BUMLIN, or STROKESTOWN, a parish

BUMLIN, or STROKESTOWN, a parish, in the barony and county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT; containing, with the market and post-town of Strokestown, 4913 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the new mail coach road from Dublin to the West of Ireland, and comprises 4399 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act and valued at £4038 per annum. Part of Slievebawn mountain is situated within its limits, the summit of which towards the east commands a most extensive view. The land is chiefly under tillage; limestone abounds, and there are considerable tracts of bog. Castlenode is the seat of J. Morton, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, to which the vicarages of Kiltrustan and Lissonuffy were episcopally united in 1811, which three parishes form the union of Bumlin, in the patronage of the Bishop: the rectory is partly appropriate to the prebendary of Kilgoghlin in the cathedral church of Elphin, but chiefly impropriate in C. and R. Armstrong, Esqrs. The tithes amount to £285. 3. 9., of which £100.3. 5. is payable to the impropriators, £21 to the prebendary, and £164. 0. 4. to the vicar; and the gross vicarial tithes of the benefice amount to £533. 14. 7 ½.; the annual income of the prebendary of Kilgoghlin is £310. 14. 2.

The church, situated at Strokestown, is a handsome edifice with a spire, built in 1814 by aid of a loan of £2700 from the late Board of First Fruits. The glebe-house was also built by a gift of £337 and a loan of £150 from the same Board: the glebe comprises ten acres. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising also the parish of Kiltrustan, and containing three chapels, situated at Strokestown, Scramogue, and Kiltrustan, the two former in the parish of Bumlin. The parochial school, in which are about 50 children, is chiefly supported by the Vicar and by private subscriptions; there are also seven hedge schools, in which about 100 boys and 90 girls are taught. The late B. Mahon, Esq., bequeathed £800 late currency for the benefit of the poor of the three parishes forming the union.—See STROKESTOWN.