' KILKENNY, CITY OF (Gael. "Church of St. Kenny, or Canice"), the capital of the county of that name, and a county of itself, is situated on the river Xore, 73 in. s.s.w. from Dublin by the Great Southern and Western railway. Pop. of city in 1861, 14,174; in 1871 it had decreased nearly 10 per cent, being only 12,710 (of whom 11,369 were Catholics, 1181 Episcopalians, and 80 Presbyterians); pop. '71, of parliamentary borough, 15,748. The county of the city comprises an area of 17,012 acres, of which 16,091 are external to the city. Kilkenny returns one member to the imperial parlia ment. This city owes its origin to the cathedral church of the diocese of Ossory, which dates from the 12th century. Almost from the time of the invasion Kilkenny was a. seat of the English power, its castle dating from the time of William earl of Pembroke, in 1195. From an early date Kilkenny was a place of much political impor tance, as well as the seat of numerous religious establishments. Being seated on the southern frontier of the pale, it was strongly walled in the end of the 14th c., and several parliaments were held in it, of which the most notable was that of 1367, in which was enacted the well-known "statute of Kilkenny," the great nucleus of all the distinctively English legislation for Ireland. The cathedral dates in part front the 13th
c.; and the abbey church of St. John's, called the Black Abbey, has been partially restored, and is one of the very few ancient Irish churches now in actual occupation for the religious use of the Roman Catholics. A handsome Roman Catholic cathedral also has been recently completed. The so-called college or grammar-school of Kilkenny was founded by the Butlers in the 16th c., and was further endowed by the great duke of Ormond. St. Kyran's college is an educational establishment for the Roman Catholics, and is interesting as one of the first opened by that religious community after the repeal of the law which made Catholic education penal in these countries. Kilkenny formerly possessed considerable manufactures of blankets and coarse woolen and linen cloths, but of late they have much declined. It is the seat of tolerably extensive marble works, and has a large and active provision-trade, the chief outlet of which is Water ford, with which Kilkenny is connected both by river and by the Kilkenny and Water ford railway