Dromin

DROMIN, a parish, in the barony of COSHMA, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 2 miles (S.) from Bruff, on the roads from Limerick to Cork, and from Croom to Kilmallock; containing 1454 inhabitants.

This parish comprises 4007 acres, as applotted under the tithe act, the whole of which is fertile and well cultivated: about one-half is in tillage, the remainder being rich meadow and pasture land, on which great numbers of cattle are annually fattened. There is neither waste land nor bog; fuel is consequently scarce, and the poor suffer greatly for want of it. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Limerick, and in the patronage of John Croker, Esq., of Ballynaguard, being usually held with Athlacca; the tithes amount to £305. 9. 5., and the glebe comprises 24 acres. In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district comprising also Athlacca, and parts of the parishes of Urcgare and Glenogra, and containing two chapels, one in Dromin, and one in Athlacca. There is a private school, in which about 50 boys and 20 girls are taught.

The ruins of Dromin church stand on an eminence near the middle of the parish, not far from which are the remains of Meadstown castle, built by the sept of O'Hanlon, in the 15th century, the walls of which are nearly entire; it was dismantled by order of Cromwell in 1654. A part of this castle is occupied by a farmer, and has acquired some modem celebrity by being the birth-place of Daniel Webb, Esq., author of the "Harmonies of Poetry and Music." from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.