KILKEVAN

KILKEVAN, or LITTLE LIMERICK, a parish, partly in the barony of BALLAGHKEEN, but chiefly in that of GOREY, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 3 ½ miles (N. E.) from Gorey, on the road from that place to Arklow; containing 2593 inhabitants. This parish comprises 8936 statute acres of fertile land, chiefly under tillage, and has no waste land or bog. There are quarries of good building stone on Tara Hill, the north side of which extends into this parish. Ballynastragh, the seat of the ancient family of Esmonde, and now the property of Sir T. Esmonde, Bart., is a handsome modernised mansion, with a light Grecian portico; the grounds are tastefully laid out, and embellished with a fine sheet of water and rich woods. The Rev. T. Quinn has a finely wooded demesne here, on which he intends erecting a mansion. Fairs are held at Little Limerick on April 5th, Whit-Monday, Aug. 21st, and Nov. 12th.

It is a rectory, in the diocese of Ferns, forming part of the union of Gorey, and corps of the deanery of Ferns: the tithes amount to £369. 4. 7 ½., and there is a glebe of 24a. 1r. 15p. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Gorey, and has a neat chapel at Killanearin, near Little Limerick, with a residence for the priest. Contiguous to the chapel is a neat building, consisting of a centre and two wings, and containing school-rooms for both sexes, with apartments for the master and mistress: about 200 children are educated in it. There are some remains of the castle of Little Limerick, which belonged to the Esmonde family, and of the old church.