Fore in 1839

The village of Fore or Fowre, or, more accurately, of St. Feighan of Fowre, is in the barony of Demifore, not far from Lough Lane.

Though now only a small village, it was anciently of importance.

A monastery for regular canons was founded here in the seventh century, and is said to have contained, a few years after its foundation, 3,000 monks.

This monastery, after having been repeatedly destroyed by fire, was re-founded in the beginning of the thirteenth century by Walter de Lacy, for Benedictine monks.

There are still some remains of the abbey, and there is an ancient and massive building, supposed to have been a hermitage.

In the fifteenth century considerable pains were taken to fortify the town, which had acquired the privileges of a corporate borough.

There are the ruins of several square towers, two of the gates, and traces of the town wall, the extent of which shows its former size.

Fowre was a borough by prescription, and returned two members to the Irish parliament, until it was disfranchised by the Union.

The village had, in 1831, 19 houses and 119 inhabitants.