TULLYBRACKY
TULLYBRACKY, a parish, partly in the barony of COSHMA, but chiefly in that of SMALL COUNTY, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, l ¾ miles (N. E.) from Bruff, on the road to Limerick; containing 1774 inhabitants.
The parish comprises 3148a. 2r. 15p. statute measure, as applotted under the tithe act. The land is considered to be of the most fertile character; it is based on a substratum of limestone. About one-fifth of it is in tillage, producing very heavy crops of every kind of grain; the remainder is meadow or enclosed in demesnes: near the boundary is a small but very valuable bog. The most remarkable of the seats is Rockbarton, the elegant mansion of Lord Guillamore, situated in a demesne of great extent, beauty and variety of scenery: the others are Cahir, the elegant residence of Lieutenant Colonel O'Grady; Ballynauty, of Mrs. Creed; and the glebe, of the Rev. John Fitzgerald, the grounds of which are laid out with much taste and densely planted.
The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Limerick, forming the corps of the prebend of the same name, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £280. 10. 6. per ann. The glebe-house was erected in 1813 by a gift of £250 and a loan of £550 from the late Board of First Fruits. There are two glebes; one of 61 ½ acres, on which the house is built; the other of 11 ½ acres near the old church; making together 73 acres of land of the highest natural and acquired fertility. The church, erected in 1819 on a new site about ¼ of a mile from the former building, and about midway between Rockbarton and the glebe-house, is an elegant edifice in the later English style, with a lofty square tower crowned with pierced battlements and pinnacles: it cost £2500, of which £1200 was contributed in two grants from the late Board of First Fruits, and the remaining £1300 was a donation from Lord Guillamore.
In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Bruff. The male and female parochial schools are wholly supported by Lord Guillamore and the rector; and there is a private school in which 58 boys and 22 girls are educated. A few portions of the old church are still in existence, and round Rockbarton are numerous vestiges of antiquity, but the most remarkable ruins are those in the demesne of Cahir Guillamore, which indicate the former existence of an ancient city of great extent: the sites of streets, gates and fortifications are still to be traced, extending in some places into the adjoining parishes, and connected with the ancient forts on several of the surrounding hills.