•  Moydow, County Longford

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In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Moydow like this:

MOYDOW, a parish, in the barony of MOYDOW, county of LONGFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 3 ¼ miles (S.) from Longford, on the road to Athlone; containing 1766 inhabitants. Here is supposed to have been the abbey of Kilmhodain, of which St. Modan or Moduid "the Simple," who was bishop of Carnfurbuidhe, was abbot in 591. ...

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The parish comprises 4577 ½ statute acres, of which about 203 are bog: the land is in general good, and the state of agriculture improving. A peculiar kind of stone, called pudding-stone, is found on the isolated mountain of Slieve Gouldry, on the southern confines of the parish; and there is a quarry of freestone, which is worked for flags. Road sessions are occasionally held here for the district; and there is a station of the constabulary police. The scats are Mount Jessop, the residence of F. Jessop, Esq., pleasantly situated on a small river which flows through the demesne, and which, having been widened, adds much to the beauty of the scenery; Townend, of Jeffrey Keating Power, Esq.; Castleray, of Mrs. Bole; Bawn House, the property of — Fox, Esq., now the residence of Arthur A. Griffith, Esq.; and the glebe-house, of the Rev. W. C. Armstrong, to which a fine demesne is attached. It is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Ardagh; the rectory is partly impropriate in Messrs. Ponsonby and Palliser, and partly with the vicarage episcopally united to the rectory and vicarage of Teighshynod, in the patronage of the Bishop. The tithes amount to £193. 13. 1., of which £2. 14. 10. is payable to the impropriators, and the remainder to the vicar. The glebe comprises 58 ½ acres, valued at £117. 2. 6. per annum, and there is also a glebe in the parish of Teighshynod: the gross value of the benefice, tithe and glebes inclusive, is £533. 12. per annum. The glebe-house was built in 1830, at an expense of £840 Irish, of which £600 was a loan, and £200 a gift, from the late Board of First Fruits. The church is a small plain building without a tower, erected about 80 years since, and was repaired in 1831, by aid of a loan of £50 from the same Board. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union of Ardagh, and has a chapel at Moydow. In the parochial school, partly supported by the incumbent, and partly by the Ardagh Association, about 70 children are educated; and there are three private schools, in which are about 150 children. At the base of Slieve Gouldry are the remains of an ancient castle, formerly belonging to the O'Ferralls. There is a chalybeate spring, but not much used for medicinal purposes.

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