Cloncagh

CLONCAGH, or CLOUNCAGH, a parish, in the barony of UPPER-CONNELLO, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 3½ miles (N. E.) from Newcastle, on the road to Ballingarry containing 1397 inhabitants.

It comprises 4331½ statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act. To the north is a lofty ridge of silicious grit formation, but the remainder of the parish is low and chiefly in meadow and pasture. The land under tillage produces excellent crops; around the old church it is remarkably fertile. Balliahill, the residence of W. Odell, Esq., is situated in a plain of great fertility; and not far from it is Brook Lodge, the occasional residence of H. Massey, Esq., of Mount Massey, in the county of Cork. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Limerick, and is part of the union of Clonelty; the rectory is appropriate to the vicars choral of the cathedral church of St. Mary, Limerick. The tithes amount to £255, of which £170 is paid to the lessees of the vicars choral, and the remainder to the vicar. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Knockaderry, in which are two chapels, one at Knockaderry and the other at this place, both plain buildings.

There is a pay school, in. which are 30 boys and 10 girls.

The ruins of the old parish church are very extensive, and are said to occupy the site of an abbey founded here by St. Madoc in the sixth century, and of which little is known but the name; it afforded shelter to some of the distressed Irish after the disastrous battle of Monasternenagh, which took place during the Earl of Desmond's insurrection.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.