COLERAINE, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of Ireland, in the county of Londonderry, on the Bann, four miles from its mouth, and 145 miles north of Dublin. The town stands upon both sides of the river, which is there crossed by a handsome stone bridge of three arches, 288 feet in length by 32 in breadth. The principal part is on the east bank, and consists of a central square called the “Diamond,” and several diverging streets; the portion on the west side is called the Waterside, or Killowen. Coleraine has two parish churches, two Roman Catholic churches, a town-hall, a market-house, a work-house, an endowed school, a national model school, and free schools founded by the Irish Society of London. The linen trade has long been extensively carried on in the town, from which, indeed, a fine description of cloth is known as “Coleraines." Pork-curing and the salmon and eel fisheries are prosecuted. The mouth of the river, which was formerly obstructed by a bar, now admits vessels of 200 tons. The principal trade is carried on through Port Rush, where a harbour is formed by two moles, with an entrance of 200 feet wide, an area of 8 acres, and a depth of from 15 to 20 feet at the wharves. In 1873, 422 vessels entered with a tonnage of 46,589. The parliamentary borough has a population of 6552, and returns one member. Coleraine is reputed to have been the seat of a Christian bishop previous to the arrival of the great apostle of Ireland. It owes its modern importance mainly to the Company for the New Plantation of Ulster, on which it was bestowed in 1613. Though fortified only by an earthen wall, it managed to hold out against the rebels in 1641.