DUNSHAUGHLIN

DUNSHAUGHLIN, a post-town and parish (formerly an incorporated town), in the barony of RATOATH, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 9 ¼ miles (S. S. E.) from Navan, and 13 ¾ (N. W.) from Dublin, on the road to Enniskillen; containing 1548 inhabitants, of which number, 913 are in the town. This place derives its name, signifying "Seachlan's Hill," and its origin, from St. Seachlan, nephew of St. Patrick, who founded a church or abbey here in the middle of the fifth century, which, after being sacked in 1026, and burnt in 1043, appears to have been destroyed by the sept of Hy Bruin in 1152. The provost and commonalty of the town of Dunshaghelyn were, in 1423, ordered to be at Trim with all their power for its defence. The parish comprises 7379 statute acres, of which about 200 are waste and bog, and the remainder arable and pasture land in nearly equal proportions. The town contains about 160 houses: it has fairs on June 11th and Dec. 10th, a dispensary, and is a constabulary police station. Petty sessions are held every fortnight and quarter sessions half-yearly in a neat court-house.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, united to Rathregan, and in the patronage of the Crown, the tithes amount to £296, of which £26 is payable to the representatives of Colonel Reynell, as lay impropriators of the townlands of Derks and Ballinlough: the gross value of the benefice is £436. The glebe-house, in Rathregan, was built by aid of a loan of £562, in 1822, from the late Board of First Fruits; the glebe comprises 23 acres. The church, which is in the town, was built in 1813, by aid of a loan of £700 from the same Board. In the R. C. divisions the parish is united with Colmolyn, in each of which is a chapel. There are two public schools in which are about 100 children, and a private school of about 25.