CLOGHJORDAN, a post-town and district parish

CLOGHJORDAN, a post-town and district parish, in the barony of LOWER ORMOND, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, 9 ½ miles (W.) from Roscrea, and 70 ¼ (S. W.) from Dublin; containing 2770 inhabitants, of which number, 824 are in the town. This town is situated on the road from Nenagh to Parsonstown, and consists principally of one main street; it contains 129 houses, and has a neat and cheerful appearance. A large distillery is carried on, in which from 40,000 to 60,000 gallons of whiskey are. annually made. A patent for a market exists, but no market has been yet established, though much desired by the inhabitants. Fairs are held on May 12th, Aug. 12th, and Dec. 1st; and a police force is stationed in the town. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Killaloe, erected out of the parish of Modreeny in 1826, and in the patronage of the Incumbent of that parish: the stipend of the curate is £76. 3. 1., of which £46. 3. 1. is paid by the incumbent of Modreeny, and £30 from the augmentation fund under the management of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The church, a handsome light edifice, in the later English style, with an elegant spire, was built by a gift of £900 and a loan of £923 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1830. There is neither glebe-house nor glebe. In the R. C. divisions it is the head of a union or district, comprising also the parishes of Modreeny, Ardcrony, and Kilruan, in which are three chapels; the chapel at Cloghjordan is a neat plain building. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, also a dispensary and fever hospital. A plan for the relief and diminution of pauperism originated in the town with William French, Esq., of Cangort Park, who, in 1823, established the "Deacon's Poor Fund," at first limited to the parish of Modreeny, and subsequently extended to many other parishes, particularly to those of Dolla, Kilmore, and Ballynaclogh, in which it has been attended with the most beneficial results.

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