Kilbride (Kilcoursey)

KILBRIDE-LANGAN, or CLARA, a parish, in the barony of KILCOURSEY, KING'S county, and province of LEINSTER, on the road from Tullamore to Athlone; containing, with the post-town of Clara, 4337 inhabitants. This parish is situated near the Grand Canal, and comprises 5375 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which more than one-half is good arable land, and of the remainder, about 1600 acres are profitable bog.

It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of Ardnorcher, and also of the perpetual curacy of Clara, in which the church is situated; the rectory is impropriate in the Marquess of Downshire. The tithes amount to £272. 6. 1., of which £152. 6. 1. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar, who contributes £55. 7. 8½. towards the stipend of the perpetual curate. In the R. C. divisions, also, the parish forms part of the union or district of Ardnorcher or Clara: the chapel is at Lehinch, where is a school under the patronage of the Christian Brotherhood; there is also a chapel in the town, and a larger is about to be erected. There are places of worship for Baptists, and for Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. About 45 children are taught in the parochial schools; and there are also seven private schools, in which are about 240 children.- See CLARA.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.