CASTLECOMER, a market-town and post-town, and a
parish, in the barony of FASSADINING, county of KILKENNY,
and province of LEINSTER; 9½ miles (N.) from
Kilkenny, and 46 (S. W.) from Dublin; containing
13,242 inhabitants, of which number, 2436 are in the
town. This town is situated on the river Deen, and on
the road from Kilkenny, by Athy, to Dublin. It suffered
greatly in the disturbances of 1798, from the violence of
a party of the insurgents, by whom a considerable portion
of the town was destroyed. It was, however, soon
restored, and at present consists of one wide main street
and several smaller, containing, in 1831, 455 houses,
chiefly inhabited by persons engaged in the extensive
collieries in the parish and neighbourhood. The infantry
barracks, a neat range of buildings, are adapted for 8
officers and 126 non-commissioned officers and privates,
with suitable offices. The market is chiefly for provisions,
and some neat shambles have been erected.
Fairs are held on March 27th, May 3rd, June 21st,
Aug. 10th, Sept. 14th, Oct. 28th, and Dec. 14th. A
constabulary police force is stationed here; the quarter
sessions for the county once in the year (in June), and
petty sessions every Friday, are held in the town; and
a court for the recovery of small debts is held by the
seneschal of the manor.
The parish comprises 21,708 statute acres, and contains
the principal portion of the extensive coal field
of the district. The coal is of the kind commonly
called Kilkenny coal, which, containing no bitumen,
burns without blaze or smoke; the larger pieces alone
are applied to domestic purposes, the smaller fragments
being chiefly used for burning lime. These
collieries have been worked for more than a century:
the regular strata were first discovered in digging for
iron-ore in that part of the territory of Ida which
belonged to the Brenans, and which was purchased from
that sept, in the reign of Chas. I., by Sir Christopher
Wandesford, and erected into a lordship by charter of
the same monarch. Its extent at that time was estimated
at 13,400 plantation acres; and the father of the
last Lord Wandesford was the first who worked the pits
to any advantage. The principal workings are all between
the small river Deen, which flows by the town,
and the hills to the east and north-east, extending
towards Donane. The substratum on which the coal
rests is remarkable for withstanding the agency of fire,
and has been used with great success in the making of
fire-bricks; the depth of the pits varies from 31 to 39
yards. The chief property in these mines was vested
in the Wandesford family, to whom this place gave the
title of Earl, now extinct, and whose representative, the
Hon. Charles Butler Wandesford, brother of the Marquess
of Ormonde, inherited in right of his mother, the
sister of the late Lord Wandesford, and has a handsome
modern residence adjoining the town. A great portion
of the coal is conveyed through the southern counties
by the rivers Suir and Barrow, and by the Grand Canal
to Dublin. There are also some collieries at Pherodagh,
or Firoda, about a mile and a half to the north-west of
Castlecomer, from which a fine black glossy culm is
raised with greater facility than from the mines here.
There are a bleach-green and a grist-mill in the parish.
The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese
of Ossory, and in the patronage of the Crown: the
tithes amount to £969. 4. 7½. The church, situated in
the town, is a neat edifice with a tower; and there is a
chapel of ease at Mooneenroe, in the collieries, built by
subscription aided by a grant from the late Board of First
Fruits, in 1818. Lectures on religious subjects are
delivered also in the school-rooms adjoining the church
and chapel of ease. The glebe-house was built by aid
of a gift of £100 and a loan of £1500 from the same
Board, in 1819. In the R. C. divisions the parish
forms part of the three several unions or districts of
Castlecomer, Clough, and Muckalee, the first of which
comprises about one-half of it: there are four chapels
belonging to these unions, one of which is in the town.
There is also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
Near the R. C. chapel is a convent, and adjoining
it a school under the care of the nuns. The schools
adjoining the parish church and chapel of ease are supported
by an annual donation of £100 from the Hon.
C. B. Wandesford, and £34 from the rector; an infants1
school is also supported by subscription. In these schools
about 380 children receive gratuitous instruction; and
there are also eight pay schools, in which are about 330
children, and three Sunday schools. A dispensary was
erected by the Countess of Ormonde, and an auxiliary
branch of the Hibernian Bible Society has been established
in the town.