RATHGRAFF

RATHGRAFF, or CASTLE-POLLARD, a parish, in the barony of DEMIFORE, county of WESTMEATH, and province of LEINSTER, on the road from Dublin to Granard, and on the river Glore; containing, with the post-town of Castle-Pollard, 3612 inhabitants. This parish, also called Rathgarth and Rathgarrue, comprises 5181 ¾ statute acres of land, chiefly arable and producing good crops: limestone abounds, for working which there are some large quarries: there is very little bog. Within the parish are the hills of Sliebuoy and Loughanstown. Fairs for live stock are held at Castle-Pollard, and petty sessions every Wednesday. Kinturk is the seat of W. D. Pollard, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, united by act of council, in 1676, to the vicarages of Lickbla, Faughley and Mayne, and to the curacies of St. Feighan-of-Fore, Favoran, Beatae-Mariae-de-Fore, and Kilpatrick, forming the union of Rathgraff, in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Westmeath.

The tithes amount to £187. 9., of which £83. 6. 3 ½. is payable to the impropriator; the gross value of the benefice is £609. 11. 4., including £42, the value of 31 acres comprised in three glebes. The glebe-house is a good comfortable building in Castle-Pollard. The church is a handsome building, surmounted with a spire, in the Gothic style, and in excellent repair, having been rebuilt in 1821, at a cost of £2769, being a loan from the late Board of First Fruits, one third of which is repayable in annual instalments by the Earl of Longford and W. D. Pollard, Esq., the remainder by the united parishes: there is also a church in the parish of Mayne.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called Castle-Pollard, comprising the parishes of Rathgraff, Lickbla, and Favoran, in which union are four chapels, two in Rathgraff, one in Castle-Pollard, and another at Millcastle. The parochial school, at Castle-Pollard, in which about 40 boys and 30 girls are taught, is aided by subscriptions annually from the vicar, Lord Longford, and Mr. Pollard: there are six private schools, in which are about 180 boys and 30 girls; and a Sunday school. Ruins exist of the old church of Rathgraff.