SHANRAHAN

SHANRAHAN, a parish, in the barony of IFFA and OFFA WEST, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, on the mail road from Clonmel to Cork; containing, with the post-town of Clogheen, 7002 inhabitants. It comprises 13,946 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act. Within its limits is Shanbally Castle, the splendid mansion of Viscount Lismore, erected by Mr. Nash, of London: the demesne, which comprises 820 acres, is finely wooded, and, being situated in a valley between the Galtee and Waterford mountains, is surrounded by scenery of a grand and imposing character. His lordship has lately erected a lodge in a situation of much beauty in a glen of the Galtees, and surrounded it with a plantation of about 150 acres; the agricultural improvements carried on under his own inspection afford employment to a considerable number of persons. Rehill, the residence of William Fennell, Esq., is also in this parish. A manor court is occasionally held at that place.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Lismore, episcopally united, in 1774, to that of Templetenny, and in the gift of the Crown: the rectory is impropriate in Lord Lismore and Caesar Sutton, Esq.

The tithes amount to £665, of which £415 is payable to the impropriators, and the remainder to the vicar; there is a glebe of 3a. 1r. 20p. The gross value of the benefice, including the glebe, is £434. 12. 3. The church is a neat modern edifice of hewn stone, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £1000, in 1819.

In the R. C. divisions the parish, under the name of Clogheen, is co-extensive with that of the Established Church, and contains the chapels of Clogheen and Burncourt, or Shanbally Cross. At Burncourt are the ruins of a fine old castellated mansion, originally erected by one of the barons of Ikerrin, and besieged and taken by a party of Cromwell's army: it was enclosed in a bawn or court of considerable extent, surrounded by a high wall, and with its tall gables and chimneys still forms a striking object. At Shanrahan is the burial-place of the O'Callaghan family, of which Lord Lismore is the head. Quin, the celebrated actor, is said to have been a native of this parish.