Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, founded, 1169, by Donald O'Brien, King of Thomond. It owes its fame to the relic of the Holy Cross enshrined there, and was for three and a half centuries one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage in Ireland. The Abbey was suppressed under Henry VIII, 1536. The year 1632 seems to have been the last during which the relic of the True Cross was exposed for public veneration. The preservation of the abbey ruins is now the charge of the Board of Works.