DRISHANE

DRISHANE, a parish, partly in the detached portion of the barony of MAGONIHY, county of KERRY, and partly in the barony of DUHALLOW, but chiefly in that of WEST MUSKERRY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, on the road from Cork to Killarney, containing, with the town of Millstreet, 7036 inhabitants. It comprises 32,169 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £12,635. 16. 9. per ann. About a seventh part of the land is fertile and well cultivated, but the greater part consists of mountain pasture and bog : much of the former, however, affords good herbage for large herds of cattle and goats; and a considerable part of the district of Kladach, containing about 2200 acres of rough moorland, might be reclaimed at a moderate expense. Slate is found in several places, also white clay of a tenacious quality; and near Drishane Castle is a bed of good limestone.

The gentlemen's seats are Drishane Castle, the residence of H. Wallis, Esq.; Coole House, of H. O'Donnell, Esq.; Mount Leader, of H. Leader, Esq.; Rathduane, of J. E. McCarty, Esq.; Coomlagane, of J. McCarthy O'Leary, Esq.; Coole, of H. O'Donnell, Esq.; and the glebe-house, of the Rev. F. Cooper. The parish is in the diocese of Ardfert; the rectory is impropriate in the Earl of Donoughmore, and the vicarage was united, in 1760, to that of Nohoval-daly, together forming the union of Drishane, in the patronage of the Bishop. The tithes amount to £630, and are equally divided between the impropriator and the vicar; the tithes of the benefice amount to £455. There is a glebe-house with a glebe of 26 acres. The church, situated in Millstreet, is a large edifice with a square tower, in the Gothic style; A grant of £112. 17. 6. has been recently made by the Ecclesiastical Board for its repair. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of the union or district of Millstreet, which also comprises the greater part of the parish of Cullen : the chapel is at Millstreet, and there is also a chapel at Cullen.

The parochial school, in Millstreet, is supported by H. Wallis, Esq., and the vicar. A school-house is about to be erected at Coomlegan, for which Mrs. McCarty, of Glyn, in 1811 bequeathed two acres of land and £40 per annum. There are also two private schools, and the number of children educated in the parish is about 150. Drishane Castle, which is in good repair, was erected by Dermot McCarty in 1436: his descendant, Donagh McCarty, was engaged in the war of 1641, by which he forfeited the estate: in the demesne are the ruins of the old parochial church. Of Kilmeedy castle, which was built by one of the McCarty family, in 1445, to command the wild mountain pass from Macroom to Killarney, the ruins still remain in the valley, near the mail coach road.—See MILL-STREET.