JOHN'S (ST.)

JOHN'S (ST.), a parish, in the barony of UPPER CARBERY, county of SLIGO, and province of CONNAUGHT; containing, with the greater part of the borough and sea-port town of Sligo, 12,982 inhabitants, of which number, 11,411 are in the town. The parish comprises 4350 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £7056 per annum. The rural part consists generally of good land, contains excellent limestone, and is embellished with many handsome houses and demesnes, which command fine views of the bay of Sligo, with the two magnificent headlands, Benbulben and Knocknarea, that form its entrance; the latter of these is said to derive its name, which signifies "the King's Hill," from having been the place where the kings of Ireland were anciently inaugurated. The principal seats are noticed in the article on the town of Sligo, which see.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, united in 1681 to the vicarage of Calry and the rectories and vicarages of Killaspicbrown and Kilmacoen, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £341. 10. 9., and of the entire benefice to £870. 11. 8. There is a glebe-house, with an acre of glebe. The church, which is in the town of Sligo, was built in 1822, by aid of a loan of £3500 from the late Board of First Fruits, and was recently repaired by a grant of £125 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called Sligo and Calry, comprising the parishes of St John, Calry, Killaspicbrown, and Kilmacoen, and containing chapels at Sligo, Calry, and Collooney, and a small Dominican convent with a chapel in Sligo. There is a meeting-house for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of Ulster, of the third class, also meetinghouses for Independents and Primitive Methodists. About 780 children are educated in five public schools, and in two which are in the county gaol, and about 580 in fifteen private schools; there are also six Sunday schools.