Kilfearagh

KILFIERAGH, a parish, in the barony of MOYARTA, county of CLARE, and province of MUNSTER, 7 miles (W. by N.) from Kilrush, on the western coast; containing 6239 inhabitants. It comprises 8591 statute acres, the greater part of which is under tillage: seaweed is in general use for manure. Near Kilkee is a quarry of good building stone, and nearly in the centre of the parish is Dough bog, containing about 200 plantation acres, from which and other bogs extending into the adjoining parishes a vast quantity of turf is cut, and sent from Poulanishery harbour (formed by an inlet of the river Shannon) to Limerick. The boats employed in conveying the turf return with building materials and with limestone from the Limerick side of the Shannon.

At Farahie bay, near the northern extremity of the parish, about 50 canoes are employed in the fishery; and at Kilkee, or Moore bay, about half that number are similarly employed. A seneschal's court is occasionally held at Lisdeen for the manor of Kilrush, in which small debts are recoverable. The seats are Atlantic Lodge, the residence of Jonas Studdert, Esq.; and Kilkee, of J. McDonnell, Esq.; and there are several neat bathing lodges in the vicinity of Kilkee.

The parish is in the diocese of Killaloe: the rectory is partly impropriate in the representatives of Lord Castlecoote, but chiefly, with the vicarage, forms part of the union of Kilrush and corps of the prebend of Inniscattery: the tithes amount to £287, of which £37 is payable to the impropriators, and the remainder to the incumbent. The church, a small plain building without a tower, is said to have been rebuilt by the McDonnell family early in the last century; it was repaired a few years since, at an expense of £100, defrayed by the late Board of First Fruits. Application has been made to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for aid in the erection of a new parochial church at Kilkee, the present being too small, and situated at a considerable distance from the most populous part of the parish.

In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Kilkee, where the principal chapel, a large and handsome building of recent erection, is situated: there is another chapel at Lisdeen. At Kilnahallagh, on the western side of Poulanishery harbour, a nunnery is said to have been founded by St. Senan: it is called Kilnacaillech, or "the Church of the Nuns;" and the ruins of the chapel stil) exist, with a burial-ground attached. Near Moore bay is a small rocky island, nearly inaccessible from the height of its cliffs; it is traditionally stated that a bishop was at some former period here starved to death, and it is still called Ilawn an uspug usthig, or "the Island of the Starved Bishop." Near Kilkee is a large fort or rath, attributed to the Danes. See KILKEE.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.