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Monaghan (Irish: Muineachán) is a town in the Republic of Ireland, the administrative capital of County Monaghan. Monaghan means "land of the little hills", a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area. Monaghan town has a population of 6,000 people.
The centre of the town is made up of four interconnecting squares: Market Square (or Street), Church Square, The Diamond, and Old Cross Square. Sited in Market Square is the Market House (built 1792), now an art gallery. The County Museum, which has won the Council of Europe Award for its display of history and archaeology, is located nearby. The most outstanding building of all is St Macartan's Cathedral with its wonderful rose window and spire.
Monaghan is a centre for the timber-frame house building industry and has a large furniture manufacturing industry.
Charles Gavin Duffy, the first premier of New South Wales in Australia, was a former resident of Monaghan.
On 17 May 1974 seven people died in a terrorist incident in the town when a car bomb exploded during the Friday evening rush hour. This was one of the few incidents in the Republic during The Troubles in Northern Ireland; another bomb exploded on the same day in Dublin.
Today the town is a prosperous and growing one. There is a campaign to resurrect tourism through the reopening of the Ulster Canal which will eventually allow boats to travel from Northern Irish towns such as Newry and Coleraine through Monaghan and to places as far South as Limerick and to Dublin also.
- See also: List of towns in the Republic of Ireland
- External links: Justice for the Forgotten (http://www.dublinmonaghanbombings.org), Tourism information (http://www.monaghantourism.com/monaghan.asp), Architecture of Monaghan (http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/monaghan/monaghan/index.html), Ulster Canal Reopening Campaign (http://www.ulstercanal.org/)
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