Clare Places: Parishes: Kilfearagh: Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845

Kilfearagh

A parish 7 miles west by north of Kilrush, and on the west coast of the barony of Moyarta, and of Co. Clare, Munster. It contains the town of KILKEE, and the hamlet of LISDEEN. Length, 6 miles; breadth, 5; area, 9,870 acres, 2 roods, 38 perches, of which 29 acres, 15 perches are water. Pop., in 1841, 7,137. Houses 1,161. Pop. of the rural districts, in 1841, 5,656 Houses 923. The population of 1831 is stated by the Census at 6,594; and by the Ecclesiastical Authorities at 6,239. The surface is washed on one side by the Atlantic, and on another by the shallow, spreading, and ramified, offset of the Shannon’s estuary, called Poulnasharry bay. The Atlantic coast is cliffy and bold, and is indented with the creek of Moore or Kilkee bay, immediately off which lies the little islet called Bishop’s Isle. The interior is tumulated; yet aggregately consists of good pasture and tillage-land, much improved of late years, and capable of still further improvement. Two principal heights have altitudes of 177 and 339 feet. The chief residences are Curran cottage and Desmond villa. Other chief objects of interest will be noticed in the aritcle on Kilkee. This parish is a vicarage, and part of the benefice of KILRUSH, in the dio. of Killaloe. Vicarial tithe composition, £93 6s. 8d.: glebe, £4 4s. The rectorial tithes are compounded for £156 13s. 4d., and are appropriated to the prebend of Inniscattery. The church is an old building, in a bad state of repair. Sittings 150; attendance 30. The Roman Catholic chapels of Kilkee and Lisdeen have an attendance of respectively 700 and 750. In 1834 the Protestants amounted to 63, and the Roman Catholics to 6,637. In 1840, the National Board granted £149 toward the erection of a boys’ school and a girls’ school at Kilkee.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, 1845
Courtesy of Clare Local Studies Project