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KIL
abundant crops without any manure. The land is
mostly in tillage, and the state of agriculture has been
latterly improved. A court for the manor of Bunratty
is occasionally held at Cratloe, by Lord Egremont’s
seneschal, in which small debts are recoverable. Here
is a station of the constabulary police. The seats are
Cratloe Woods, the occasional residence of Stafford
O’Brien, Esq.; and Ballintlea, of J. Kelly, Esq. The
living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Limerick, and in
the patronage of the Earl of Egremont, in whom the
rectory is impropriate: the tithes amount to £267. 10.,
of which £197. 10. is payable to the impropriator, and
£70 to the vicar. The R. C. parish is co-extensive with
that of the Established Church. The principal chapel
is at Cratloe Cross, and there is another at Ballyliddane,
near Six-mile-bridge. About 120 children are educated
in four private schools, and application is about to be
made to establish a school at Cratloe, under the Na-
tional Board. The ruins of the castles of Cratloe, Cratloe
Kail, and Ballintlea, still remain; also of the old church
on Gallows hill, and of another at Crochan. Near the
latter is a very perfect druidical altar or cromlech.
KILFERGUS.—See GLINN.
KILFIERAGH, a parish, in the barony of MOYARTA,
county of CLARE, and province of MUNSTER, 7 miles
(W. by N.) from Kilrush, on the western coast; con-
taining 6239 inhabitants. It comprises 8591 statute
acres, the greater part of which is under tillage: sea-
weed is in general use for manure. Near Kilkee is a
quarry of good building stone, and nearly in the centre
of the parish is Dough bog, containing about 200 plan-
tation acres, from which and other bogs extending into
the adjoining parishes a vast quantity of turf is cut, and
sent from Poulanishery harbour (formed by an inlet of
the river Shannon) to Limerick. The boats employed
in conveying the turf return with building materials and
with limestone from the Limerick side of the Shannon.
At Farahie bay, near the northern extremity of the
parish, about 50 canoes are employed in the fishery;
and at Kilkee, or Moore bay, about half that number
are similarly employed. A seneschal’s court is occa-
sionally held at Lisdeen for the manor of Kilrush, in
which small debts are recoverable. The seats are
Atlantic Lodge, the residence of Jonas Studdert, Esq.;
and Kilkee, of J. M c Donnell, Esq.; and there are
several neat bathing lodges in the vicinity of Kilkee.
The parish is in the diocese of Killaloe: the rectory
is partly impropriate in the representatives of Lord
Castlecoote, but chiefly, with the vicarage, forms part
of the union of Kilrush and corps of the prebend
of Inniscattery: the tithes amount to £287, of which
£37 is payable to the impropriators, and the re-
mainder to the incumbent. The church, a small plain
building without a tower, is said to have been rebuilt
by the M c Donnell family early in the last century; it
was repaired a few years since, at an expense of £100,
defrayed by the late Board of First Fruits. Application
has been made to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for
aid in the erection of a new parochial church at Kilkee,
the present being too small, and situated at a consider-
able distance from the most populous part of the parish.
In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or
district of Kilkee, where the principal chapel, a large
and handsome building of recent erection, is situated:
there is another chapel at Lisdeen. At Kilnahallagh,
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KIL
on the western side of Poulanishery harbour, a nunnery
is said to have been founded by St. Senan: it is called
Kilnacaillech, or “the Church of the Nuns;” and the
ruins of the chapel stil) exist, with a burial-ground
attached. Near Moore bay is a small rocky island,
nearly inaccessible from the height of its cliffs; it is
traditionally stated that a bishop was at some former
period here starved to death, and it is still called Ilawn
an uspug usthig, or “the Island of the Starved Bishop.”
Near Kilkee is a large fort or rath, attributed to the
Danes.—See KILKEE.
KILFINAGHTY, a parish, in the barony of TUL-
LA, county of CLARE, and province of MUNSTER, on
the river Ougarnee, and on the old road from Limerick
to Ennis; containing, with the greater part of the post-
town of Six-mile-bridge, 4132 inhabitants. It comprises
7212 statute acres, including a large portion of coarse
mountain pasture and bog; the remainder is in general
of good quality, and chiefly under tillage. Slate exists,
but is not worked. The gentlemen’s seats are Castle
Crine, the residence of H. Butler, Esq.; Mount Ivers,
of W. Ivers, Esq.; Castle Lake, of J. Gahbett, Esq.;
Springfield, of F. Morrice, Esq.; and Mount Ivers
Lodge, of E. Ferriter, Esq. It is in the diocese of
Killaloe: the rectory forms part of the union of Omul-
lod, and the vicarage is united to those of Kilmurryne-
gaul, Tomfinlough, Finogh, Clonloghan, Kilconry, and
Bunratty, constituting the union of Kilfinaghty, in the
gift of the Bishop. The tithes amount to £177. 15. 2¾.,
of which £85. 7. 4¾. is payable to the rector, and the
remainder to the vicar, who receives the entire tithes of
the townland of Ballysheenmore, containing 180 planta-
tion acres; and the entire tithes of the vicarial union
amount to £330. 9. 4. The church of the union is at
Six-mile-bridge, and the glebe-house is in the parish of
Bunratty. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the
union or district of Six-mile-bridge, where the chapel is
situated. About 210 children are educated in three
private schools. At Ballysheen are the ruins of an
ancient church, with several tombs of very early date;
and within the limits of the parish are the remains of
the old castles of Cappa, Castle Crine, Mountcashel, and
Ballycullen; those of the last are extensive, and some
vestiges of the outworks are still visible; and those of
Mountcashel stand on an eminence near a lake, which
thence takes its name.—See SIX-MILE-BRIDGE.
KILFINANE, a market-town and parish, in the
barony of COSTLEA, county of LIMERICK, and province
of MUNSTER, 5 miles (E. by S.) from Kilmallock, on the
road from that place to Mitchelstown; containing 4437
inhabitants, of which number, 1752 are in the town. The
town is situated in the midst of a group of mountains,
by which it is surrounded on all sides but the north,
where it opens upon the rich vale of Kilmallopk; it has
a penny post to Kilmallock, and consists of two prin-
cipal and several smaller streets, containing 314 houses,
many of which are large and well built, and is the pro-
perty of R. Oliver Gascoigne, Esq. Many Palatine
families were brought hither from Rathkeale, about
1740, by the Right Hon. Silver Oliver. In 1793, the
attacks made on the town by the Defenders were repelled
twice, and they were ultimately defeated by the Palatines
and other inhabitants, under Chas. Silver Oliver, Esq.;
and at a later period, when an attack from the dis-
affected was anticipated, the respectable inhabitants