RATHMOLION

RATHMOLION, a parish, in the barony of LOWER MOYFENRAGH, county of MEATH, and province of LEINSTER, 2 ½ .miles (W. by N.) from Summerhill, on the road to Longwood; containing 2674 inhabitants, of which number, 208 are in the village.

The parish comprises 19,265 statute acres, mostly light and gravelly. The village consists of 33 houses, and about half a mile from it is a constabulary police station: fairs are held on April 19th, June 30th, and Sept. 29th. Tubbertinan, now the residence of Mrs. McEvoy, was formerly the seat of W. Nugent, Esq. Rathmolion House is the residence of R. Fowler, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Meath, and in the patronage of W. Snell Magee, Esq.; the rectory is impropriate in the Earl of Darnley.

The tithes amount to £438. 9. 2., of which £230. 15. 4 ½. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar. The glebe-house was built in 1813, at a cost of £628, partly defrayed by a gift of £100 from the late Board of First Fruits, the remainder by the then incumbent: the glebe comprises 35 acres, valued at £43. 15. per annum. The church is a neat edifice, built in 1797, partly by private subscription and partly by parochial assessment, at an expense of £444; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £181 for its repair.

In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, comprising Rathmolion and Rathcore, in each of which is a chapel. About 80 children are educated in the parochial school, situated in the village, which is aided by the Bishop of Ossory, the Earl of Darnley, the rector, and R. Fowler, Esq., who also supports a school at Cullenter, the school-house of which he built, and allows the master an acre of land. There are also three private schools, in which are about 130 children. A dispensary is supported partly by subscriptions and by the aid of R. Fowler, Esq. At Castletown is an ancient Danish fort: and in the parish are the ruins of an old church.