SNIPPET: Per Willie O'KANE in the 1998 #2 issue of "Irish Roots" magazine published in Cork, County Monaghan is a landlocked county, having boundaries with four other Ulster counties - Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and Cavan - as well as Louth and Meath. Monaghan is part of the Republic of Ireland portion of the province of Ulster, along with Cos. Donegal and Cavan. (Counties in the Northern Ireland portion of the province of Ulster are Antrim, Armagh, Derry/Londonderry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone). Co. Monaghan's name derives from "Muineachan," the place of the thickets. Much of the county is a mix of rounded hills and poorly drained uplands interspersed with more fertile and manageable soils on the lower parts where limestone predominates. The highest hills are the Slieve Beagh range in the NW, along the Tyrone border. Reaching around 1,200 feet in height, the range is somewhat isolated and featureless. Other mountains are Cairmore, with its deep upland lake, and Crieve Mountain overlooking the southern part of the county. The Blackwater is the chief river in Monaghan, and today most of the county is given to pasture and beef farming with sheep on the higher farmland. Nearer the main towns, potatoes and cabbage are grown, while in the northern part, near Tyrone, there is a concentration of mushroom-growing industries. Monaghan is the county town, being the episcopal seat of Clogher diocese and noted for St. Macartan's Roman Catholic cathedral. The town has long served a relatively prosperous mixed-farming area, and despite a decline in local industries over the past few decades, evidence of its former solidity remains in buildings like the Market House, dating from the 1790s, the Westenra Hotel and the nearby printing works producing the "Northern Standard" newspaper. Clones, 12 miles west of Monaghan, possesses a fine high cross in the market place and several notable Georgian houses. The chief GAA playing field in Ulster is located here, and provincial matches regularly attract tens of! thousands to the town. Castleblaney, at the head of Lough Mucknoo, one of the largest of Monaghan's many lakes, is the hometown of 'Big Tom' McBRIDE, pioneer exponent of the hybrid musical form known as 'Country and Irish.' Other towns include Newbliss, Emyvale and Ballybay. Carrickmacross, in the SW of the county, is noted for its fine lace, a tradition stretching back several centuries and in today carried on by a dedicated co-operative movement. Just NE of Carrickmacross is the hamlet of Iniskeen, near which Patrick KAVANAGH (1904-67) was born in the townland of Mucker. His poetry, increasingly recognised as among the best of any Irish writer, celebrated the dignity of life amid the small farms and country people he knew so well. It also poignantly records the price exacted by the ties of land and kinship, and the anguish of struggling to establish identity and purpose in a society that had little appreciation for artistic values. His work has influences later Irish writers. There is a great variety of family names in Co. Monaghan, mainly of native Ulster origin, although in the Ulster Plantation many Scots and English settlers arrived in the county. Prominent Monaghan names include McMAHON, McKENNA, HUGHES, McCABE, SMITH, KELLY, MAGUIRE, MURRAY, WOODS, O'CONNOLLY, DUFFY, LESLIE, HAMILTON, SHIRLEY and TREANOR. Of note - The surname MONAGHAN (also spelt MONAHAN) has no connection to Co. Monaghan. It is chiefly to be found in the Cos. of Galway, Mayo, and Fermanagh, all of which are not far away from the original home of the O'MONAGHANs in Co. Roscommon. The Annals of the Four Masters record O'MONAGHAN as Lord of the Three Tuathas of Roscommon in 1287, about the time they were displaced from the lordship by the O'HANLEYs. The surname derives from a famous Connacht warrior of the ninth century. 'Manachain' also denotes a monk and the name is often translated as MONK or MONKS. Dick MONK, who was one of the 1798 rebels, was also known as Richard MONAGHAN, per surname expert Edward MacLYSAGHT.