From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837
CAHIRELLY, or BALLYBRICKEN, a parish, in the barony of CLANWILLIAM, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 8 miles (S. S. E.) from Limerick; containing 1346 inhabitants. This place appears to be of considerable antiquity, and its church is said to have been founded by St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, in the time of St. Patrick; it would also appear to have attained an early degree of importance, as three castles were erected within, its limits. The parish is situated on the river Comogue, by which it is bounded on the south; the mail coach road from Limerick to Cork passes within a quarter of a mile of its western extremity; and it is intersected from north to south by the road from Limerick to Hospital.
It comprises 2636 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which 33 acres are roads and waste, and the remainder arable, pasture, and meadow land, of which last a great portion is frequently overflowed by the river: the western portion is rich grazing land, mostly belonging to large dairy farms, and the greater part of the eastern portion is in the occupation of small farmers, and is generally cultivated by spade labour. A patent for a market and four fairs on May 14th, Aug. 26th, Nov. 6th, and Dec. 21st, was granted to Michael Furnell, Esq. On Mr. Furnell's estate are quarries of very excellent limestone, worked at present chiefly for the proprietor and his tenantry. On this estate are West Cahir Elly castle, and the residence of Mr. Furnell, a neat building in the cottage style, with tastefully disposed grounds, situated near Longford bridge (an ancient structure of nine arches), where are some fine specimens of the moose deer and coins, dug up on the estate; also the residence of Mr. Hannan, in well-planted grounds ornamented with shrubs and evergreens.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Emly, and in the patronage of the Archbishop of Cashel; the rectory is appropriate to the vicars choral of the cathedral of Christ-Church, Dublin. The tithes amount to £140, of which £90 is payable to the appropriators, and £50 to the vicar. The glebe, in two detached portions, comprises 9 ¼ acres, but there is no glebe-house. In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of the union or district of Ballybricken, which also comprises the parish of Carrigparson; the chapel is a substantial and handsome edifice, recently erected on the site of a former chapel in the townland of Ballybricken. There is a pay school, in which are about 50 boys and 20 girls; and Mr. Furnell has given a site for a national school. Of the three ancient castles, one, called the Black castle, has lately fallen to the ground; West Cahir Elly castle is in perfect and substantial repair; and Ballybricken castle is in ruins. Here are also the ruins of Cahirelly abbey, the burial-ground of which is enclosed and planted, and contains the ancient tomb of the Furnell family.
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Truelove's Journal: A Bookshop Novella
From a sad, comfortless childhood Giles Truelove developed into a reclusive and uncommunicative man whose sole passion was books. For so long they were the only meaning to his existence. But when fate eventually intervened to have the outside world intrude upon his life, he began to discover emotions that he never knew he had.
A story for the genuine booklover, penned by an Irish bookseller under the pseudonym of Ralph St. John Featherstonehaugh.
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Annals of the Famine in Ireland
Annals of the Famine in Ireland, by Asenath Nicholson, still has the power to shock and sadden even though the events described are ever-receding further into the past. When you read, for example, of the poor widowed mother who was caught trying to salvage a few potatoes from her landlord's field, and what the magistrate discovered in the pot in her cabin, you cannot help but be appalled and distressed.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger
This book, the prequel to Annals of the Famine in Ireland cannot be recommended highly enough to those interested in Irish social history. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, travelled from her native America to assess the condition of the poor in Ireland during the mid 1840s. Refusing the luxury of hotels and first class travel, she stayed at a variety of lodging-houses, and even in the crude cabins of the very poorest. Not to be missed!
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Henry Ford Jones' book, first published in 1915 by Princeton University, is a classic in its field. It covers the history of the Scotch-Irish from the first settlement in Ulster to the American Revolutionary period and the foundation of the country.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
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