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tithes amount to £630, and are equally divided between
the impropriator and the vicar; the tithes of the benefice
amount to £455. There is a glebe-house with a glebe
of 26 acres. The church, situated in Millstreet, is a
large edifice with a square tower, in the Gothic style;
A grant of £112. 17. 6. has been recently made by the
Ecclesiastical Board for its repair. In the R. C. divi-
sions it is the head of the union or district of Millstreet,
which also comprises the greater part of the parish of
Cullen: the chapel is at Millstreet, and there is also a
chapel at Cullen. The parochial school, in Millstreet, is
supported by H. Wallis, Esq., and the vicar. A school-
house is about to be erected at Coomlegan, for which
Mrs. McCarty, of Glyn, in 1811, bequeathed two acres
of land and £40 per annum. There are also two private
schools, and the number of children educated in the
parish is about 150. Drishane Castle, which is in good
repair, was erected by Dermot McCarty in 1436: his
descendant, Donagh McCarty, was engaged in the war
of 1641, by which he forfeited the estate: in the de-
mesne are the ruins of the old parochial church. Of
Kilmeedy castle, which, was built by one of the McCarty
family, in 1445, to command the wild mountain pass
from Macroom to Killarney, the ruins still remain in
the valley, near the mail coach road.—See MILL-
STREET.
DROGHEDA, a sea-
port, borough, and market-
town, and a county of itself,
locally in the county of
LOUTH, and province of
LEINSTER, 57 miles (S by
W.) from Belfast,and 23 (N.)
from Dublin; containing
17,365 inhabitants, of which
number, 15,138 are in the
town. This place is said to
have derived its name Droig-
had Atha, in the Irish lan-
guage signifying “a bridge,” from the erection of a
bridge over the river Boyne, at a period prior to the
English invasion; but no notice of any town of import-
ance occurs till after that event. At a very early period,
a monastery was founded here for canons of the order
of St. Augustine. It was included in the original grant
of Meath to Hugh de Lacy; but in 1220, when a new
grant of that lordship was made to his son Walter, by
Hen. III., the town and castle of Drogheda had be-
come of so much importance, that the king retained
them in his own possession, allowing to De Lacy
£20 per ann. from the Exchequer, and the talliage
of the town, as a compensation. At that time the
Boyne, which now intersects the town, formed the
boundary between the counties of Meath and Louth,
and the two portions of the town on its opposite banks
constituted separate boroughs. In 1229, Hen. III.,
by charter, gave to the town on the Louth side of the
Boyne certain privileges and free customs similar to
those of Dublin; and in 1247, the same monarch in-
vested the burgesses of the town on the Meath side with
similar privileges and inmunities, and granted them a
Weekly market and an annual fair for six days. A new
charter was granted in 1253 to the burgesses of Drog-
heda in Louth, empowering them to elect a mayor, to
exercise exclusive jurisdiction, and to hold an annual
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fair for 15 days: but the increase of the town was soon
checked by the continued aggressions of the native in-
habitants of the surrounding districts. In the 7th and
24th of Edw. I., the town received grants of toll for
murage; and in 1316, the king granted 300 marks for
the repair of the walls and turrets. In 1317, the bur-
gesses of Drogheda in Meath obtained a new charter
for a weekly market, with the grant of a piece of ground
on which to hold the same, and the decision of all pleas
except those of the crown. Mandates were issued, in 1319
and 1320, by the king to his justiciary in Ireland, to pro-
tect the mayor and burgesses of the town in Louth in the
enjoyment of their liberties, and to grant remission of
their fee farm rent of 60 marks per ann., to enable them
to extend their fortifications. In 1375, a mayor of the
staple was appointed for both towns; but the calamity
of pestilence, added to that of almost incessant war-
fare with the Scots and native septs, had so reduced the
burgesses that, in 1380, Rich. II., granted to them cer-
tain customs’ duties for the repair of the fortifications
and the general improvement of the town.
This place, from an early period was, in municipal
privileges and political consequence, always considered
as on an equality with the four royal cities of Dublin,
Waterford, Limerick, and Cork; and of the numerous
parliaments assembled by the lords-deputies, some of
the most remarkable were held here. Rich. II., on the
16th of March, 1394, in the hall of the Dominican
priory received the submission of O’Nial, O’Hanlon,
O’Donel, Mac Mahon, and other native chieftains of
Ulster. In 1407, the inhabitants united with, those of
Dublin in a predatory warfare against their commom
enemies, which they extended even to the coast of Scot-
land. Hen. IV., towards the close of his reign, united
the two boroughs into one body politic. In 1437, part
of the fee-farm rent was remitted by Hen. VI., on ac-
count of the devastation of the town and the injury of
its trade by the king’s enemies. The Earl of Ormonde,
on being removed from the office of chief governor,
in 1444, assembled the nobility and gentry of the
English pale at this place; and so strong were the
testimonies in his favour, that he was reinstated in
his office. A parliament was soon afterwards held
here; another was also held in the 31st of Hen. VI.,
and, in 1467, a parliament assembled at Dublin was
adjourned to this town, by which the Geraldines were
attainted, and the Earl of Desmond appearing to justify
himself, was instantly brought to the scaffold. In 1474,
when the fraternity of arms was established, the goods
of the men of Drogheda and Dublin were exempted
from the tax for its support; and by the statute passed
in Lord Grey’s parliament, concerning the election of
temporary chief governors, the mayors of Drogheda and
Dublin were to have a voice in the council. In an
engagement which took place at Malpas Bridge, during
this reign, the mayor of Drogheda, at the head of 500
archers and 200 men armed with pole-axes, assisted in
the defeat of O’Reilly and his confederates, who had
committed great ravages in the county of Louth; in
reward of which valiant conduct, the mayors are allow-
ed to have a sword of state borne before them. In 1493,
Lord Gormanston held a parliament here, but the vali-
dity of its proceedings was disputed; and in the 10th
of Hen. VII., Sir Edward Poynings assembled another
in this town, of which the acts relating to the adoption