
Contrasting with the sleepy country villages, Limerick City is a busy and well-developed city, straddling the banks of the River Shannon. The city has an interesting history, founded by the Vikings, but taken over by the Irish, Limerick was developed and fortified by the Anglo-Normans during the middle ages. King John's Castle overlooking the river still stands as a reminder of this era. Limerick is remembered by many as the setting for Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes, though the city has been much modernised from the desperate times described in McCourt's time and today Limerick is a vibrant multicultural city. The River Shannon plays an important role for Limerick, a few kilometres from the city along the estuary is the main port of Foynes, which for many years served as the main transatlantic seaplane base in Ireland.