KIRKINRIOLA

In 1868, the parish of Kirkinriola contained the following places:

"KIRKINRIOLA, a parish in the barony of Lower Toome, county Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland, containing Ballymena, its post town. The parish is 6½ miles long by 1½ mile broad. The surface consists partly of bog and waste, but the greater part is good arable land. It is traversed by the road from Belfast to Coleraine. The living is a curacy in the diocese of Connor, value £126. In the parish are several places of worship, including Established Church, Roman Catholic chapels, Presbyterian and Methodist meeting-houses, and several day schools. See Ballymena."

"BALLYMENA, a market town in the parish of Kirkinriola, and barony of Lower Toome, in the county of Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland, 11 miles to the N. of Antrim, and 118 miles from Dublin. It is seated on the banks of the river Braid, and is a station on the Northern Counties railway. It is the centre of a thickly peopled district, in which the linen manufacture, introduced about 1732, is carried on extensively. The town contains, according to the census of 1861, 1,233 inhabited houses, with a population of 6,739, of whom 1,427 are returned as belonging to the Established Church, 1,646 Roman Catholics, 3,300 Presbyterians, 233 Methodists, and 133 of other persuasions. It would thus appear that in Ballymena three parts of the people are Protestants. The town contains the parish church of Kirkinriola, and chapels belonging to the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Wesleyans. The diocesan school, founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was established here on being removed from Carrickfergus, in 1829. Here is also an endowed free school, founded by John Guy in 1813, and several other schools. Other public buildings are the market-house, the bridewell, the court-house, and the Union poor-house. The river is crossed by a stone bridge. Ballymena is the seat of a Poor-haw Union and a presbytery. It has a chief station of police, and quarter and petty sessions are held in the town-the former quarterly, the latter every fortnight. The principal market is on Saturday, when a large sale of linens takes place; but there is also a market on Tuesday and Wednesday, for grain and pork. Fairs are held on the 26th July and the 21st August."

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868]
by Colin Hinson ©2018