Monaghan

Coordinates: 54°14′52″N 06°58′15″W / 54.24778°N 6.97083°W / 54.24778; -6.97083
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Monaghan (disambiguation).

Monaghan
Muineachán (Irish)
Town
Monaghan Courthouse
Monaghan Courthouse
Eircode routing key
H18
Telephone area code+353(0)47
Irish Grid ReferenceH666337

Monaghan (/ˈmɒnəhən/ MON-ə-hən;[2] Irish: Muineachán[3] [ˈmˠɪnʲəxaːnˠ]) is the county town of County Monaghan, Ireland. It also provides the name of its civil parish and barony.

The population of the town as of the 2022 census was 7,894.[1] The town is on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Letterkenny.[4]

Dublin Street, Monaghan

Etymology

The Irish name Muineachán derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning "brake" (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes "hillock". The Irish historian and writer Patrick Weston Joyce interpreted this as "a place full of little hills or brakes".[5] Monaghan County Council's preferred interpretation is "land of the little hills", a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area.

History

Early history

The Menapii Celtic tribe are specifically named on

Manannan mac Lir
. They spread across Ireland, evolving into historic Irish (also Scottish and Manx) clans.

The northwestern side of St Macartan's Cathedral in Monaghan.

The

Nine Years War and the Tudor conquest of Ireland
.

In 1801, Monaghan Town, along with the rest of the Rossmore Estate, became the property of the Westenra family.

neo-Jacobean style of architecture.[6]

Second World War.[6]: 483  The ruins of the castle were blown up by Monaghan County Council in 1974.[6]
: 483 

Transport

The

River Blackwater at Moy with the River Erne near Clones was built between 1825 and 1842. By the time it was completed, competition in the form of the Ulster Railway from Belfast to Clones was already under construction.[7]
The canal was never a commercial success and was formally abandoned in 1931.

The Ulster Railway linked Monaghan with

Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway at Clones in 1863.[7]: Map 8  It became part of the Great Northern Railway in 1876.[7]: xiii  The partition of Ireland in 1922 turned the boundary with County Armagh into an international frontier, after which trains were routinely delayed by customs inspections. In 1957 the Government of Northern Ireland made the GNR Board close the line between Portadown and the border, giving the GNRB no option but to withdraw passenger services between the border and Clones as well.[7]: Map 39  CIÉ took over the remaining section of line between Clones, Monaghan and Glaslough in 1958 but withdrew goods services between Monaghan and Glaslough in 1959 and between Clones and Monaghan in 1960, leaving Monaghan with no railway service.[7]
: Map 39 

Twentieth century

In February 1919 the first self-consciously proclaimed soviet in the United Kingdom was established at Monaghan Lunatic Asylum.[8] This led to the claim by Joseph Devlin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom that "the only successfully conducted institutions in Ireland are the lunatic asylums".[9]

On 17 May 1974 an

Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) claimed responsibility in 1993.

A monument in memory of the victims was unveiled by the eighth President of Ireland Mary McAleese on 17 May 2004, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the atrocity. The sandstone and metal column containing seven light wells bearing the names of each of the seven victims of the bombing was designed by Ciaran O'Cearnaigh and stands as a reminder of one of the darkest days in Ireland's modern history.

Culture

Monaghan Leisure Complex, built in 2005.

Monaghan continues to host one of Ireland's most prestigious and established blues festivals,[12] the Harvest Time Blues Festival. It is hosted every September across Monaghan town.[13]

The Fiddler of Oriel Muineachán Competition (also known as Féile Oriel) first held in 1969 returned in 2009 to celebrate its fortieth anniversary.

Bank Holiday
weekend.

Founded in 1974, Monaghan County Museum is recognised as one of the leading provincial museums in Ireland, with a prestigious Council of Europe Award conferred in 1980, among others, to its credit. The museum is located in a mid-Victorian stone building of three stories, formerly two separate town houses, on Hill Street. It aims to acquaint its visitors with the history of County Monaghan and its people.

The Garage Theatre is an arts facility located on the Monaghan Education Campus. It hosts a wide range of activities including drama, music, dance and film.[15]

The town is home to Monaghan United Football Club, formerly of the League of Ireland Premier Division.

Local government

Monaghan Town Hall

Local issues are dealt with by the Monaghan Municipal Council which elects six members, all of which are elected as members of Monaghan County Council. The town forms part of the Monaghan ward for local elections for elections to Monaghan County Council and part of the Cavan–Monaghan constituency for elections to Dáil Éireann. Monaghan Town Hall is a former bank branch dating from around 1880.[16]

The largest party on the municipal council is Sinn Féin, which holds two of six seats. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil each hold one seat and there are two independent members.[citation needed]

Town layout and architecture

The centre of the town is made up of four interconnecting squares: Market Square (or Street), Church Square, The Diamond and Old Cross Square.

St. Patrick's Church of Ireland

Dating from the seventeenth century, the oldest remaining architectural feature in Monaghan town is the "Old Cross" – located in Old Cross Square. It is not fully agreed that it is in fact a cross, but may in fact have been a seventeenth-century sundial. It was originally located in the Diamond, the traditional centre of the town, and was used as a hiring cross and for the attaching of proclamations. It was moved to its present location in 1876 to allow for the construction of the Rossmore Memorial. Two landmark buildings remain from the eighteenth century, Aviemore House (built in 1760) on Mill Street and the "extremely elegant" Market House (from 1792) on Market Square.[17]: 16 

Monaghan is notable for the quality of its nineteenth-century architecture, which adds a sense of dignity to the attractive town centre and its environs. Of its Victorian buildings, the

Joseph Welland
and built in 1830, is the most stately. With its sandstone facade of Doric columns supporting a pediment that bears the royal arms of the House of Hanover, Monaghan Courthouse constitutes an integral part of Church Square.

The Rossmore Memorial in The Diamond was built in 1876 as a memorial to The 4th Baron Rossmore, who died after a hunting accident at Windsor Castle in 1874. This Victorian monument, described by architectural historian C.E.B. Brett as "formidable and striking"[17]: 10  is octagonal in shape, with central marble columns supporting a fountain. Around it, the eight grey columns support the pinnacled superstructure which rises to a dome. The dome is surmounted by a spire supported by yet more columns. The letters of Rossmore (also eight in number) are spaced out around the monument.

St Macartan's Cathedral

The Gothic-Revival

St Macartan's Cathedral by James Joseph McCarthy is recognised as being "one of McCarthy's best works: an excellent example of the High Victorian ecclesiastical style at its best, rich without ever being over-ornate".[17]: 26  The building comprises a delicate rose window and an impressive soaring spire and took over thirty years to complete. Construction work began in 1861 and the cathedral was finally dedicated in 1892. Originally the nave was intended to be two bays longer but lack of funds meant that the design was cut back. The Cathedral sits on an imposing site overlooking the town. Occupying a similarly commanding site on the opposite side of the town is St Macartan's College for boys (from 1840), a 17-bay classical structure with a bell tower and private chapel, by the Newry-born architect Thomas Duff
.

Church Square, Monaghan

Church Square is very much an environment in which the civic pride of Victorian improvers lives on in the satisfying essay in the Ruskinian-Gothic style that is the Bank of Ireland building, as much as in the peaks of St. Patrick's Church of Ireland and the Dawson Obelisk. One of the most interesting aspects of Monaghan's Victorian architectural heritage, which also includes the former railway station, the Orange Hall on North Road and the Westenra Hotel on the Diamond, is the rounded corners that connect the town's buildings from one street or square to the next. This practice of rounding corners in order to open up panoramic vistas was carried out with unprecedented frequency in the town of Monaghan, and is still reflected today in the edifices of The Diamond, Church Square and Mill Street, helping to secure Monaghan's status as one of Ulster's more attractive large towns.

Economy

The town is a centre for the timber-frame house building industry with

materials handling market.[20]

There is a campaign to boost tourism by reopening the Ulster Canal in a scheme which would eventually allow boats to travel from towns in Northern Ireland, such as Newry, by way of Monaghan to places as far south as Limerick, as well as Dublin.

Monaghan once had a thriving furniture manufacturing industry. Since 1990, this has diminished greatly under global competition. However, manufacturers such as Rossmore Furniture (which took its name from Rossmore Forest Park, situated just outside the town) continue to operate from the town.

Transport

Public transport operator Bus Éireann routes 32 (Dublin/Letterkenny),[21] 65 (Galway/Athlone/Monaghan),[22] 162 (Monaghan/Dundalk),[23] 175 (Monaghan/Cootehill/Cavan),[24] 182 (Drogheda/Collon/Ardee/Monaghan)[25] all service the town.

TFI Local Link services the town via the following routes:

Notable people

See also: Category:People from Monaghan (town)

Sister city

Monaghan is twinned with Miramichi, New Brunswick.[citation needed]

Gallery

  • Entrance detail of Masonic Hall, 1989
    Entrance detail of Masonic Hall, 1989
  • Glaslough Street, 1989, looking west
    Glaslough Street, 1989, looking west
  • Glaslough Street, 1989, looking east
    Glaslough Street, 1989, looking east
  • Orange Hall, North Road, 1989
    Orange Hall, North Road, 1989
  • Monaghan railway station
    Monaghan railway station

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Interactive Data Visualisations: Towns: Monaghan". Census 2022. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Monaghan definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Muineachán/Monaghan". Placenames Database of Ireland (logainm.ie). Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  4. ^ Monaghan Health Status Report
  5. ^ Joyce, Patrick Weston (1870), Irish Local Names Explained.
  6. ^
    The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster. London: Yale
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-7153-5167-2
    .
  8. ISBN 9780745311234
    .
  9. ^ Hansard Archived 11 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 20 February 1919, accessed 18 July 2010
  10. ^ "Justice for the Forgotten". www.dublinmonaghanbombings.org. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  11. ^ "CAIN:Sutton Index of Deaths 1974". CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet). Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  12. ^ Monaghan Post, 6 September 2007. "Who's Behind the Blues? Archived 12 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine"
  13. ^ "www.HarvestBlues.ie". Archived from the original on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
  14. ^ Fiddler of Oriel Muineachán Competition Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "The Garage Theatre". The Garage Theatre. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Monaghan Town Hall, 1 Dublin Street, Roosky, Monaghan, County Monaghan". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  17. ^ a b c Brett, C.E.B. (1970). Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings and Areas of Architectural Importance in the Town of Monaghan. Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.
  18. ^ "Maurice Moffett Ltd". Archived from the original on 29 September 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  19. ^ Combilift Inc. Archived 25 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "Combilift 2. Background". Enterprise Ireland. 2010. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  21. ^ "32-1669936108.pdf" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  22. ^ "3445.pdf" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  23. ^ "875.pdf" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  24. ^ "3032.pdf" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  25. ^ "2122.pdf" (PDF). Bus Éireann. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  26. ^ "M1-Timetable-August-2023-web.pdf" (PDF). Local Link Cavan-Monaghan. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  27. ^ "M2-Timetable-August-2023-web.pdf" (PDF). Local Link Cavan-Monaghan. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  28. ^ "M3-Timetable-August-2023-web.pdf" (PDF). Local Link Cavan-Monaghan. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  29. ^ "176-Timetable-June-22-web.pdf" (PDF). Local Link Cavan-Monaghan. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  30. ^ "Birthplace of Charles Gavin Duffy, Dublin Street, ROOSKY, Monaghan, MONAGHAN". Buildings of Ireland. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  31. ^ Brett, C.E.B. "Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings and Areas of Architectural Importance in the Town of Monaghan". Belfast, Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1973, p. 28.
  32. ^ Mennell, Philip (1892). "Swan, Nathaniel Walter" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography  – via Wikisource.
  33. ^ "Ulster Medical Society: William Whitla". Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  34. ^ Baker, Audrey (2009). "Williams, Alexander". Dictionary of Irish Biography – Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monaghan.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Monaghan.
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