Barrow

Barrow, a river in the south-east of Ireland. Of the Irish rivers, it is in importance next to the Shannon. It rises in the north of Queen's County, on the north-east slope of the Slieve Bloom ridge of mountains. It flows first east past Portarlington to the border of County Kildare, and then southward, passing the towns of Athy, Carlow, and New Ross. It has a course of 100 miles through a carboniferous, granitic, and silurian basin. Two miles above New Ross it receives the Nore, and 8 miles east of Waterford, it is joined by the Suir (q.v.). These three rivers (called the Three Sisters) form, near the sea, the large and secure estuary of Waterford harbour, 9 miles long. The Barrow is navigable for ships of 300 tons to New Ross, 25 miles up, and for barges to Athy, 65 miles up, whence the Grand Canal communicates with Dublin.