A visit to Castleblayney, Co Monaghan in 2019

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A visit to Castleblayney, Co Monaghan in 2019

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A slideshow of photos I took during my visit to Castleblayney in County Monaghan on Monday 8th April 2019.
Castleblayney (Irish: Baile na Lorgan) is a town in County Monaghan. Castleblayney is near the border with County Armagh and lies next to the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Letterkenny. Castleblayney had a population of 3,607 in the 2016 Census.
The town lies above the western shore of Lough Muckno, the largest lake in County Monaghan. The River Fane flows eastwards from the lake to the Irish Sea at Dundalk in County Louth. As the Irish name of the lake ('the place where pigs swim') suggests, the area is associated with the Black Pig's Dyke, also known locally in parts of Counties Cavan and Monaghan as the Worm Ditch, an ancient Iron Age boundary of Ulster.
A few miles to the north-east is the highest elevation in County Monaghan, 'Mullyash', at altitude 317 m (1,034 ft). Markets and fair days were held in the town since the 17th century, but these have faded away in recent decades.
The town of Castleblayney originated in the Tudor conquest of Gaelic Ulster in the Nine Years' War of 1594-1603. In 1611, the Crown granted forfeited lands in the area previously owned by the MacMahon chieftains to Sir Edward Blayney of Montgomeryshire in Wales for his service to Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Edward was later created The 1st Baron Blayney, in July 1621. King James I had already granted him appropriated Augustinian church land (or 'termon') at Muckno Friary on the northeastern side of the lake in the Churchill area (Mullandoy) in 1606/7. The small town 'founded' by Sir Edward Blayney in 1611 or 1612 is recorded as being called Castleblayney at least as early as 1663.
Muckno is also the name given to the Catholic parish , which is part of the Diocese of Clogher. The Church of Ireland parish is also called Muckno, and is part of the Church of Ireland Diocese of Clogher. The Parish of Muckno covers most of the areas around the lough and town. Originally the Parish of Muckno was restricted to the area to the east and north of the lake and the Derrycreevey River, i.e. the Oram area. With the establishment of the Church of Ireland church and the Blayney seat on the southern side of the lake, the area of the new town became part of Muckno. The Catholic parish followed a similar pattern at the end of the Penal Laws period.
Following the arrival of the Blayney family, the nucleus of the town developed around the original Blayney Castle, above the western shore overlooking the lough. The old monastic and parish church site fell into disrepair and largely disappeared, though it was used as a graveyard that has recently seen some restoration. For the first hundred years the 'town' was little more than a vulnerable, besieged fortification due to the widespread instability, insurgency and wars throughout Britain and Ireland for much of the 17th century.
For over one hundred and sixty years the town had its own local or Town council until May 2014. Town government began in Castleblayney on 17 May 1853 when 21 Town Commissioners were elected on foot of a proclamation by His Excellency The 3rd Earl of St Germans, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, dated 10 April 1853. In 1865 the Town Commissioners voted to bring the town under the Town Improvement (Ireland) Act 1847 and in 1899 the nine Town Commissioners were replaced by an Urban District Council, re-designated as a Town Council under the Local Government Act 2001. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 brought town government to an end replaced it with the integrated municipal district (town and rural areas) and county system.
A new €120m by-pass from Castleblayney to Clontibret opened on 5 November 2007, linking Castleblayney directly to the M1 Motorway and to Dublin. The bypass consists of 16 kilometres of 2+1 carriageway.
The town is served by Bus Éireann, Ulsterbus and several private coach companies.
Castleblayney is no longer served by railway. Castleblayney railway station opened on 15 February 1849, closed to passengers on 14 October 1957, and finally closed altogether on 1 January 1960.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Castleblayney was built in the 1850's and was dedicated in 1861. It was recently renovated between 2017 and 2018. St Maeldoid’s Church of Ireland was built between 1858 and 1860. First Castleblayney Presbyterian Church was built in 1787 and was remodelled in 1930.
The local Gaelic Athletic Association club, Castleblayney Faugh's GAC, was founded in November 1905. There are also two soccer clubs located in Castleblayney, Blayney Academy FC formed in 2010 and Blayney Rovers FC.
The town has two second-level schools, Our Lady's Castleblayney and Castleblayney College. The latter is a co-educational school which had a €5 million extension built recently.
There are five national schools in Castleblayney: Scoil na gCailíní, Scoil Mhuire na mBuachaillí, Convent Junior School, The Central School and Gaelscoil Lorgan.