description from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

for Civil Registration BMD reference extracts or just to see surnames found in this parish go to

Ballinasloe BMD's

KILTORMER, a parish, in time barony of LONGFORD, county of GALWAY, and province of CONNAUGHT, 3¼ miles (N. W.) from Eyrecourt, on the road to Loughrea; containing 2133 inhabitants.

It comprises 4859 statute access as applotted under the tithe act, and a considerable quantity of reclaimable bog. Here is a constabulary police station.

The principal seats are Eyreville, an elegant mansion in the Italian style of architecture, the residence of T. Stratford Eyre, Esq., by whom it was built ; Bellevue, of W. Lawrence, Esq. ; Mount Pleasant, of Chas. Seymour, Esq. ; Skycur, of P. Callaghan, Esq. ; Ballydonagh, of F. Madden, Esq. ; and Chilhame, of De La Warr Digges, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Clonfert, episcopally united in 1813 to the rectories and vicarages of Killoran and Abbeygormagan, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is appropriate to the bishop and deanery of Clonfert. The tithes amount to £101. 10s. 9¼d., of which £41. 10s. 9¼d., is payable to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £27. 13s. 10¼d., to the dean, and £32. 6s. 1¾d., to the vicar ; the tithes of the benefice amount to £200. 18s. 5½d. The glebe-house was erected by a gift of £450 and a loan of £145 from the late Board of First fruits, in 1818 : there is a glebe of two acres. The church, which is in the village of Kiltormer-Kelly, was built in 1815 on a site given by T. Stratford Eyre, Esq., by a gift of £600 and a loan of £200 from the same Board, and has been recently repaired by a grant of £109 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners ; it is a neat edifice with a square tower, enclosed in a planted area.

In the Roman Catholic divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, comprising also part of Clonfert, and has a chapel at Kiltormer-Kelly.

The parochial school, in which 50 children are educated, is aided by a donation of £6 annually from the incumbent ; and there is a national school, in which nearly 400 children are taught, for which J. Prendergast, Esq.. gave the site and £50 towards its erection. There are also two private schools of about 90 children.

At Ballydough, on the south side of the road, are the foundations of a large castle. A holy well here is resorted to annually on the last Sunday in July by numbers of the peasantry.

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