Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Lissapharson in Galway ; of the parish priest. See vol. ii. p. 57 [reproduced below]. Perhaps he celebrated open-air Masses in the old fort.
Parson. Of the two English words person and parson, we know that the first is derived from the Latin persona, and according to some, the second is derived from the same word. We have in Irish two corresponding words. One, perso or persu, genitive persan, meaning a person or an individual, is merely the Latin persona, borrowed; but it was borrowed at a very early age, for we find it in the very oldest manuscripts, such as those quoted by Zeuss, Lebor na h-Uidhre, etc. The other, pearsún [parsoon], corresponding with the English parson, is used in the colloquial language to signify the priest of a parish, a clergyman who has the care of souls. Some would perhaps consider that pearsún is the representative of the ancient loan-word perso; but I think it has been borrowed direct from the English parson in its special sense. The termination ún is indeed presumptive evidence of this, for when it occurs in Irish, it generally marks a word taken straight from the English. We know that in Ireland the English word parson has latterly been restricted to the rectors of the late Established Church; but pearsún was applied to a Roman Catholic parish priest, showing that it was borrowed before parson began to be used in its special Irish sense; though in later times, it has begun, like parson, to be restricted to Protestant clergymen. There is a parish in Limerick four miles east of the city, taking its name from a townland called Carrigparson, the rock of the parish priest, probably marking the spot where a priest lived, or perhaps where Mass used to be celebrated in times gone by. This name has been in use for more than 300 years; and the rock is to be seen close by the ruin of the old church, not far from the present chapel. Ballyfarsoon near Monasterevin in Kildare - Baile-an-phearsúin, the town of the parson - probably got its name from being tenanted by a parish priest; there is a place called Monaparson, the parson's bog, on the Clyda river, just by the railway, four miles south of Mallow; and Knockapharsoon (knock, a hill) lies four miles north of Fethard in Tipperary.