At fair Brook was an extensive paper-manufactory, affording employment to about 140 persons, it is now a manufactory for blankets, and at Pouldrew are a large cornmill and stores: the river Suir is here navigable for vessels of considerable burthen. There is a constabulary police station at the village, and near it is a chalybeate spring. The principal seat is Mount Congreve.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Waterford, and is patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is appropriate to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and to the deanery, chancellorship, and treasurership of the cathedral of Waterford. The tithe rent is £297.3., of which £169.13. are divided among the appropriators, and the remainder to the vicar.
There is a glebe-house, for the erection of which the Board of First Fruits, in 1807, gave £100 and lent £380: and a glebe of 11a. 22p. is attached to the vicarage, as is also a glebe of 15 acres which until lately belonged to the rectory. The late church was a plain building of great antiquity; a new edifice has recently built upon its site, at a cost of £558, paid from funds of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Roman Catholic Parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church, and contains a chapel. The parochial school is aided by an annual donation from Viscount Doneraile, and another school is aided by Mrs Christmas; they afford instruction to about 70 children.