DRUMCANNON, a parish, in the barony of MIDDLETHIRD, county of WATERFORD, and province of MUNSTER, on the high road from Waterford to Tramore; containing, with the post-town of Tramore, 4835 inhabitants.
It is situated on the northern and western shores of the bay of Tramore, and comprises 7137 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act. The surface is rather undulating, and rises into two hills of considerable elevation, called Carriglong and Pickardstown. The land, notwithstanding its exposure to the sea, is productive, and the system of agriculture is improving; there is a considerable portion of peat bog, and at Pickardstown is a quarry of flagstone, but not worked to any great extent. At the head of the bay of Tramore is a tract of about 1000 plantation acres, called the Back Strand; it is partly defended from the encroachment of the sea by a bar raised by the opposing influences of the tide and the land streams, and stretching from Newtown Head towards Brownstown Head, to the latter of which it is in contemplation to extend it by an artificial embankment.
The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Waterford, partly impropriate in the Misses Hardy, and in the patronage of the Archbishop of Cashel:
- the tithes amount to £600, of which, £70 is payable to the impropriators and the remainder to the incumbent.
- The glebe-house was built at the same time, and both by aid of a gift of £250, and a loan of £938, from the late Board of First Fruits; the glebe comprises 10 acres.
- The church, situated in Tramore, was built in 1809; it is a small edifice, and application has been made for its enlargement.
In the R. C. divisions the parish is the head of a union or district, called Tramore, and comprising also the parish of Corbally; the chapel is at Tramore, and there is another in Corbally.
Here is a school endowed with £10 per ann. by the late Mrs. Quinn and £3 from R. P. Ronayne, Esq.; also a school supported by local subscriptions: in these are about 60 boys and 70 girls; and there are also three private schools, in which are about 80 boys and 20 girls, and a Sunday school.
An alms-house for 12 poor men and 12 women has been founded at Tramore, under the will of the late Mrs. Catherine Walsh, of that town; and the late J. Power, Esq., of Newtown, bequeathed property amounting to about £3000 for charitable uses, which has not yet been rendered available.
