PARTICLES

PARTICLES (The), a parish, in. the barony of COSTLEA, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (S.) from Kilmallock, on the road to Kildorrery: the population is returned with the several parishes of which it formerly was part. This place derives its name from particles or parts of several religious foundations of which it was formed; these are the townlands of Down Gadmond, Down Innish, Chapel Martel, and Ineycabal, which, prior to the Reformation, belonged respectively to the abbeys of Buttevant, Kilmallock, Manister-Nenagh, and Adare, to which they were given at a very early period by the family of O'Kelly, or O'Hely. The village of Glenasheen, in this parish, was built by a colony of Palatines brought hither in 1769, by the late Silver Oliver, Esq., from Lord Southwell's settlement at Rathkeale, by whom also the surrounding country was greatly improved. The descendants of these colonists are still in possession of their farms; but these have been so frequently subdivided, that the tenants are becoming very poor. The parish is situated among the Castle Oliver mountains, and extends northward to within three miles of Kilmallock; it comprises 8278 statute acres; the soil is fertile, being based on a substratum of limestone, which is also found in round nodules and burnt into lime both for agricultural and building purposes.

The principal seats are Sunville, near the hill of Ardpatrick, anciently belonging to the Godsall family, now the property and residence of E. Sayers, Esq.; and Bettyville, the residence of J. Austen, Esq. Castle Oliver, anciently called Castle-na-Doon, originally the residence of the Roche family, afterwards of the family of Fitzharris, became, after the Restoration, the property of the Olivers, from whom it takes its present name; it now belongs to R. O. Gascoigne, Esq., of the county of York, whose bailiff resides in it. The estate, including the demesne and park, comprises 20,000 acres; but the building is in a very dilapidated state, and the whole much neglected. At Sunville is a very extensive flour-mill, with machinery of the most improved description, producing 3000 barrels of flour annually, and affording employment to a part of the inhabitants, of whom the rest are wholly employed in agricultural pursuits. A constabulary police force is stationed in the village.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Lismore, instituted in 1835, and endowed with £75 per annum by the dean and chapter of Limerick, to whom the rectory was appropriated by charter of Charles II., in 1674, as part of the economy fund of the cathedral: the tithes amount to £323. 5. 4 ½. Divine service is regularly performed in a building attached to the police station at Glenasheen.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union of Kilfinnan. The parochial school is supported by the dean and chapter, assisted by Miss Betty Oliver. On the summit of the high grounds of Chapel Martel is a circular enclosure, having the appearance of a military station, within which it is said that a converted Dane founded a chapel and afterwards gave it, with the adjoining lands, to the abbey of Buttevant. From the summit of the hill above the village of Glenasheen is a very interesting prospect, embracing every county in Munster; on one of the smaller hills in the centre of the group is a small gateway tower, erected by the late Silver Oliver, Esq.