DONAGHMOYNE

DONAGHMOYNE, a parish, in the barony of FARNEY (called also, from this parish, DONAGHMOYNE), county of MONAGHAN, and province of ULSTER, 2 ½ miles (N. N. E.) from Carrickmacross; containing 14,070 inhabitants. It is situated on the mail coach road from Dublin to Londonderry, and comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 25,604 statute acres, of which 102 ¼ are in Lough Muckno, and 258 ¼ in the smaller lakes with which the parish is interspersed. Nearly the whole of the land is in tillage; the soil is fertile and produces tolerably good crops, but the system of agriculture is in a very unimproved state. Limestone abounds in the southern part of the parish, and is quarried for building and for agricultural purposes; and coal has been discovered on the townland of Corlea, but has not been worked. At Thornford there is an extensive corn-mill. The principal gentlemen's seats are Longfield, the residence of J. Johnston, Esq.; Rahens, of J. Read, Esq.; Donaghmoyne, of J. Bashford, Esq.; Cabragh Lodge, of J. Boyle Kernan, Esq.; Rocksavage, of J. Plunkett, Esq.; Broomfield, of W. Henry, Esq.; Thornford, of Hamilton McMath, Esq.; and Longfield Cottage, of R. Banan, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Clogher, and in the patronage of the Crown; the rectory is impropriate in J. B. Kernan, Esq. The tithes amount to £1430. 15. 4 ½., of which £476. 18. 5 ½. is payable to the impropriator, and £953. 16. 11. to the vicar. The glebe-house is a comfortable residence, with grounds containing seven acres; the glebe comprises 50 ½ acres. The church, a neat modern structure, was erected on a site presented by James Bashford, Esq., by aid of a loan of £1250 from the late Board of First Fruits.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is partly, in the union or district of Inniskeen, and partly a benefice in itself; there are three chapels, situated respectively at Donaghmoyne, Lisdoonan, and Tapla, belonging to the parochial benefice, and one at Drumcatton belonging to the union of Inniskeen. There are schools at Lisdoonan and Donaghmoyne, supported by subscription, in which about 70 children are instructed; and 13 pay schools, in which are about 460 boys and 170 girls, also a Sunday school. At Fincairn, in the northern part of the parish, are several large stones, supposed to be a druidical, monument. On the townland of Cabragh was formerly an abbey dependent on the abbey of Mellifont; and on the townland of Mannon are the remains of an ancient castle, or Danish fort, which, from its elevated situation, and the remains of the buildings on its summit, appears to have been a strong and very important post; it commands an extensive view of the surrounding country.