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LIM
adjoins the hospital, is now almost complete; it is nearly
circular, with a piazza, surmounted by a lofty and ele-
gant dome and cupola, and has been erected at the
sole expense of the founder. A company for grant-
ing annuities to widows, settlements for wives, and
endowments for children, on payment of an annual pre-
mium, was established in 1806, under the title of the
Munster General Annuity Endowment Association. An
Asylum for the Blind, the house and chapel for which
have been lately built, will accommodate 12 men and 12
women; a Magdalene Asylum, conducted by a commit-
tee of ladies, has been established on a small scale; a
Mendicity Association is supported by voluntary contri-
butions; and, in 1826, an Institution for the Relief of
Sick and Indigent Room-keepers was formed by a sub-
scription of several hundred pounds: there are also a
Savings’ Bank and a Mechanics’ Institute.
Limerick anciently contained two Augustinian mo-
nasteries, one of regular canons, and the other of her-
mits: the regular canons had another house in the
contiguous parish of Mungrett, which was destroyed by
the Danes in 1107. In 1227, a Dominican friary was
founded in the city by Donogh Carbragh O’Brien, Prince
of Thomond, which became a place of great magnifi-
cence, and was the burial-place of various prelates and
other eminent men: part of the walls still exists, and the
cemetery formed the garden of the Presentation convent.
There were also a Franciscan convent, founded by Wil-
liam Fion de Burgo; a house of canonesses of the order
of St. Augustine, founded in 1171, by Donald O’Brien,
King of Limerick, and a house of the Knights Tem-
plars; but no remains of these buildings are now
discernible. Its military antiquities consist of the
ruins of the fortress called King John’s Castle, at
the end of Thomond bridge, comprehending the great
gateway, defended by two massive round towers, and
the outer walls, having similar defences, and presenting
a fine relic of the military architecture of that remote
period; of dilapidated portions of the walls and towers
of the citadel nearly contiguous, in which the castle
barracks have been erected; of various portions of the
town walls, and of some of the outworks, especially a
fort on the King’s Island, north of the old town. There
are also some remains of the celebrated Black Battery,
close to which was the breach defended so heroically
against William’s army. In the rural parishes of the
liberties are the ruins of several ancient forts. Of emi-
nent natives were three prelates named Creagh, in the
fifteenth century; Richard Creagh, D.D., R. C. Arch-
bishop of Armagh in the reign of Elizabeth, who died
in the Tower of London, in 1585; James Arthur, D.D.,
Professor of Divinity at Salamanca; James Nihell, M.D.,
the author of various medical treatises of considerable
repute, born in 1705; John Fitzgibbon, Esq., an eminent
lawyer, bom at Ballysheeda, within the liberties, in
1731; the Rev. James White, parish priest of St. Mary’s,
who published a short description of the county at large
in 1764, and also compiled annals of the city, which
were never published; John Martin, M.D., author of an
essay on the Castle-Connell Spa; Daniel Hayes, Esq.,
who died at an early age in 1767, after displaying con-
siderable poetic ability; Charles Johnston, who distin-
guished himself in the department of polite literature;
the Rev. Joseph Ignatius O’Halloran, D.D., Professor
of Philosophy and Divinity in the Jesuits’ College at
277
LIS
Bourdeaux; Sylvester O’Halloran, Esq., the historian,
his brother; Peter Woulfe, Esq., an eminent chymist
and naturalist of the last century; Viscount Pery, who
had filled the speaker’s chair in the commons’ house of
parliament in Ireland; the Rt. Hon. John Fitzgibbon,
Earl of Clare, and Lord High Chancellor of Ireland;
John Ferrar, a bookseller and printer of Limerick, who
was author of several respectable topographical works
concerning Limerick, Dublin, and Wicklow; Timothy
Collopy, distinguished as an historical and portrait
painter; William Palmer, who also rose to some emi-
nence as an artist under Sir Joshua Reynolds, but died
at an early age; and Edward Fitzgerald, Esq., for some
time editor of the Pilot Newspaper, in London. Limer-
ick confers the titles of Earl and Viscount on the family
of Pery.
LIMERICK (LITTLE), county of WEXFORD.—See
KILKEVAN.
LISBELLAW, a village, in a detached portion of the
parish of CLEENISH, barony of TYRKENNEDY, county of
FERMANAGH, and province of ULSTER, 3½ miles (E. S. E.)
from Enniskillen, on the road to Clogher; containing 45
houses and 242 inhabitants. Tradition states that on
a hill above the village a battle was fought between
some of the troops of King William and James II., when
the latter were defeated. The Lisbellaw estate was the
property of the late Earl of Rosse, on whose demise the
title became extinct, and the property passed to the Rev.
Grey Porter, the present proprietor. The village is pic-
turesquely situated amidst conical-shaped hills, in a
highly cultivated district, and in the vicinity of Lough
Erne: it has a penny post to Enniskillen. The inhabit-
ants are chiefly employed in weaving linen and making
mats from bulrushes; and there are corn-mills with
drying-kilns attached. Fairs are held on May 11th,
June 20th, July 20th, Aug. 18th, Oct. 12th, Nov. 11th,
and Dec. 23rd, chiefly for cattle and pigs: those in May
and November are much frequented for hiring ser-
vants. Petty sessions are held on alternate Satur-
days; and a baronial court was formerly held, but
has been discontinued: here is a station of the con-
stabulary police. The church, or chapel of ease to the
parochial church of Cleenish, is a neat edifice, built
in 1764 by Lord Rosse, who was interred in a vault
beneath. The R. C. chapel is a large plain building,
attached to the district of Enniskillen. Here are also
a meeting-house for Presbyterians of the Seceding
Synod (of the second class), built on a site given by the
late Sir R. Hardinge; and a small meeting-house for
Methodists. A school, formerly in connection with the
Kildare-place Society, but now supported by the parents
of the children, is held in a commodious house, which
also contains apartments for the master. In the vicinity
of the village are several ancient raths or forts; and on
a finely wooded island in Lough Erne, connected by a
causeway with the main land, is Bellisle, the ruined seat
of the late Earl of Rosse.
LISBUNNY, or LISBONEY, a parish, in the barony
of UPPER ORMOND, county of TIPPERARY, and province
of MUNSTER, 1 mile (S.E.) from Nenagh, on the mail
road from Dublin to Limerick; containing 1442 inha-
bitants, and comprising 4178 statute acres. Here is an
extensive flour-mill, worked by superior machinery, the
produce of which is in great demand. It is a rectory and
vicarage, in the diocese of Killaloe, forming part of the