Clonrush or Clonmulsk ( ga, Cluain Rois) is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the barony of Leitrim, now in

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,81 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The largest settlement in the parish is Whitegate.

Location

Clonrush is to the southwest of

Portumna Portumna ( - meaning 'the landing place of the oak') is a market town in the south-east of County Galway, Ireland, on the border with and linked by a bridge to County Tipperary. The town is located to the west of the point where the River Shann ...

. It is and covers of which are in Lough Derg. The parish includes a belt of low-lying land along the lakeside, rising into mountainous country. The road from Woodford to

Scarriff Scarriff Central Statistics Office, Census 2002Population of Towns ordered by County and size, 1996 and 2002 or Scariff () is a large village in east County Clare, Ireland, situated in the midwest of Ireland. The town is on the West end of Loug ...

crosses the parish.

History

The Clonrush graveyard was established around the 12th century in an early Christian settlement on a ridge beside Church Bay in Lough Derg. The parish church gave its name to the bay. A portion of the building remains, including a 12th-century window in the east gable, restored in the 16th century with cut limestone. In the early 1800s the church was used as a school, and was modified to accommodate a thatched roof. It is now ruined. There are records of a castle on the shoreline near the graveyard and a monument higher up, overlooking it. The graveyard contains a small vaulted house called St. Colman's Oratory, with a Gothic doorway from the 16th century. The parish in 1837 was in the Catholic union of Clonrush and Inishcaltra, each of which held a chapel. In 1841 the population was 3,115 in 516 houses. The parish in 1848 contained the hamlets of Whitegate, Furnace and Fogarty's. At that time it was within County Galway. In 1898 the parishes of Inishcaltra and Clonrush were transferred from County Galway to County Clare. Today the civil parish is part of the Catholic parish of Mountshannon-Whitegate in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe The Diocese of Killaloe ( ; ga, Deoise Chill Dalua) is a Roman Catholic diocese in mid-western Ireland, one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and Emly. The cathedral church of the diocese is the Cathedral of ...

. The church of St Flannan is in Whitegate.

Townlands

The

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

s are Ballinrooaun, Ballyglass, Ballyhinch, Ballynakillew, Ballynamona, Bargarriff, Birchpark, Boleynagoagh North, Boleynagoagh South, Cappagha, Cappantruhaun, Cartron, Clonrush, Cloonmohaun, Cloonoolia North, Cloonoolia South, Cregg, Derrainy, Drummaanadeevan, Drummaan East, Drummaan South, Drummaan West, Furnace, Garraun, Garryeighter, Gortnascreeny, Gweeneeny, Illaunmore, Kilcooney, Kilkittaun, Lakyle, Meelick, Rinskea, Tintrim and Whitegate.

References

;Citations ;Sources * * * * * * * {{Civil parishes of County Clare Civil parishes of County Clare