Templeachally

TEMPLEICHALLY, or TEMPLEKELLY, also called CALLATHAMERY, a parish, in the barony of OWNEY and ARRA, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, ¼ of a mile (E.) from Killaloe, on the road to Limerick, and on the river Shannon; containing 4724 inhabitants. The land is mostly in tillage; there is some bog on the mountains. There are good quarries of grit-stone, which is used extensively for building. A slate quarry is worked at Ryninch; and the Derry slate quarries, situated in this parish, were formerly very extensively worked. Derry Castle, the seat of M. P. Head, Esq., is situated in a noble demesne abounding with remarkably fine old timber; the scenery in its vicinity is extremely beautiful, and the Shannon bounds the demesne on the west. The other seats are Derry Ville, the residence of J. Salmon, Esq.; Ryninch, of J. O'Brien, Esq.; Fort Henry, of Finch White, Esq.; and Shannon View, of H. Franks, Esq.

It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Emly, forming part of the union of Kilmastulla: the tithes amount to £406.3.1. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district, comprising this parish and that of Kilmastulla, and called Ballina; in each of the parishes is a chapel. There are six private schools, in which are about 790 children, and a Sunday school.

On the Upper Killary mountain, a son of one of the Kings of Leinster was buried: on an island in the Shannon, opposite the ruins of the old church, are some remains of a monastery; and on the north side of the bridge at Ballina are the ruins of a castle, built most probably to defend the passage of the river.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.