The following explanation as to why a Limerick man such as Fr. Quaid was appointed administrator for a parish in Co. Clare may be already known to you, but it was new to me: in her article, “Rev. Jonathan Furlong – Sagart na Gaeilge – (1799-1857)” in The Other Clare, Vol. 27, (2003), Eilís Ní Dheá (writing in Irish) explains that Fr. Furlong was a Limerick man, but was appointed a priest in the Killaloe diocese because of a shortage of priests there in the early part of the 19th century. This was because of the great increase in the population. She quotes Ignatius Murphy (The Diocese of Killaloe 1850-1904 p 450): “by 1800 each priest was serving close to 3,500 people”. As late as 1834, there were three parishes still without a priest.
Ignatius Murphy says,
Sheilathe bishops also set out to recruit priests who had been ordained for other dioceses. Most of them were from Limerick and Ossary ….I have identified eight Limerick and six Ossary priests who arrived in Killaloe in the 1820’s and 1830’s and were incardinated as priests of the diocese….
The priests who opted to join Killaloe in the 1820’s and the early 1830’s included men who made a strong impact in the diocese, Patrick Quaid, Patrick Sheehy, Jonathan Furlong and Patrick O’Meally … (Murphy, Ignatiius, The Diocese of Killaloe 1850-1904, pp 397-8)