Clones

Clones, a market town of Co. Monaghan, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 64½ m. S.W. by W. from Belfast, and 93½ m. N.W. from Dublin by the Great Northern railway, on which system it is an important junction, the lines from Dublin, from Belfast, from Londonderry and Enniskillen, and from Cavan converging here. Pop. of urban district (1901), 2068. The town has a considerable agricultural trade, and there are corn mills and manufactures of agricultural implements. A former lace-making industry is extinct. The market-place, called the Diamond, occupies the summit of the slight elevation on which the town is situated. Clones was the seat of an abbey founded in the 6th century by St Tighernach (Tierney), to whom the Protestant parish church is dedicated. Remains of the abbey include a nave and tower of the 12th century, and a curious shrine formed out of a great block of red sandstone. Other antiquities are a round tower of rude masonry, 75 ft. high but lacking the cap; a rath, or encampment, and an ancient market cross in the Diamond.

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