KILFLYN

KILFLYN, a parish, in the barony of COSTLEA, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 8 miles (S. E.) from Kilmallock, on the road from Limerick to Kildorrery; containing 1562 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated in the midst of a group of mountains separating the counties of Cork and Limerick, was waste and uncultivated previously to the year 1740, when a considerable number of Palatines, a branch from the colony of Rathkeale, settled here, and contributed greatly to its improvement. It contains 9086 statute acres, of which 5328 are applotted under the tithe act, and the remainder are chiefly mountainous and unproductive. A great portion of the waste has been brought into cultivation, and at the head of Glenroe is a large tract of land equal to any in the barony for fertility. The principal mountains are Kilcruig and Coolfrie, or Houndscourt. Slate of good quality is quarried in the immediate neighbourhood.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Limerick, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £160. The church, a neat edifice with a square tower, was built in 1812. The glebe-house is a handsome residence; and the glebe comprises 16 acres. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Glenroe; the chapel, situated in the village of Ballyorgan, is a small thatched building. The parochial schools are endowed with an acre of the glebe, and are aided by the incumbent; and there is a private school, in which are about 30 children. There are remains of a Trinitarian monastery founded by St. Finian about the year 547, and rebuilt in 1296 by the Fitzgeralds, whose property in this parish now belongs to the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin. A considerable portion of the building fell down in 1835, having been undermined by the peasantry in digging for treasure supposed to have been deposited there.