KILKENNY PARISHES

The county of the city comprehends the parishes of St. Mary, St. Patrick, St. John, and St. Canice, and comprises 16,400 statute acres: the total amount of Grand Jury assessments for 1836 was £2816. The parish of St. Mary is entirely within the city: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop. The church, for the erection of which the. late Board of First Fruits, in 1819, granted a loan of £1200, is an elegant cruciform structure, with a tower and spire, situated in the High-street. The glebe-house, for which the same Board gave £400 and lent £350, is a good residence; and there is a small glebe near the church. The parish of St. Patrick is about one mile and a half in length, and nearly the same in breadth: the living is a rectory and vicarage, united to the rectory of Aghaboe, and the rectory and vicarage of Urlingford, together constituting the corps of the deanery of Ossory, in the patronage of the Crown; the tithes amount to £500, and of the union to £1176. 3. 1.

The parish of St. John comprises 5318 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £7016 per annum. Fairs, for which patents have recently been obtained, are held here on Feb. 15th, May 6th, Sept. 23d, and Nov. 10th. The living is a vicarage, united by act of council, in the reign of Henry VIII., to the vicarage of Clara, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in the corporation of Kilkenny. The tithes amount to £576. 2., of which £373. 0. 6. is payable to the corporation, and £203. 1. 6. to the vicar; the tithes of the whole union, payable to the incumbent, amount to £293. 1. 6. The church is part of the ancient monastery of St. John the Evangelist, restored agreeably to the character of the ancient building, which was of elegant design and elaborate execution; it contains the mutilated relics of ancient sepulchral monuments to the Butler, Grace, and Purcel families. There is no glebe-house; the glebe is situated in the parish of Clara, and comprises 15 acres.

The parish of St. Canice, comprises 6159 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act: the living is a rectory and a vicarage, united by act of council from time immemorial to the rectories and vicarages of Ballybur and St. Martin, together forming the union of St. Canice, belonging to the vicars choral, who receive the tithes of the two first, amounting to £450; those of St. Martin are payable to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

In the R. C. divisions the parish of St. Mary is the head of a union or district, comprising also a small portion of St. John's; the parish of St. Patrick is the head of a union, comprising also the parishes of Castleinch and Outrath, and part of St. Canice; the parish of St. John is the head of a union, comprising also Rathcoole, Kilderry, and Kilmadrum; and the parish of St. Canice is the head of a union, comprising also the parish of St. Maul, and part of Ballybur. There are four chapels, one in each parish: that of St. Canice is a handsome modern edifice, in the later English style; the others are all plain buildings. Adjoining St. Mary's, which is the largest, is the residence of the R. C. bishop, and also the Presentation Convent, with a chapel attached to it: there is also a Capuchin friary, and a Dominican abbey, with chapels attached.

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