KILGRIFFIN

KILGRIFFIN, a parish, in the barony of BALLINTOBBER, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT, 4 ½ miles (S.) from Stokestown, on the road from that place to Roscommon; containing 4420 inhabitants. In a skirmish which took place here in 1795, many of the peasantry were killed. The parish comprises 4018 statute acres, and is bounded on the east by Slieve Bawn, which is supposed to contain copper and lead ores. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in the representatives of Lord Kingsland; the tithes amount to £159. 1. 6 ½., per annum, which is equally divided between the impropriator and the vicar. The church is a neat plain structure, erected in 1824, by aid of a gift of £200 from the late Board of First Fruits. There is a glebe-house, with a glebe of 10 acres, subject to a rent of 36s. per acre. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising Kilgeffin, Kilbride, and Clontuskert, and containing chapels at Ballagh and Ballyleague, and one in progress at Four-mile house. About 200 children are educated in four private schools.