Doon, County Limerick

Doon (Irish: Dún Bleisce) is a village in east County Limerick, Ireland, close to the border of County Tipperary. It is also a civil parish in the historic barony of Coonagh. and is an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.

The name Doon, deriving from the common Irish place name term Dún meaning "fort", can also be found as the name of various different townlands in Ireland.

Doon's name in Irish is Dún Bleisce. Dún means fortification and the Ordnance Survey map of the area records eight ring forts. The main such ring fort is located behind the Church of Ireland Church outside the village. The Bleisce part is more difficult to explain. Speculation on the origin of the name revolves around three theories. The first theory is that the name is derived from a stream – in Irish fleisc – which flows through the village. The second is that Bleisc was the name of a swine herder for a local chieftain. The third is that Bleisc was "a woman of ill repute", a harlot whose "dún" was a favourite haunt of soldiers of the Crown.

The first mention of the name Dún Bleisce was in the Annals of Inisfallen in 774 and for hundreds of years the village was known by this name. In 2003, the Placename Commission recommended that the official translation for Doon be changed to An Dún as it "was the appropriate Irish name for the village". After a sustained campaign by locals which included a motion being adopted by Limerick County Council in November 2006 to request the name be changed back, the locals got their wish. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon O'Cuiv, approved the reversion saying that the alternative Dún Bleisce had an "attested historical basis".

Doon has two primary schools and one secondary school.

Doon Convent Primary School was opened in 1868 by the Sisters of Mercy. Doon Convent was founded in 1865. It was the brain-child of Rev. Patrick Hickey P.P., who realised that a sound system of education was the only hope for the deprived people of the area. He had a grand-niece in the Convent of Mercy, Kinsale, County Cork and he invited sisters from Kinsale to come to Doon, which they did in February 1865.

Religious instruction and visitation of the sick were the main works carried out by the first Sisters of Mercy. They had no school so they instructed groups in the garden. In 1867 the Archbishop of Cashel visited the Convent (the Parish Priest's house) and gave the Sister's permission to build a school. The school was opened in 1868. Due to the closure of the National school and overcrowding in the Convent school an additional storey was built in 1878.

The children were taught religion, English reading and writing, instrumental music and singing and crafts such as embroidery and painting. A small boarding school was started for those children who were too far away to attend daily.