KILMURRY

KILMURRY, a parish, in the county of the city of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 2 ¼ miles (E.) from Limerick, on the southern bank of the Shannon; containing 1803 inhabitants. It comprises 3277 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, besides 14 ½ acres of glebe and about 35 acres of bog. The soil is very fertile, and the land is mostly meadow or pasture, and is well planted near the Shannon. Limestone is quarried at Newcastle and other places in the parish. There are a paper and an oil mill at Ballyclough, a paper-mill at Annacotty, and flour-mills at Ballysimon.

The principal seats are Newcastle, the residence of M. O'Brien, Esq.; Plassy, of R. Harvey, Esq.; Milford, of T. Fitzgerald, Esq.; Shannon View, of T. Kelly, Esq.; Willow Bank, of Captain Hickey; Shannon Cottage, of G. McKern, Esq.; Killonan Cottage, of H. Rose, Esq.; and Ballyclough, of P. Cudmore, Esq.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Limerick, episcopally united in 1792 to the rectory of Derrygalvin, and in the alternate patronage of the Crown and the Bishop: the tithes amount to £364, and of the union to £492. The glebe-house was erected in 1790, by aid of a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits: there are three glebes, comprising together 14 ½ acres. The church is a substantial edifice, with a tower and spire of hewn stone; for its erection the same Board granted a loan of £580, in 1812.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of St. Patrick's, Limerick. About 120 children are educated in three private schools. On the banks of the Shannon, boldly situated on a basaltic rock, are the ruins of Castle Troy, which was erected by Dermot O'Brien in the reign of Henry III.; above it is a modern gazebo, and not far distant are the ruins of the ancient church of Killonan or Killowen.