Drumgooland Civil Parish, Co. Down, Ireland, Lewis, 1837 description ©Jane Lyons

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County Down, Ireland

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DRUMGOOLAND, a parish, in the barony of UPPER IVEAGH, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER, 4 miles (N. E.) from Rathfriland, on the road from Castlewellan to Banbridge ; containing 10,281 inhabitants.

It comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 19,653 statute acres, of which, 133¾ are under water, 3240 are mountain and bog, and the remainder is cultivated with great labour and expense, and in some parts is very productive many of the inhabitants are employed in linen-weaving.

Ballyward, a large handsome house, situated in a beautiful demesne, is the residence of C. F. Beers, Esq. ; the Cottage of Capt. Tighe ; and Ballymacaveny, of the Rev. J. B. Grant.

The parish is in the diocese of Dromore the rectory is partly appropriate to the see and partly to the deanery of Dromore, and partly consolidated with the vicarage, which, from time immemorial, has been united to the vicarage of Drumballyroney, together forming the union of Drumgooland, in the patronage of the Bishop. The tithes amount to £495.3 shillings and a half penny., of which £380. 2 shillings 8½ pence is payable to the incumbent, £59 to the bishop, and the remainder to the dean; and the gross value of the benefice, tithe and glebe inclusive, is £570. 16 shillings and a half penny. The church is a large handsome edifice, in the early English style, erected, by aid of a gift of £900 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1822 it contains a handsome monument erected by the parishoners to the memory of the. Rev. T. Tighe, forty-two years rector of this parish. There is another church in Drumballyroney, where there is a good glebe-house, and a glebe of 20 plantation acres, valued at £30 per annum.

In the Roman Catholic divisions the parish forms two unions or districts, called Upper and Lower Drumgooland : the chapel for the former is at Leitrim ; in the latter there are two, one at Gargary, the other at Dechamet.

There are two meeting-houses for Presbyterianism ; in connection with the Seceding Synod, one at Drumlee, (of the first class), the other at Closkilt.

There is a school for boys and girls at Ballyward, built and principally supported by C. F. Beers, Esq. ; the parochial school, adjoining the ruins of the old church, is supported by the vicar and Miss Beers; and there. are six other public, and five private, schools, also three Sunday schools.

In this parish are several large and nearly perfect raths and forts ; at Legananney is a large cromlech, of which the table stone issupported by three large upright stones ; at Mullaslane are four large upright stones ; a fifth, but smaller, stands not far off, and in the adjoining field is a single upright stone of enormous size. In the gable of the school-house at Drumgooland is a large, perfect, and ancient stone cross, which formerly stood in the churchyard, but, having been thrown down and broken, it was built into the wall by the late rector : the shaft and cross are of porphyry, and the plinth of granite.

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