NEWPORT, or ST-JOHN'S-NEWPORT, a post-town,
in the parish of KILVOLANE, barony of OWNEY
and ARRA, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER,
8 miles (E.) from Limerick, and 86 (S. W.) from
Dublin, on the road to Limerick; containing 852 inhabitants.
This town is pleasantly situated on a considerable
stream that falls into the river at Castle Troy, near
Mount Shannon, a little below the village of Anacotty;
and contains 163 houses, most of which are neatly built.
It is the property of Sir Edmund Waller, Bart., whose
seat, Castle Waller, is in the immediate vicinity. There
are barracks for two companies of infantry, to which
purpose the buildings of the old charter school have
been appropriated. Fairs are held on April 27th, May
29th, July 21st, and Oct. 23rd, which last is a very large
fair for bullocks; a constabulary police force is stationed
in the town, and petty sessions are held every Tuesday.
The environs are pleasant, and in the vicinity are several
handsome seats, which, are noticed in the parishes within
which they are situated. The parish church, situated
in the town, is a neat edifice, to which a handsome octagonal
tower was added in 1823, and towards the erection
of which the late Board of First Fruits contributed a
gift of £410: it contains a handsome monument, erected
in 1825, by Lady Waller, to her late husband, Sir Robt.
Waller, Bart. There is also a Roman Catholic chapel,
a neat edifice; and in the barrack-yard is a school,
to the support of which the Incorporated Society
grants £20 per annum, and the rector and Lady
Waller present a donation of £10 each; there is also
a dispensary. The horns of a moose deer were
found here in 1826. Newport gives the inferior title
of baron in the peerage of Ireland to the Earl of
Roden.