Clonoe

CLONOE, a parish, in the barony of DUNGANNON, county of TYRONE, and province of ULSTER, 2 miles (S. by E.) from Stewartstown, on the road to Lurgan; containing 5555 inhabitants, and comprising, according to the Ordnance survey, 12,070¾ statute acres, of which 29½ are part of the Blackwater, and 2940¾ are part of Lough Neagh (called Washing bay), by which the parish is bounded on the east. A large tract of marshy ground and bog extends from the shore of the lough to the Blackwater, and the remainder is good arable and pasture land. Near the north-western extremity of the parish are the extensive ruins of Mountjoy castle, built by the Earl of Mountjoy, when lord-deputy of Ireland, in 1601, to check the Earl of Tyrone. This castle, which was built of brick made on the spot, is situated on a gentle eminence close to the shore of the lake, and was thought of so much importance, on the plantation of Ulster, that Jas. I. made this place a corporate borough, and granted 300 acres of land for its support, and 300 acres more to maintain a garrison. In the war of 1641 it was taken by Turlogh O'Nial, who kept possession of it till his total defeat by Gen. Monroe, in 1643; it was dismantled by order of parliament in 1648, since which time it has been in ruins. The Earl of Tyrone built a strong castle on the shore of Lough Neagh, towards the close of the 16th century, and called it Fuith-na-gael, or the "Abomination of the Stranger;" but it was soon after taken by the English, and no traces of it remain.

The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Armagh, and in the patronage of the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin: the tithes amount to £461.10.9¼.

The glebe-house was built by aid of a gift of £200 and a loan of £550 from the late Board of First Fruits: the glebe comprises 78 acres. The church is a small ancient edifice; it was repaired in 1699, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £197. 6. for its further repair. The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church; there are two chapels, one at Clonoe and one at Mountjoy; the latter was built in 1835. The parochial school is aided by the rector; a manor school is supported by A. Annesley, Esq., lord of the manor, at whose expense a large and handsome school-house was erected; there is also a school at Aughamullan. In these schools are about 170 children; and there is a pay school, in which are about 70 children.

The late Dr. E. Sill bequeathed his estate, called Barn Hill, at Stewartstown, together with all his real and personal property, to build and support an hospital in this parish, at Washing bay, near the influx of a stream called the "Holy River" into Lough Neagh; the funded property exceeded £3000, and the lands produce more than £100 per annum, but no hospital has yet been built.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.