KILMOLARA, a parish, in the barony of KILMAIN, county of MAYO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 2¾ miles (S.) from Ballinrobe, on the road to Cong; containing 1350 inhabitants.
It is situated on Lough Mask, and comprises about 2000 statute acres, principally in tillage; there are some fine limestone quarries.
Neale Park is the handsome house and demesne of Lord Kilmaine.
The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Tuam, united to the rectories and vicarages of Ballincalla and Ross, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the tithes amount to £200, and of the benefice to £945. The glebe-house and glebe are in Ballincalla. The church, a neat plain building with a square tower, is situated in the parish of Cong, close to the boundary of this parish; it is the property of Lord Kilmaine, and has been recently repaired by a grant of £125 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
In the Roman Catholic divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called the Neale, comprising also the parish of Ballincalla; the chapel is at the Neale.
There is a public school, in which about 80, and a private school in which about 100, children are educated.
In the Neale
park are some remarkable antiquities, particularly a stone on which are
carved the figure of an unicorn opposite to a man surrounded with a glory,
and a lion below them. According to an inscription beneath this stone, it
was found in a cave near the spot, and the figures were the gods worshipped
here by Edda and Con, after the latter of whom Connaught was named; the figures
were called in Irish "Dine Feale," or "Gods of Felicity,"
from which the place was called Nehale, or "The Neale."
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