Templeoran

TEMPLEORAN, or FORAN, a parish, in the barony of MOYGOISH, county of WESTMEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 5 miles (N.W.) from Mullingar, on the road to Ballinacargy, and on Lough Iron, which bounds the parish on the north; containing 1298 inhabitants. This parish, which is intersected by the Royal Canal, comprises 5498 statute acres of excellent land, principally under grass; there is a small quantity of bog. Sonna, for upwards of six centuries the seat of the Tuite family, is at present the residence of H. Morgan Tuite, Esq.; the house is a light and elegant building, in a wellplanted demesne, situated on the bank of a picturesque lake.

It is a rectory, in the diocese of Meath, entirely impropriate in Sir John B. Piers, Bart., and forming part of the union and perpetual cure of Leney: the tithes, amounting to £137.3., are wholly payable to the impropriator. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district, called Sonna, comprising this parish and that of Kilbixy, in each of which is a chapel; that of Templeorum is at Sonna. There is a private school, in which are about 26 children. The ruins of the old church are on the lands of Templeoran, and in their vicinity are several raths.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.