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MIC
and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount
to £375; the glebe, about two miles from the church,
comprises 184¼ statute acres, valued at £30 per ann.,
of which 25¼ acres are arable, and the remainder rocky
pasture and mountain, with the exception of 2¼ consist-
ing of streets and commons. The church is in good
repair; it was built about 160 years since. The R. C.
parish is co-extensive with that of the Established
Church: the chapel is a good slated building. About
230 children are educated in four public schools, of
which the parochial school is aided by an annual
donation from Col. Robertson’s fund; and in three
private schools are about 130 children: there are also
three Sunday schools. At the time of Pynnar’s survey,
a strong bawn of lime and stone, sixty feet square, with
flankers, stood here; and there were 23 British families,
capable of mustering forty-two fighting men.
MEW ISLAND.—See COPELAND ISLANDS.
MICHAEL’S (ST.), or TEMPLEMICHAEL, a parish,
partly in the county of the city of CORK, but chiefly in
the barony of BARRYMORE, county of CORK, and province
of MUNSTER, 5 miles (N.) from Cork, on the old road
to Ballyhooly; containing 529 inhabitants. This parish
comprises 2109 statute acres, as applotted under the
tithe act and valued at £755 per ann.; of these, 1305
acres are in the barony of Barrymore, and the remain-
der in the county of the city. The land is principally
in tillage, and, though stony, produces good crops;
there is neither bog nor waste land. The substratum is
entirely clay-slate, and there are some quarries of hard
compact stone used for building and for repairing the
roads. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cork,
constituting the corps of the prebend of St. Michael in
the cathedral of St. Finbarr, Cork, and in the patronage
of the Bishop; the tithes amount to £129.10.7. Divine
service is performed at present in the school-house at
Carrignavar, where a church is about to be built. In
the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union
or district of Glanmire, or Dunbollogue; the chapel, to
which a school is attached, is a small plain edifice. The
parochial school at Carrignavar is supported by J.
M c Carthy, Esq.
MICHAEL’S (ST.) a parish, in the barony of
FORTH, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER;
6 miles (S. S. E.) from Wexford, on the road to Rosslare;
containing 93 inhabitants. This small parish, which is
situated on the southern extremity of Wexford Harbour,
comprises only 564½ statute acres, chiefly under an
improved system of cultivation. Some of the inhabi-
tants are engaged in the herring fishery during the sea-
son, this part of the harbour being frequented by boats
from various places engaged in that pursuit. The
only seat is Bushville, the residence of Chas. Jacob, Esq.,
the principal proprietor of the parish. It is an im-
propriate cure, in the diocese of Ferns, forming part
of the union of Killinick: the rectory is impropriate in
Caesar Colclough, Esq. Of the tithes, amounting to
£27. 16. 6., two-thirds are payable to the impropria-
tor, and the remainder to the curate. There are no
remains of the church, but the old burial-ground is
still used.
MICHAEL’S (ST.) of FEAGH, a parish, in the
barony of FORTH, county of WEXFORD, and province
of LEINSTER, immediately without the walls of the town
of Wexford; containing, with the parishes of Maudlin-
367
MID
town and Killilogue, 2377 inhabitants. This small
parish, which, as applotted under the tithe act, con-
tains only 135 statute acres, forms the south-eastern
suburb of the town, and is mostly occupied by fisher-
men and small shopkeepers. Within its limits is Crom-
well’s Fort, the northern extremity of a rugged tract
called the White Rocks, whence Cromwell fired on the
town in 1649: it is now being quarried and affords an
abundant supply of good building stone. Immediately
adjoining is the residence of the Rev. Zachariah Cornock,
to which it gives name. The Wexford Barracks are
also within the limits of the parish. It is an impropri-
ate cure, in the diocese of Ferns, forming part of the
union of St. Patrick’s, Wexford: the rectory is impro-
priate in Cæsar Colclough, Esq., of Tintern Abbey.
The tithes amount to £11.9.9., of which £2. 7. 0 is
payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the
curate. In the R. C. divisions it is also in the union or
district of Wexford. The ruins of the old church still
remain.
MIDDLETOWN, a market-town and district parish,
in the barony of TURANEY, county of ARMAGH, and
province of ULSTER, 2 miles (S. S. W.) from Tynan,
to which it has a penny-post, and on the high road
from Armagh to Monaghan; containing 5145 inha-
bitants, of which number, 735 are in the town. This
place owes its present prosperity to Dr. Sterne, a
former bishop of Clogher, who in the latter part of
the last century bequeathed the then village of Middle-
town, eight townlands in this parish, and five in the
adjoining parish of Donagh, in the county of Monaghan,
to trustees (incorporated by an act of the Irish parlia-
ment passed in 1772), who have expended considerable
sums for the benefit of the tenantry in general, and
in the erection of a market-house, school-house, dispen-
sary, and fever hospital at Middletown. The town con-
sists of two streets crossing each other at right angles,
and contained, in 1831, 160 houses, which number has
been since increased to 187: several of the houses are
large and well built. An extensive distillery, with ma-
chinery on an improved principle, was established here
in 1831, by Mr. Matthew Johnston: it produces an-
nually about 80,000 gallons of whiskey, and consumes
on an average 1500 barrels of malt, and 12,000 barrels of
raw grain. The distillery has caused the establishment of
markets for grain on Wednesday and Saturday, and
there is a market on Thursday for provisions. Fairs
are held on the first Thursday in each month, for horses,
cattle, and pigs. Here is a station of the constabulary
police, and petty sessions are held on alternate Wed-
nesdays.
The district parish, which was formed in 1792, by
disuniting 33 townlands from the parish of Tynan, com-
prises 7339 statute acres; it contains a considerable
portion of bog, that supplies abundance of fuel; coal is
supposed to exist, and there is a quarry of good stone,
the produce of which is applied to building purposes.
The land on one side of the town is low, flat, and
marshy, and on the other hilly and tolerably good;
and there are several lakes, which discharge their waters
into that of Glaslough, in the county of Monaghan.
The Ulster canal, now in progress from Lough Erne to
Lough Neagh, will pass through the parish. The prin-
cipal seats are Ashfort, the residence of H. Harris, Esq.,
and Chantilly, of the Rev. James Mauleverer. The