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DRUMGATH
a parish. in the baronv of UPPER IVEAGH, county of DOWN, and province
of ULSTER, on the road from Downpatrick to Newry, containing, with the
greater part of the post-town of Rathfriland (which is separately described),
4448 inhabitants. According to the Ordnance survey, it comprises 5330
and a half statute acres, of which about 100 are bog. It is a vicarage,
in the diocese of Dromore, and patronage of the Bishop, the rectory forms
part of the union of Clonallon, and corps of the chancellorship of Dromore
cathe- dral. The tithes amount to £258, of which £168. 13.4.
is payable to the chancellor, and £89. 6. 8. to the vicar. There
is a glebe-house, with a glebe of 150 acres. The church, which is in Rathfriland,
is a neat building, for the repair of which the late Board of First Fruits
lent £150, in 1829, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently
given £119. The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Established
Church, and has chapels at Rathfriland, Barnmeen, and Drumgath. In Rathfriland
is a large and handsome meeting-house for Presbyterians, in connection
with the Synod of Ulster, of the first class, and a second is now being
built, there is also one in connection with the Seceding Synod, of the
second class, and one each for Covenanters, Wesleyan Methodists, and the
Society of Friends. About 350 children are educated in two public and
two private schools. Some ruins of the ancient church exist in a large
burial-ground, and a curious antique bell was found in a bog in 1764.
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