Killian

KILLIAN, or KILLYAN, a parish, in the barony of KILLIAN, county of GALWAY, and province of CONNAUGHT, 4 miles (N. E.) from Caltra, on the road from Roscommon to Mount-Bellew; containing 5386 inhabitants.

It comprises, according to the Strafford survey,5195 statute acres,besides a considerable quantity of bog, which, when reclaimed, forms moderately good land. The principal seats are Killyan, the residence of J. Cheevers, Esq. J. P.; Kentstown, of G. Davis, Esq.; Riversdale, of James Kelly, Esq.; Ballybane, of John Kelly, Esq.; and St. Brendan's, of the Hon. T. Ffrench, which takes its name from a well dedicated to that saint.

The village of Ballinamore, on the river Shiven, in this parish, has a daily penny post to Ahascragh, and a fair on the 21st of August. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, episcopally united, in 1811, to the vicarage of Killararan, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in the representatives of Lord Kingsland. The tithes amount to £172, which is equally divided between the impropriators and the vicar; and the entire tithes of the benefice amount to £160. The church is a small building: there is neither glebe-house nor glebe. In the R. C. divisions this parish is the head of a union or district, comprising also part of Kilronan, and containing a chapel in each. There is a small Carmelite friary at Togherger. About 10 children are educated in a public school, to which the vicar contributes £5 annually, and about 390 in six private schools.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.