NURNEY

NURNEY, a parish, partly in the barony of CARLOW, and partly in that of FORTH, but chiefly in the barony of IDRONE EAST, county of CARLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 2 miles (N. E.) from Leighlin-bridge, on the road to Tullow; containing 975 inhabitants, of which number, 284 are in the village. This parish comprises 2758 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £2215 per annum. There is no bog: agriculture is in a good state. Here are granite quarries for building, and limestone for burning; and the Barrow navigation affords the means of conveying goods to Waterford. The village, consisting of about 50 houses, stands at the junction of several roads; it is a constabulary police station, and has a patent for a fair on May 6th, which is not held.

The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin, forming the corps of the precentorship thereof, in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £230. 15. 4 ½. The church is a small neat building of hewn stone, erected in 1788, by aid of a gift of £500 from the late Board of First Fruits,; and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £217 for its repair: the steeple was thrown down by lightning some years since.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Dunleckney. The parochial school, in which about 30 boys and 40 girls are taught, is under the patronage of Colonel Bruen, M. P., who erected the school-house, at an expense of £400. From the churchyard a noble view of the western part of the county is procured, with the windings of the river Barrow: in it is part of a rude stone cross, and without its boundary stands a perfect cross, six feet high.