Kilcomenty

KILCOMENTY, or BALLYNAHINCH, a parish, in the barony of OWNEY and ARRA, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, 2 miles (N. by E.) from Newport, on the mail coach road from Nenagh to Limerick; containing 2334 inhabitants. This parish, which is bounded on the west by the Shannon, comprises 4817 statute acres, of which about 400 are waste and bog, and the remainder profitable arable and pasture land in a good state of cultivation. The soil is fertile, and the system of agriculture improved; limestone is quarried extensively for agricultural purposes and for building, and marl and sand are also used for manure. Great numbers of cattle are fattened on the lands of Mr. Atkins, who has a very extensive farming establishment. The scenery is strikingly bold and varied, comprising a chain of mountains to the southeast of the parish, among which the lofty Keeper is conspicuous.

The principal seats are Bird Hill, the residence of S. H. Atkins, Esq.; Cragg, of R. Going, Esq.; Parteen, of R. Twiss, Esq.; and Corrigeen, of G. Maunsell, Esq. Direct communication is afforded by the canal to Dublin, and numerous rivulets issuing from the mountains intersect the parish. A constabulary police force is stationed here. The parish is in the diocese of Cashel, and is a rectory and vicarage, forming part of the union of Kilnerath, or St. John's, Newport: the tithes amount to £323. L. 6½. In the R. C. divisions also it is included in the union or district of Kilnerath, or Ballinahinch; the chapel is at Bird Hill, at which place a school is about to be established, and there are four private schools, in which are about 340 children.

At Cragg are the ruins of an ancient church and castle; and there are some Danish raths used as places of interment.

Philip of Worcester, chief governor of Ireland in 1184, founded here a priory, which he dedicated to St. Philip, St. James, and St. Cumin, and placed in it Benedictine monks from the abbey of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.