Moyaliff

MOYALIFFE, or MEALIFFE, a parish, in the barony of KILNEMANAGH, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, 6 miles (S. W.) from Thurles, on the new road to Newport; containing 2928 inhabitants. It is also intersected by the new road now in progress from Templemore to Tipperary, and by the rivers Clodagh and Owbeg, which unite near the glebe-house; it comprises 7949 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £6336 per ann., of which about 140 acres are roads and waste, and the remainder profitable land; limestone and gritstone abound, and there is some mountain bog. It is a station of the constabulary police. The seats are Mealiffe House, the residence of the Rev. Wm, Armstrong; Ballyneira, of Rich. Pennefather, Esq.; and Farney Castle, of Capt. Armstrong.

Roskeen, the property of G. Ryan, Esq., is now occupied by a tenant. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Cashel, and in the patronage of the Archbishop: the tithes amount to £300, and there, is a glebe of 40 acres. The glebe-house was erected by aid of a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits.

The church is a plain structure, towards the erection of which the same Board contributed £300, in 1790. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Upperchurch, or Templeoutragh; the chapel is a modern edifice, situated at Drumbane. A school on the foundation of Erasmus Smith was established here, for which a house, with apartments for the master, was erected at an expense of £200 by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, a former rector (who also gave 2 acres of land), and for its support the trustees allow £20 per ann., but it is not at present attended; a small parochial school is entirely supported and superintended by the rector; and there are five private schools, in which are about 440 children; and a Sunday school.

There are some remains of an old church, and the ruins of the castles of Mealiffe and Drumbane; and adjoining Capt. Armstrong's residence are those of the old castle from which it is named. The last is of a circular form, supposed to have been erected in the 13th century, and during the civil war to have been in the possession of Cromwell's troops, by whom an attempt appears to have been made to blow it up.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.