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

Doora, Dowry, or Dowrie

A parish on the west border of the barony of Upper Bunratty, 1¼ mile east of Ennis, Co. Clare, Munster. Length, westward, 3¾ miles; breadth, from ¾ to 3; area, 5,927 acres, 3 roods, 37 perches, of which 502 acres, 1 rood, 15 perches form a detached district, 7 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches are tideway of the river Fergus, and 2 acres, 1 rood, 1 perch are tideway of the river Ardsollus. Pop., in 1831, 2,099; in 1841, 2,365. Houses 370. A considerable portion of the surface is bog and upland pasture; and the rest of the land is, for the most part, pretty good. The river Quin drains the detached district south-westward to the Fergus. Moreisk, the seat of Lord Fitzgerald and Vesey, stands on the northern border; and Castle-Fergus, the seat of William Smith, Esq., stands on the Quin river. The other seats are Maryfield and Kilbrekanbeg. The principal hamlets are Dowry and Ballaghboy. This parish is a rectory and a vicarage, in the diocese of Killaloe. The rectory is part of the benefice of OGASHIN; and the vicarage is part of the benefice of QUIN. The rectorial tithes are compounded for £102 9s. 3d., and the vicarial for £92 6s. 1¾d. A glebe attached to the vicarages is worth £22 10s. a-year. The Roman Catholic chapel has an attendance of 300; and, in the Roman Catholic parochial arrangement, is united to the chapels of Quin and Cloney. In 1834, the parishioners consisted of 15 Churchmen, 7 Protestant dissenters, and 2,231 Roman Catholics; and there was no school.

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