About County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county of drumlins, the low rounded hills left by the last ice age that give the landscape a rumpled, intimate quality. The county sits at the cultural border between Ulster and Leinster, its character shaped by centuries of interaction between Gaelic and Planter traditions. Monaghan has produced a remarkable concentration of poets, most famously Patrick Kavanagh, whose work drew its imagery from these small fields and quiet roads.
History
Monaghan was the territory of the MacMahon clan, one of the great Ulster families. It was divided by the Ulster Plantation into several new settlements, creating the patchwork of communities that still characterises the county. Its position on the modern border between the Republic and Northern Ireland has given it a particular sensitivity to questions of identity and belonging.
How Monaghan families left Ireland
Monaghan families emigrated through Dundalk and Belfast, many going to industrial cities in America and Scotland. The linen industry that had sustained many families collapsed in the 19th century, and emigration became the only option for thousands.
Places worth visiting in County Monaghan
- Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen, celebrating the poet who made these small fields immortal
- Clones, the ancient monastic town with a remarkable round tower and high cross
- Rossmore Forest Park, the demesne of the Rossmore family, its wooded walks surrounding a ruined castle
- Monaghan town, with its elegant 19th century buildings reflecting the prosperity of the linen era
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