KILLASHEE

KILLASHEE, a parish, in the barony of MOYDOW, county of LONGFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (E. N. E.) from Lanesborough, on the road from Longford to Roscommon; containing, with the parish of Clonodonnell, 4140 inhabitants, of which number 351 are in the village. It comprises 4615 statute acres of profitable land, valued at £3153 per annum, besides about 9924 of bog and waste land. Agriculture is in a backward state; there is an abundance of limestone, which is used for manure and for building. The village comprises 70 houses; it is a constabulary police station, and has petty sessions on alternate Mondays, and fairs on the second Monday in March, May 26th, Sept. 29th, and the first Wednesday in December. The Shannon and the Royal Canal pass in the vicinity. Here is Middletown, the residence of H. Montfort, Esq. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Ardagh, united by act of Council in 1781 to the rectory and vicarage of Clonodonnell, and is in the patronage of the Bishop.

The rectory is partly appropriate to the bishoprick and partly to the vicarage. The tithes amount to £183. 7. 8., of which £34. 17. 10. is payable to the bishop, and £148. 9. 10. to the vicar, and the entire tithes of the benefice amount to £199. 14. 1. The church has recently been rebuilt by a grant of £1211 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The glebe-house has two glebes, comprising 167 acres. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district corresponding with that of the Established Church, and has a chapel at Killashee and one at Clondra. There is also a place of worship for Primitive Methodists. The parochial school of the union is on Erasmus Smith's foundation, the trustees of which contributed to the expense of building the school-house; about 100 children are educated in this, and about 220 in two other public schools, to one of which the incumbent contributes £20, and to another £18. 15. per annum, and about 325 children in three private schools; there is also a Sunday school. Lady Hutchinson bequeathed £5 annually for the repair of Sir James Hutchinson's tomb, the surplus of which is distributed among the poor. Here is a subterraneous stream and a large cave; and at Ballynakill are the ruins of a church with a burying-ground attached.