 2006

The history of Limerick, the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland and a major cultural and industrial centre, stretches back to its establishment by the Vikings as a walled city on "King's Island" (an island in the River Shannon) in 812, and its charter in 1197. A great castle was built on the orders of King John in 1200. It was besieged three times in the 17th century, resulting in the famous Treaty of Limerick and the flight of the defeated Catholic leaders abroad. Much of the City was built during the following Georgian prosperity, which ended abruptly with the Act of Union in 1800. The depression was to last nearly two centuries, through famine, war, and emergency, until the boom times of the 1990s. The city's position as one of Europe's most westerly points has made it somewhat of a crossroads between the old and new worlds. Famous visitors have included John F. Kennedy, Che Guevara, Boris Yeltsin and Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. (continued...)