KILMOLARA

KILMOLARA, a parish, in the barony of KILMAIN, county of MAYO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 2 ¾ miles (S.) from Ballinrobe, on the road to Cong; containing 1350 inhabitants. It is situated on Lough Mask, and comprises about 2000 statute acres, principally in tillage; there are some fine limestone quarries. Neale Park is the handsome house and demesne of Lord Kilmaine.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Tuam, united to the rectories and vicarages of Ballincalla and Ross, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £200, and of the benefice to £945. The glebe-hoase and glebe of the union are in Ballincalla. The church, a neat plain building with a square tower, is situated in the parish of Cong, close to the boundary of this parish: it is the property of Lord Kilmaine, and has been recently repaired by a grant of £125 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called the Neale, comprising also the parish of Ballincalla; the chapel is at the Neale. There is a public school, in which about 80, and a private school in which about 100, children are educated. In the Neale park are some remarkable antiquities, particularly a stone on which are carved the figure of an unicorn opposite to a man surrounded with a glory, and a lion below them. According to an inscription beneath this stone, it was found in a cave near the spot, and the figures were the gods worshipped here by Edda and Con, after the latter of whom Connaught was named: the figures were called in Irish "Dine Feale," or "Gods of Felicity," from which the place was called Nehale, or "The Neale."