Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

CON
boys, aided by a collection at the church, and the other
for girls, supported by voluntary subscriptions, in which
are educated 100 girls and 87 boys. The poor enjoy a
share of the rents of an estate in the county of Long-
ford, bequeathed by F. Adair, Esq., to the unions of
Belgany and Bray, and the parish of Powerscourt. In
the grounds of Moatfield, or Wilfort, is an old rath;
and in those of Ballyman are the ruins of a church, in
a curiously detached churchyard. The ruins of the pa-
rish church also form a picturesque object.
CONNELL (GREAT), a parish, in the barony of
CONNELL, county of KILDARE, and province of LEIN-
STER, containing, with the post-town of Newbridge,
1911 inhabitants. In 1202, a priory was founded here,
under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin and St.
David, by Meyler Fitz Henry, who placed in it Regular
Canons from the monastery of Lanthony, in Monmouth-
shire. It subsisted till the Reformation, when it was
granted to Edward Randolfe, with reversion to Sir Edw.
Butler; it was re-granted in the 3rd of Elizabeth to Sir
Nicholas White, and is now the property of Thos. Eyre
Powell, Esq. The parish is situated on the mail coach
road from Dublin to Limerick, and comprises 4738
statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and
valued at £2337 per annum. The land is chiefly under
tillage, and the improved system of agriculture is
making gradual progress. At Athgarvan ford, on the
Liffey, are the extensive boulting-mills of Messrs. Tuthill
and Reeves, in which 15,000 bags of flour are made
annually. The principal seats are, Great Connell Lodge,
the property of T. E. Powell, Esq., but occupied by E.
Butler, Esq.; Rosetown, the seat of E. Bateman, Esq.;
and Hillsborough, of G. Higgins, Esq. The living is a
perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Kildare, to which
that of Ladytown is annexed, and in the patronage of
the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in T. E. Powell,
Esq. The tithes amount to £171. 5. 2. The church is
a small plain edifice, erected about 50 years since; and the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently made a
grant of £187 towards its repair. In the R. C. divisions
this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising
Great and Old Connell, Killishy, and Morristown-Biller,
with parts of Carnalloway and Kill: the chapel is near
Newbridge, which see. There are three private and two
pay schools, in which about 60 boys and 60 girls are
educated 3 and a national school is about to be erected.
The remains of the priory consist chiefly of the east
gable of the church, with a great extent of ruinous
walls, and many fragments of masonry, among which is
the mutilated tomb of Prior Wellesley, Bishop of Kil-
dare. Over the gateway, on one side, is a small sculp-
ture of the Crucifixion, and on the other, Our Saviour
crowned with thorns, and a mitred ecclesiastic; and on
another fragment is the figure of St. Peter, bearing the
keys. It is said that, within the memory of persons
still living, a round tower, 75 feet high, was de
stroyed during the minority of the present proprietor’s
father.
CONNELL (OLD), a parish, in the barony of CON-
NELL, county of KILDARE, and province of LEINSTER,
4½ miles (S. W.) from Naas; containing 958 inhabitants.
This parish, which is situated on the mail coach road from
Dublin to Limerick, comprises 2900 acres, as applotted
under the tithe act, which are chiefly under tillage, The
improved system of agriculture has been introduced,
VOL. I.—393
CON
and the practice of drilling generally adopted; fuel is
plentifully supplied from an extensive bog in the imme-
diate neighbourhood. Morristown-Lattin, the ancient
family seat of Patrick Lattin, Esq., the translator of Vol-
taire’s Henriade into English verse, whose family has been
settled here since the reign of John, is situated in a very
retired demesne, ornamented with a profusion of stately
timber, chiefly fine oak, ash, elm, and beech of uncom-
mon size. Old Connell House is the seat of E. J. Od-
lum, Esq.; within the demesne is a fine Danish rath. It
is a rectory, in the diocese of Kildare, forming part of
the union of Morristown-Biller; the tithes amount to
£140. The church was built by a gift of £900 and a
loan of £300 from the late Board of First Fruits, in
1828. In the R. C. divisions it is part of the union
or district of Newbridge: the chapel is at Two-mile
house. There is also a small neat chapel, with a spire,
belonging to a Dominican friary on the bank of the Lif-
fey, in which only three brethren reside. There are two
hedge schools, in which are about 60 boys and 30 girls.
In the gardens of Old Connell House are some ruins of
the ancient church.
CONNELLS, a village, in the parish of KILMA-
DUAGH, barony of KILTARTAN, county of GALWAY,
and province of CONNAUGHT, 3 miles (W.) from Gort,
on the road to Ennis; containing 12 houses and 87
inhabitants.
CONNOR, a parish, and the head of a diocese, in
the barony of LOWER ANTRIM, county of ANTRIM, and
province of ULSTER, 4 miles (S. S. E.) from Ballymena;
containing 8682 inhabitants, of which number, 289 are
in the village. A religious establishment was founded
here at an early period, of which little beyond the names
of some of its abbots is now known. It was made the
head of the diocese of Connor, and the first bishop was
Engus Macnisius, commonly called St. Macnise, who
died soon after the commencement of the sixth century:
he is said to have been a disciple of St. Olcan, who was
one of St. Patrick’s pupils. Connor appears anciently
to have been called Dailnaraigh, from its cathedral being
in the territory of Dalaradia. In 1124, Malachy O’Mor-
gair was consecrated bishop. At this time, according
to St. Bernard, the inhabitants of the diocese were very
uncivilised; but by a few years’ residence among them,
St. Malachy wrought as great a change in their morals
as was effected by St. Patrick in the fifth century. By
the solicitations of John, Bishop of Connor, Pope
Eugene IV. was prevailed upon, in 1442, to unite the
bishopricks of Down and Connor, the former being then
vacant by the deprivation of John Cely. This union
had been approved by letters patent of Hen. IV., in
1438, when the bishops of the two sees were desirous
that the survivor should have both; but when it was
effected the union was strongly opposed by John Prene,
Archbishop of Armagh, who wished the pope to appoint
William Bassett, a Benedictine monk, to the bishoprick
of Down. The union has, however, continued without in-
terruption since that period, and the subsequent history
of the diocese of Connor is included in that of Down and
Connor. By the Church Temporalities Act (3rd of
Wm. IV.) the see of Dromore is to be united with Down
and Connor, on the death or translation of either of the
bishops 5 and the title of the united sees is to be the
Bishoprick of Down, Connor, and Dromore.
The diocese is one of the ten which constitute the
3E