St. Marys (Fore Barony)

MARY'S-DE-FORE-ST, or BEATIAE-MARIAE-DE-FORE, a parish, in the barony of DEMIFORE, county of WESTMEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 4 miles (E.) from Castlepollard, on the road to Kells; containing 1217 inhabitants. It comprises 1624½ statute acres of good land, mostly under tillage, though there is much bog: limestone is found here. On the north it is in part separated from Meath by Lough Bawn, which, though pent tip by high hills, is of considerable breadth; it is remarkable for having most water in summer; no stream emerges from it, and it abounds with large pike and eels. On the opposite side the parish reaches to Lough Lene, and the small Lough-a-Deel. Here is Glenidan, the residence of - Blandford, Esq.

It is a curacy, in the diocese of Meath, forming part of the union of Rathgraff: the rectory is entirely appropriate to the vicars choral of Christ-Church, Dublin, to whom the tithes, amounting to £159.. 14.7., are wholly payable. In the R. C. divisions it forms part of the union or district of Fore. There is a school at Glenidan, and another at Camberstown, the former aided by a bequest of the late Col. Monk; in these schools 98 boys and 50 girls are taught.

Ruins of the mansion of Carrick exist; and there are several large raths in different parts of the parish.

from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837.