DARAGH, or GLENROE, a parish

DARAGH, or GLENROE, a parish, in the barony of COSTLEA, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 4 miles (S. E.) from Kilfinane; containing 1856 inhabitants. This place, generally called Daragh-Glenroe, signifying "the Oaks of the red valley," is situated on the road from Limerick to Mitchelstown, and derives its name from an ancient and extensive forest of oaks, in the vale of Glenroe, extending from the hills of Glenasheen to the river at Towerlegan. Towards its north-west boundary are still some woods of oak, the remains of the ancient forest. Near its south-western extremity the road to Ballingarry crosses a small river, near the confluence of two streams, forming a boundary between the dioceses of Cork and Emly, and between this parish and the adjacent parishes of Ballylander and Ballingarry.

The parish, which adjoins the county of Cork, comprises 6635 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £4197 per annum. The land is every where of excellent quality, and generally under a good system of cultivation. Daragh House, the seat of F. Bevan, Esq., is pleasantly situated, and extensive improvements are in progress around it. Ballynacorty House is the seat of M. Bourke, Esq. Near Daragh House are some extensive slate quarries, but they have not been worked to a sufficient depth to procure slates equal to those of the counties of Waterford and Cork. A new line of road from Limerick to Mitchelstown is in course of formation, which, when completed, will become the principal road from Limerick to Cork.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Limerick, united by act of council to that of Kilfinane, together forming the union of Daragh, in the patronage of the Earl of Cork, in whom the rectory is impropriate: the tithes amount to £240, of which £105 is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar; and the tithes for the whole benefice amount to £300. There is neither church, glebe-house, nor glebe. In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district called Glenroe, comprising also the parish of Kilflyn, in each of which is a chapel; the chapel of Daragh, in Glenroe, is a spacious and handsome edifice, erected in 1834, at an expense of £750. There is a pay school of about 20 boys and 20 girls. There are the ruins of a churchyard. Near the road leading from Mitchelstown to Kilflyn are the remains of the old hospital of Daragh.