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GLA
of several conflicts, and was among the last garrisons
in the south of Ireland that held out for the king;
till the castle being besieged by Ireton ultimately sur-
rendered. The village is said to have been formerly a
corporate and market-town, but no existing records
afford any evidence of the fact, though probably its in-
habitants may have obtained extensive privileges from
the founder of the castle, and continued to enjoy them
under several of the succeeding lords. In 1831 it con-
tained 215 houses, mostly thatched; it is pleasantly
situated on the south-western bank of the river, over
which is an ancient narrow stone bridge of twelve arches;
and as seen in the approach from the Fermoy road, with
the thriving plantations around the glebe-house half
concealing the spire of the church, presents a beautifully
picturesque scene, of which the most interesting fea-
tures are thrown into bold relief by the chain of moun-
tains in its rear, on the confines of the county of Li-
merick. Near the. bridge are two large flour-mills, the
property of Messrs. Murphy and Killeher, producing
on an average 10,000 barrels of fine flour annually. The
Funcheon is remarkable for the abundance and excel-
lence of its trout; it also affords some salmon. A
constabulary police force is stationed in the village,
and fairs are held on Jan. 15th, March 16th, May
13th, Aug. 10th, Sept. 24th, and Nov. 30th, for live
stock, but chiefly for pigs. The parish comprises 11,232
statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and
valued at £9878. 11.7. per annum; the land is in
general good, and chiefly under tillage; the system of
agriculture is gradually improving, and there is abund-
ance of limestone, which is quarried principally for
agricultural purposes. The seats are Ballyclough, the
residence of Gen. Barry, a handsome mansion, in the
Elizabethan style, situated in a fine and well-planted
demesne; and Glanworth Glebe, of the Rev. John
Brinkley, Prebendary, a large and handsome mansion
adjoining the village, and commanding a picturesque
view of the bridge and ruined castle. The living is a
rectory, in the diocese of Cloyne, united by act of council,
at a period unknown, to the vicarages of Ballydeloughy
and Derryvillane, the rectory and vicarage of Kilgullane,
together with the particle of Legane (which has long
since merged into the parish), constituting the union
and the corps of the prebend of Glanore in the ca-
thedral of Cloyne, and in the patronage of the Bishop.
The tithes amount to £729.16.11¼., and of the whole
benefice, to £1107. 13. 11½. The glebe-house was built
by the late incumbent, at an expense of about £2000,
aided by a gift of £100 and a loan of £1000 from the late
Board of First Fruits, in 1809: the glebe comprised
nearly seven acres, but it is all lost except one acre, which
has been given to the master of the parochial school by
the incumbent. The church is a plain edifice with a low
tower and spire. In the R. C. divisions the parish is the
head of a union or district, comprising also the parishes
of Derryvillane, Kilgullane, Downrnahon, and Killene-
mor: the chapel in the village was built on a site given
by Carden Terry, Esq., of Prospect, near Cork; and
there is also a chapel at Ballydangan, in the parish of
Ballydeloughy. About 30 children are taught in the
parochial school, which is wholly supported by the rec-
tor; and there are seven private schools, in which are
about 350 children, and a Sunday school. The late
Rev. J. Killeher, P.P., bequeathed £100, one-half to-
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GLA
wards the erection of a school-house and the other for
repairing the chapel. On a rocky eminence on the
western side of the Funcheon. are the extensive and inte-
resting ruins of Glanworth castle, an ancient seat of
the Roche family, and occupied in 1601 by Lord Fermoy,
by whose descendant it was forfeited in 1641. They
consist of an ancient square tower of considerable
strength, supposed to be the keep, and the remains of
another building of more recent date and superior con-
struction, apparently containing the state apartments;
they are within a quadrilateral area, enclosed by strong
walls, nearly six feet in thickness, and defended at
each angle by a round tower. To the north-west are
the ruins of an abbey, said to have been founded by
the Roches, in 1227, for Dominican friars, and de-
dicated to the Holy Cross; they consist of the nave
and chancel of the church, between which rises a low
square tower supported on four finely pointed arches;
the windows are square-headed on the outside, but
finely arched in the interior. Beneath the castle, and
near the margin of the river, is a well dedicated to
St. Dominick, which is held in great veneration by the
peasantry. On a conspicuous mountain in the Kilworth
range, and on the border of the adjoining parish of Kil-
gullane, is a solitary tower, the sole remains of Caher-
driny castle, said to have been built by the Roche
family; it commands a great extent of country, and is
surrounded at a short distance by a wall of loose stones.
Between Glanworth and Fermoy is Labacally, or” the
Witches’ Bed,” an ancient druidical altar, one of the
covering stones of which is 17 feet long, 8 feet wide,
and 3 feet thick, supported on each side by double
rows of large flags fixed in the ground; the whole ap-
pears to have been nearly 30 feet long and propor-
tionably wide, and was enclosed by a circle of flag-
stones of 14 feet radius; its position is nearly due east
and west. About half a mile north-west of the village is
a stone pillar, about 12 feet.high, supposed to have been
an ancient boundary, and at a short distance to the east
is a similar pillar of smaller dimensions, forming part
of a series between the Awbeg and Funcheon. Se-
veral brass coins bearing the date 1565, with the in-
scription” Paul Maylor, mayor of the city of Cork,’
have been found in this parish.
GLASCARRICK, or GLASCARRIG, an ecclesi-
astical district, recently formed out of the parishes of
DONAGHMORE and KILTRISK:, the former in the barony
of BALLAGHKEEN, and the latter in that of GOREY,
county of WEXFORD, and province of MUNSTER. The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Ferns, and
in the patronage of the Impropriator of Donaghmore
and the Incumbent of Kiltrisk, which forms part of the
union of Leskinfere. The stipend of £66. 3. per annum
is payable in the proportion of £20 from the incumbent,
£23.1. 6. from the impropriator, and a similar sum
from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The tithes of
seven townlands in Donaghmore, called the “Bally-
monies,” amounting to £40, payable to the Crown, have
been petitioned for in augmentation of the perpetual
curacy, and application has been made to the Ecclesias-
tical Commissioners to aid a subscription already entered
into for building a church on the border of Donagh-
more parish, adjoining that of Kiltrisk; also to grant
funds for the erection of a glebe-house.—See DONAGH-
MORE and KILTRISK.