Monaghan (Muineachán in Irish) is a town in the Republic of Ireland, the administrative capital of County Monaghan. The name derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning "brake" (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes "hillock". The county council's preferred interpretation is "land of the little hills", a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area. In 2002 Monaghan town had a recorded population of just under 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.

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. It is a centre for the timber-frame house building industry and has a large furniture manufacturing industry. There is a campaign to boost tourism by reopening the Ulster Canal in a scheme which would eventually allow boats to travel from Northern Irish towns such as Newry and Coleraine by way of Monaghan to places as far south as Limerick as well as to Dublin.

See also

• List of towns in the Republic of Ireland

External links

• Architecture of Monaghan
• Justice for the Forgotten
• Tourism information
• Ulster Canal Reopening Campaign