CARRICKMACROSS a market and post-town, and a parish, in the barony of FARNEY, county of MONAGHAN, and province of ULSTER, 20 miles (S. E. by S.) from Monaghan town This place derives its name from its situation on a rock and from one of its early proprietors, and is the only town in the barony. The barony was granted by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex, who resided in the castle here, part of the walls of which are still standing in the garden of W. Daniel, Esq. It was leased by the Earl to Mr. Barton, whose wife and children were burnt, with the castle, by the insurgents of 1641, while he was attending his parliamentary duties in Dublin, as representative of the county of Monaghan.
The town is situated on the mail coach road from Dublin to Londonderry, and, consists of one principal street, with some smaller streets or lanes branching from it.; and contains about 560 houses, many of which are of respectable appearance. A considerable retail trade is carried on with the surrounding country; and soap, candles, brogues, and coarse hats, are manufactured in the town, in which there are also a tan-yard, a brewery (employing 100 men), and a distillery.
The parish, which is also called Magheross, contains, according to the Ordnance survey, 16,702¼ statute acres, including 299 of water, 15,068 acres are applotted under the tithe act, and there is a great quantity of bog. In the vicinity of the town are several lime kilns, and the land has been greatly improved by the extensive use of lime as a manure. Mr. Shirley supplies his tenants at about half the usual price from his kilns, in which about 8000 barrels were burnt in 1835. The principal lakes are Loch Mac-na-ree, Lisdronturk, Corvalley, and Chantinee Loch, only part of which is in this parish. Coal exists, but is not worked at present; but good limestone and freestone are quarried for building.
The living is a. vicarage, in the diocese of Clogher, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in Col. Willcox : the tithes amount to £969. 4s. 7½ d., of which £323. 1s. 6½ d., is payable to the impropriator, and £646. 3s. 1d., to the vicar. The church is a neat stone edifice with a tower and spire, having a good clock with four dials. The remains of the old church are still standing : it was built in 1682, to replace the one that was destroyed by fire in 1641. There is a glebe-house, with a glebe of l12 acres. The Roman Catholic parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church, and is the benefice of the Bishop of Clogher, who resides in the town : there are three chapels, situated at Corduff mountain, Corcreagh, and Carrickmacross, the last of chicly is a, handsome building, erected in 1783.
MONAGHAN, an incorporated market-town and parish, the chief town of the county, and formerly a parliamentary borough, in the barony and county of MONAGHAN, and province of ULSTER, 12¼ miles, (W. S. W.) from Armagh city, and a 60 (N. N. W,) from Dublin city, on the mail coach road to Londonderry.
This place, till within a comparatively modern period, was distinguished only by a monastery, of which St. Moclodius, the son of Aedh, was abbot; and which, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, was plundered in 830 and again in 931. It appears from the same authority to have flourished for more than two centuries, and the names of its Abbots, deans, and archdeacons (among the former of whom was Elias, the principal of all the monks of Ireland, who died in Cologne in 1042) are regularly preserved till the yeare 1161, after which date no further mention of it occurs. Phelim Mac Mason, in 1462, founded on the site of the ancient abbey a monastery for Conventual Franciscans, which at the dissolution was granted to Edward Withe; but even at that time no place deserving the name of a village had arisen near the monastery, and the whole of this part of the country, under its native chiefs, the Mac Mahons, still retains the ancient customs.
About the commencement of the 17th century, Sir Edward Blayney, who had been appointed seneschal of the county, erected a small fort here which he garrisoned with one company of foot; and on the approaching settlement of Ulster, when the Lord-Deputy came to this place to make some arrangements respecting the forfeited lands, it was so destitute of requisite habitations, that he was under the necessity of pitching tents for his accommodation. On this occasion the Lord-Deputy was attended by the Lord-Chancellor and judges of assize, and by the attorney- general, the celebrated Sir John Davies, who describes the place as consisting only of a few scattered cabins, occupied chiefly by the retired soldiers of Sir Edward Blayney's garrison. Besides that fort, which was on the north side of the village, he notices another in the, centre of it, which had been raised only 10 or 20 feet above the ground, and was then lying in a neglected state, although £1200 had been expended on it by the King as a means of retaining the native inhabitants of the district in subjection. The Lord-Deputy divided several neighbouring “ballibetaghs'' among the soldiers residing in the town; and as the fort at this time depended on Newry for its supplies, which, from the hostility of the intervening country, were frequently precarious, he granted to Sir Edward Blayney a portion of land on which he erected the fortress of Castle Blayney. In 1611, Sir Edward obtained the grant of a market and fair; and the town, which now began to increase in population and extent, was, in 1613, made a parliamentary borough, and the inhabitants were incorporated by a charter of Jas. I., under the designation of the "Provost, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Borough of Monaghan”
The town consists of one principal square in the centre, called the diamond, in which is the linen-hall, and of another spacious opening in which is the market- house, and of three streets diverging from the principal square in a triangular direction; the total number of houses is about 580.
A large house in the square called the Diamond is said to occupy the site of an ancient castle; and in the rear of it are some old walls, said to be the remains of the old abbey, the cemetery attached appears to have been very extensive. In levelling the ground in front of the old gaol, human bones and a skull of unusually large size were discovered.
This parish, called also "Rackwallis,'' comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 13,547½ statute acres of which 12,758 are applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £23,013. 13s. 2d. per ann.; 26½ acres are water, and the remainder principally under tillage. The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Clogher, and in the patronage of the Bishop : the tithes amount to £553. 16s. 11d.