Introduction to Monaghan
Monaghan is truly the crossroads of Ireland. This pleasant, sheltered county is positioned at the top of Southern Ireland, between the counties of Armagh and Fermanagh. Monaghan is known as "The County of Little Hills" as there are really no high hills, just lots of little ones forming a gentle rolling countryside.
A Brief History of Monaghan
In the old Gaelic system of land division, Monaghan was part of the Kingdom of Oriel. lt was also known as McMahon's country after the dominant family of the area. The McMahons and their allies, the McKennas and O'Connollys, maintained effective domination of the county even after the arrival of the Normans in the twelfth century. The county boundaries were not established by the English administration until the late sixteenth century.
After the defeat of the rebellion of O'Neil and the Ulster chieftains in 1603, the county was not planted like the other counties of Ulster. The lands were instead left in the hands of the native chieftains. In 1641 the McMahons and their allies joined the general rebellion of Irish Catholics, and following their defeat there was some plantation of the county with Scottish and English families.
Analysis of the Hearth Money Rolls of 1663 shows that the commonest names in the county at the time (in descending order) were McMahon, McKenna, O'Duffy, O'Connolly, McCabe, McWard, McArdle, McIlmartin, O'Byrne, O'Callan, McCallan, O'Kelly, O'Murphy, McNancy, McTreanor, O'Gowan or McGowan, O'Boylan, McIlcollin, O'Finnegan, O'Cassidy, and McPhilip.
The McCabes were a gallowglas, or mercenary, family probably brought into the county by the McMahons following the Norman invasion. The O'Byrnes, who are relatively numerous in the county, are probably descendants of the Kildare or Wicklow O'Byrnes. This family was driven from it's Kildare territories by the Normans in the late twelfth century. lt is suggested that part of this clan may have migrated into Monaghan.
The major settlers in the county were Scottish farmers brought over from the area of Strathclyde. Common names among these settlers were McAndrew, Mackay, Sinclair, Stewart, Buchanan, McKenzie, Davidson, Ferguson, Blackshaw, McCraig, Walker, Cameron, Gordon, Patterson, and McCutcheon.
Famine: The direct impact of the famine was almost entirely confined to the cottier classes. They hired land on conacre (for eleven months) on which they grew their potatoes. Generally they lived in a cabin constructed of sods, or mud, erected on waste ground or on the roadside. Their children married young as the only capital required to start a family was a spade and a baket of seed potatoes. The husband would spend the summer working as a "basket" or migratory farm labourer. The wife and children often took to the road begging. This was possible because potatoes were a low maintenance crop, not requiring much attendance after planting. It was necessary because by that time the last years crop would have been gone, so the critical period was the months before the new crop was ready.
The famine hit hardest in the west where the land was poorest, the population hightest, and alternative sources of employment were lacking. It can also be associated with economic changes, Irish agriculture was moving away from tillage, which was labour intensive, towards livestock farming which was not. The flax industry would have provided employment and an alternative source of income for many, but there would still have been a significant number of cottiers who depended totally on the potato on Aughnamullen.
Areas of Interest in Monaghan
Clones Round Tower, High Cross and Church
An old monastery was founded here by St. Tighernach in the 6th century. The high Cross probably stood near the Round Tower originally and was later moved to its present position in the Diamond. The cross (9th century?) is in two parts which did not belong together originally. On the west face are Adam and Eve, the Sacrifice of Isaac and Daniel in the Lions' Den, while on the east face are the Adoration of the Magi, the Marriage Feast of Cana, the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes and the Crucifixion, and there are panels with geometrical decoration on the two sides. Further down the town is the graveyard with the Round Tower. The Round Tower is retained to a height of about 75 feet, and has a square headed door and windows. Nearby is a shrine in the shape of a house, with interesting finials, called St. Tighernach's Shrine. It is carved out of one stone. Tradition says that there is a vault underneath it, in which bodies were placed having been taken from their coffins which were later destroyed beside the shrine. In a churchyard not far away is 'The Abbey' which is the 12th century nave of a nave and chancel church. It has a chancel arch and a round-headed window. The stones of the arch have been removed except for two springing stones which were probably shaped in the form of animal heads. In both of these graveyards there are a number of most individual 17th and 18th century gravestones, some giving an indication of the profession of the person buried beneath, others having skulls, crossbones, hour-glasses etc. On the north-western side of the town is a motte and bailey reached by a tarred pathway.
Clones Round Tower
Clones Round Tower, High Cross and Church The round tower is 75 feet, with a square headed doors and windows. Nearby is a shrine known as "St. Tighernach's shrine," which is carved out of stone. The shrine is named after St. Tighernach who founded a monastery in Clones in the 6th century, which the tower, cross and church belonged. The cross is in two parts which did not belong together originally. On one side are the sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the Lions' Den and Adam and Eve. On the opposite side are the multipication of the loaves and fishes, the wedding feast at Cana and the adoration of the Magi. The other two sides are decorated with geometric symbols. The cross is believed to originate from the 9th century. Not far from this is the "Abbey" the remains of a 12th century church. The 17th and 18th century gravestones depict skulls, cross bones- indicating their professions?
Drumbanagher Hill
The first significant hill outside Glaslough on the Emyvale road, right, is Drumbanagher Hill, site of a 10th century Viking fort, probably established as a springboard from which to attack Old Donagh Church. The opening shots of the war between James II and William III of England were fired here in 1688. William's victory in that war, which was secured at Aughrim in Galway in 1691, opened the door for the most repressive Penal Laws in 1695, which restricted the rights of Catholics to education and the practice of their religion, forbade them from carrying arms and stipulated that a Catholic could not own a horse worth more than £5.00.
St. Louis Convent Heritage Centre
The St. Louis story is told in the framework of Irish, European and world history, but is particularly linked with Monaghan itself from post famine times.
Corracrin Church
South of the village of Emyvale on the Dublin road is Corracrin Church. Buried in the churchyard is Canon Patrick Moynagh, a priest who orchestrated emigration from here to Prince Edward Island in the years immediately preceding the famine of 1845. Strong ties between Emyvale and Prince Edward Island in Canada exist to this day.
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was born (1904) and raised in the townland of Mucker, Inniskeen. The oldest of ten children, he followed in his father's footsteps - a cobbler and small farmer. His formal education ended at the age of twelve, but he carried on with his own special interest in literature and writing poetry and sometimes had his poems published in the Dundalk Democrat and Weekly Independent.
He worked as a cobbler-farmer until his father died 1929. Soon after Kavanagh left the parish of Inniskeen and moved to Dublin in the hope of developing his writing career. His home community doubted his ability to write and he was branded an outcast.
The move to Dublin in 1930 was not much of an improvement, as competition among new writers was high. However, with the help of the editor of the Irish Statesman, George Russell, Kavanagh's career blossomed. In 1937, Kavanagh moved to London in search of literary work. There he wrote and published the autobiographical 'The Green Fool' in 1938.
Kavanagh returned to Dublin in August 1939 where he worked as a journalist. In the early forties his poems began to attract attention. In 1942, 'The Great Hunger' appeared in 'Horizon', a literary magazine - the Gardai seized all copies, on the order of the Minister of Justice, as the poem was alleged to be obscene. It now seen as the highest point in Kavanagh's artistic development! The novel 'Tarry Flynn' was published in 1948.
Patrick Kavanagh became seriously ill in 1967 and died of pneumonia in Dublin on the 30th November 1967. He is buried in Inniskeen.
Traditional Music and Craic in Monaghan