T I P 



489 



T I P 



the Killenaule coal-field are in this parish. By the returns 

 to parliament, A.D. 1835, there were in the parish six 

 schools, all supported by the payments of the children : 

 school-houses had been built by subscription for two of 

 these schools. 



Nenagh is partly in Upper Ormond, but chiefly in Lower 

 Ormond barony, between 95 and 90 miles south-west of 

 Dublin, on the road to Limerick. The town qontained, in 

 1831, 1282 houses, inhabited by 1703 families; 55 houses 

 uninhabited, and 9 building, with a population of 84G6 : 

 the remainder of the parish contained 104 houses, inhabited 

 by 104 families, and 2 houses uninhabited, with a popula- 

 tion of 693 ; making a total population of 9159. This 

 town antiently belonged to the Butler family, who had a 

 strong castle here : it had two ecclesiastical foundations ; 

 an hospital for the canons of St. Augustin, founded A.D. 

 1200 ; and a friary for conventual Franciscans, deemed the 

 richest foundation of that order in-Ireland, founded in the 

 reign of Henry III. The town was burned, A.D. 1550, by 

 the natives under O'Carrol, and the friary was included in 

 Ihe destruction, but the castle was saved by the garrison. 

 The town was repeatedly taken and retaken in the great 

 civil war in the reign of Charles I. It was taken by the 

 native forces of James II., A.D. 1688, but after a time aban- 

 doned and burned by them. The town stands on the river 

 Nenagh, which flows with a circuitous course from the 

 Keeper Mountains into Lough Derg, and consists of four 

 streets meeting in the centre. The ruins of the castle, 

 consisting chiefly of a large circular donjon or keep, called 

 Nenagh Round, are on one side of one of the streets, 

 i e Street. There are a barrack for cavalry ; a fever- 

 hospital and dispensary ; a church, rebuilt some years 

 since ; a Roman Catholic chapel ; and a bridewell, unless it 

 has been disused since the completion of the county gaol, 

 lately erected here. Some remains of the Franciscan friary 

 may be traced. A portion of the county constabulary are 

 stationed here. There is a well-attended market on Thurs- 

 day for corn and cattle. The number of barrels of wheat sold 

 on the average of the years 1826 to 1835 was above 45,000, 

 of barrels of u;its about 4500, and of barrels of barley 1300. 

 The salt: of bere, which was about 1000 barrels in 1826, 

 had quite ceased before 1835. There are in or near the 

 town a brewery, a flour-mill, and a small stuff manufac- 

 tory. There are several yearly fairs. There were in the 

 parish, by the return made to parliament in 1835. eight 

 schools of all kinds, including a national school, with an 

 average attendance of 190 boys; a parish free-school, with 

 an average attendance of 40 boys and girls ; and a school 

 mi Kiusmus Smith's foundation, with an average attendance 

 of 28 boys and girls. 



Roscrea is in"the barony of Ikerin, 75 miles west-south- 

 west of Dublin, on the road to Limerick, and about 50 to 

 r>2 north of Clonmell. A monastery for regular canons is 

 >;iid to have been founded here by St. Cronan as early as 

 the beginning of the seventh century, which became sub- 

 sequently the seat of a bishopric, afterwards united to 

 Kiilaloe. According to Keating (Histnry of Ireland) there 

 .uitii-ntly a great fair held at Roscrea on the festival 

 of St. Peter and St. Paul, at which fair, about the middle 

 of the tenth century, an army of Danes, collected from 

 Limerick and Cuiimutght, attempted to surprise the natives ; 

 liese, having sonic suspicion of the attack, had brought 

 arms with them, and made so stout a resistance, that they 

 repulsed the enemy, with the loss of their leader and four 

 thousand men. In 1213 King John erected a castle at 

 Roscrea, of which a circular tower remains ; and there is 

 in the centre of the town a square castle of the Ormond 

 family, occupied as a depot for the troops quartered in the 

 infantry barracks. About A.D. 1490 a Franciscan friary 

 was founded. 



The town of Roscrea is in a fertile and pleasant situation : 



it consists of several streets, irregularly laid out, and had, 



in 1831, 907 houses, inhabited by 1136 families; Gl houses 



uninhabited, and 6 houses building, with a population of 



:V,12. the whole parish, which extends into the baronies 



of Ballybrit and Clonlisk in King's County (Leinster), had 



].">!(; houses, inhabited by 1797 families ; 79 houses unin- 



md 12 building ; with a population of 9191). The 



:<!roh is an antient building, with Norman dpor- 



1 several sepulchral crosses and curious 



jui'lii :ilions. Near the church is a round 



nd 15 feet in diameter, with a window 



with an arch of (in- UMUI! form, 15 feet from the ground, 



P. C'., No. 1549. 



and a window with a pointed arch, about 30 feet from the 

 ground. There are some remains of the antient monastery 

 of canons of St. Augustin, consisting of the western gable, 

 having an arched doorway, which forms an entrance to the 

 present churchyard. There are also some remains of the 

 Franciscan convent, which are (or at least were some years 

 since) in good preservation : the tower of the conventual 

 church forms the entrance to the present Roman Catholic 

 chapel. There are a Primitive and aWesleyan Methodist, 

 chapel and a Quakers' meeting-house in the ecclesiastical 

 union of Roscrea (comprehending the parishes of Roscrea 

 and Kyle), but we are not aware whether they are in the 

 town. 



The town has considerable trade as the mart for the sur- 

 rounding district. Formerly there was a considerable 

 manufacture of woollens, especially serges and stuff's, in 

 which a thousand looms are employed ; but this had so 

 fallen off about 1835, that it gave employment only to a 

 hundred looms. There were at that time a distillery and 

 three breweries. There are -two weekly markets and se- 

 veral yearly fairs for cattle and farming stock : there an; 

 public shambles and a commodious market-house. The 

 sale of grain at the markets is considerable : the average 

 yearly sale of wheat had increased in the ten years from 

 182G to 1835, both inclusive, from 4140 barrels to 6700 ; 

 and that of oats from 18,500 to 22,100 barrels ; the yearly 

 sale of barley had continued steady at 13,000 barrels. There 

 is a savings' bank, the deposits in which had (in 1835) con- 

 siderably increased : the depositors were chiefly farmers, 

 small tradesmen, and servants : there were at the same 

 time a fever hospital, a cholera hospital, and a dispensary. 

 The number of places where spirits were sold was very 

 great, amounting to above two hundred in the town alone ; 

 of these nearly half were licensed public-houses. There 

 are a small bridewell, an infantry barrack, and a station of 

 the county constabulary. There were, by the Parliamentary 

 Returns for 1835, ten day-schools in the parish, including 

 a national school, with an average attendance of 52 boys ; 

 a school on Erasmus Smith's foundation, with an average 

 attendance of 91 boys ; and a day-school for young girls in 

 connection with the Ladies' London Association and the 

 Hibernian Society, with an average attendance of 45. 



Templemore is in the barony of Eliogarty, about 87 miles 

 south-west of Dublin, and about 39 or 40 north of Clonmell. 

 It is supposed to derive its name from the Knights Tem- 

 plars, who had a house here, of which the remains form an 

 entrance to the demesne of the Garden family. There were 

 in the town, in 1831, 404 houses inhabited by 609 families ; 

 12 houses uninhabited and 7 building ; with a population 

 of 2936 : the whole parish had 664 houses, inhabited by 

 885 families ; 15 houses uninhabited, and 18 building ; 

 with a population of 4583. The town is pleasantly situ- 

 ated near the right or west bank of the Suir, and is (com- 

 paratively at least) a well-built and neat town. The church, 

 which has a handsome tower and spire, was rebuilt about 

 fifty or sixty years ago ; there are a handsome and spacious 

 Roman Catholic chapel, a good market and court-house, a 

 bridewell, extensive barracks, a fever hospital and dispen- 

 sary, and ball and news-rooms. The town is approached 

 on all sides by avenues of ash-trees ; and there are several 

 gentlemen's seats and the remains of some very antient 

 castles in the neighbourhood. There were, according to 

 the returns of 1835, seven schools in the parish, including 

 a free-school on Erasmus Smith's foundation, with an ave- 

 rage attendage of 47 scholars, boys and girls. 



Thurles is in the barony of Eliogarty, 96 miles south- 

 west from Dublin by Templemore, and about 32 from Clon- 

 mell. It is a place of considerable antiquity, and was in 

 the tenth century the scene of a severe battle between the 

 native Irish and the Danes. There is a tradition that the 

 Knights Hospitallers had a house here, but no record of it 

 has been discovered. A Carmelite monastery was founded 

 here about A.D. 1300 ; and in the fourteenth century a 

 castle was built by the Butler family, which in the ciVil 

 war of Charles I. was garrisoned by the Royalists and 

 taken by the Parliamentary forces. Of these buildings 

 there are some remains : a tower and some part of the 

 north transept of the church of Ihe monastery stand on the 

 east side of the Suir ; and there are considerable portions 

 of the walls of the castle, inclosing an extensive area, and 

 flanked by towers, some round, others square. There were 

 not. long since (and perhaps still are) some remains of St. 

 Mary's church, built in the fifteenth century, and very 



VOL. XXIV.-3 R 



