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Drum () 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 south County Roscommon about 5 km west of Athlone. It lies in the barony of Athlone. One of 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 in the parish is also called Drum. Meehambee Dolmen, a portal tomb estimated to be 5,500 years old, is located in the northern part of the parish. In the village there are a number of historical and religious sites, including Drum Cemetery, St. Brigid's Church and Drum Monastic Site. Drum Parish Hall and Drum Heritage Visitor Centre are located next to the graveyard, in the townland of Belrea.


Mount Florence

In the 1650s Melchior Moore was transplanted from Cregganstown, Co. Meath, to the parish of Drum, and his title to over 700 acres in the parish was confirmed by patent dated 24 Apr 1677. Melchior's son John Moore was an astute businessman and besides being a merchant in Dublin built up an estate in the parish of Drum through inheritance and acquisition. In 1723, following the death of John Moore, grandson of Melchior, the estate passed to his four sisters, one of whom, Mary, in 1725 married James Sullivan or O’Sullivan of Dublin. They had one son John, who had 3 sons James, Patrick and John. In the early 1760s the descendants of the four sisters decided to divide the lands formally. The O’Sullivans took an estate known as the Whitehouse (later Mount Florence), which now lies on the R446 due south of Mount William, between Carrickynaghton, Taylorstown and Mount Hussey. On 23 December 1778 John O’Sullivan of Whitehouse swore an oath of allegiance to the King. Mount Florence descended to John O'Sullivan in 1823 upon his father dying young; his mother remarried Dr William O'Reilly of Co. Meath and they continued to live in the O'Sullivan Roscommon residence, then known as 'Whitehouse'. In 1855, when John O'Sullivan was in financial difficulties, Mount Florence was advertised for sale but the family retained it. In the 1870s the estate was of 1,489 acres. John O'Sullivan died there in 1874. His estate containing parts of Carrickynaghten, Garrynagowna and Carrickynaghten & Garrynagowna Bog was advertised for sale on 6 Feb 1883 by his widow, and by his son Raphael O'Sullivan, and was sold to the Greene family from the Ballinasloe area. It is now a ruin.


Drum today

Drum was the birthplace of Fr James Coyle (1873-1921), who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
on 11 August 1921. The railway line between Athlone and Athenry passes through the parish, as does the
M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...
. The village of Cornafulla lies within the civil parish of Drum. Drum surrounds the civil parish of St. Peters.


See also

* List of towns and villages in Ireland


References


External links


Drum Community Website
{{County Roscommon Civil parishes of County Roscommon Townlands of County Roscommon