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inhabitants. This place, originally called Cluain-aith-chin
and Cluain-ædnach, is of very remote antiquity. A mo-
nastery was founded here, at an early period, by St.
Fintan, who became its first abbot, and was succeeded
by St. Columba, who died in 548. This abbey was des-
troyed in 838, by the Danes, who., in 843, carried its
venerable abbot, Aid, who was also abbot of Tirdaglass,
into Munster,, where, on the 8th of July, he suffered
martyrdom. After being frequently plundered and des-
troyed by the Danes, it continued to flourish for a con-
siderable period, but little is known of its history sub-
sequently to the English invasion. At Gutney Cloy, in this
parish, a battle took place between the forces of Brian Bo-
roimhe, on their return from Clontarf, and those of Fitz-
patrick, Prince of Ossory. The parish is situated on the
road from Maryborough to Roscrea, and comprises, with
Clonagheen, 34,855 statute acres, as applotted under
the tithe act. Of these, from 9000 to 12,000 are bog,
and about half that number is mountain and waste; the
remainder is arable and pasture land, nearly in equal
portions. The system of agriculture is greatly improved,
and green crops have been generally introduced. Bally-
fin House, the elegant mansion of Sir C. H. Coote, Pre-
mier Baronet of Ireland, is a modern structure in the
Grecian style of architecture, and is fitted up in a style
of costly splendour; it is situated on a very elevated
site on the side of a mountain, and commands extensive
views of the surrounding country. The other seats are
Springmount, that of Sir E. J. Walshe, Bart.; Forest,
of J. Hawkesworth, Esq.; Ann Grove Abbey, of J. E.
Scott, Esq.; and Scotch Rath, of R. White, Esq. An
extensive cotton manufactory is carried on at Mount-
rath, where fairs are held on Jan. 6th, Feb. 17th, April
20th, May 7th, June 20th, Aug. 10th, Sept. 29th, and
Nov. 5th, for general farming stock. Petty sessions
are held at Mountrath every Thursday, and at Ann
Grove every alternate Wednesday.
The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Leighlin,
episcopally united, in 1661, to the rectory and vicarage
of Clonagheen, and in the alternate patronage of the
Crown, which has two presentations, and of the Bishop,
who has one: the tithes for both parishes amount to
£1500; there is neither glebe-house nor glebe. There
are two churches, one at Mountrath, a spacious and
handsome edifice, erected in 1800, by aid of a gift of
£900 and a loan of £500, and enlarged in 1830, by aid
of a loan of £1500, from the late Board of First Fruits,
and towards the repair of which the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners have recently granted £246. 18. 7.; and one
at Roskelton, a neat small edifice, for the repair of which
the Commissioners have also granted £254. 12. 3. At
Ballyfin is a chapel, endowed by the Hon. William Pole,
the chaplain of which is paid by Lord Maryborough;
towards the repairs of this chapel, the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have also recently granted £368. 8. 4.
In the R. C. divisions the parish is styled an abbacy,
and constitutes the three benefices of Ballyfin, Mount-
rath and Clondacasey, and Raheen and Shanahoe. There
are five chapels, all neat plain buildings, situated respec-
tively at Mountrath, Ballyfin, Raheen, Shanahoe, and
Clondacasey; also places of worship for the Society of
Friends and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. There
are a monastery and convent of St. Patrick’s and St.
Bridget’s confraternity, to which a school is attached;
the school-house was built by the late Dr. Delany. At
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Oak, Cootestreet, Ballyfin, Mountrath, Trummera, Ra-
heen, and Ballyeagle, are national schools; and there
are five schools supported by subscription. In these
schools about 680 boys and 450 girls are instructed;
and there are also five pay schools, in which are about
170 boys and 250 girls. The late Rt. Hon. W. Pole
bequeathed £100 per annum late currency for the en-
dowment of the chapel at Ballyfin, and £20 per annum
for a schoolmaster and clerk. At Forest is a chalybeate
spring.—See MOUNTRATH.
CLONES, a market and post-town, and a parish,
partly in the barony of CLONKELLY, county of FERMAN-
AGH, and partly in the baronies of MONAGHAN and DAR-
TRY, county of MONAGHAN, and province of ULSTER,
10 miles (W. S. W.) from Monaghan, and 62 (N. W. by
N.) from Dublin; containing 22,254 inhabitants.” The
ancient name of this place was Cluan Innis, “the Island
of Retreat,’ it having formerly been nearly surrounded
by water; and more recently it was called Cloanish or
Clounish. An abbey, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul,
was founded here in the early part of the 6th century,
by St. Tigernach or Tierney, who, becoming Bishop of
Clogher, removed that see to Clones, where he died of
the plague in 550. The abbot was the Primus Abbas,
or first mitred abbot of Ireland. In 836, the abbey was
burnt; and in 929, Ceanfoile, comarb of Clones and
Clogher, died here. The abbey was destroyed by fire in
1095, and, in 1184, the abbot Gilla Christ O’Macturan
was elected Bishop of Clogher. In 1207, Hugh de Lacy
destroyed the abbey and town; but five years after they
were rebuilt by the English, who also erected a castle
here. In 1316, and again in 1504, the abbot of Clones
was elected Bishop of Clogher. In 1486 died the abbot
Philip Mac Mahon, and, in 1502, the abbot James Mac
Mahon, both relations of the Lords of Ergal. The abbey
was dissolved by the act of Hen. VIII., and in the 29th
of Elizabeth an inquisition was taken of its possessions.
The manor of this abbey is still called “St. Tierney,”
and at the suppression was granted, together with the
abbey, to Sir Henry Duke. The corbeship, or comor-
banship, of Clones seems to have been held by the sept
of Mac Mahon, the head of which, during the rebellion
in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, procured from the pope a
grant of it for his eldest son, who was then a boy, with
one of whose daughters it was conveyed in marriage to
Sir Francis Rushe, whose daughter Elinor, in 1629, again
conveyed it in marriage to Sir Robt. Loftus, eldest son
of Adam, Lord Loftus, Primate and Chancellor of Ireland,
and first Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin. In 1640,
Sir Robert and his son Henry died, and the manor came
to Anne, only daughter of the former, who married the
Hon. Richard Lennard Barrett, whose son, Dacre Bar-
rett, Esq., represented the county of Monaghan in the
Irish parliament in 1692: it has since continued in this
family, and is now the estate of Sir Thomas Barrett
Lennard, Bart. In the settlement of Ulster, to assimi-
late the Irish to the English church, corbeships were
abolished, and their possessions, commonly called ter-
mon lands, granted to’ the bishops. At the time of the
dissolution of monasteries, there were three ecclesiasti-
cal estates belonging to Clones; viz., the abbey lands,
now the property of Sir T. B. Lennard, which are tithe-
free; the estate of the great church of Clones, belonging
to the same proprietor, which pays one-third of the
tithes to the incumbent; and the lands of the corbe,