Rockcorry () historically known as Newtowncorry (or ''Cribby'' from the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

term meaning yellow earth), is a village and

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of Border Region, Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The village is located close to Dartrey Forest on the R188 (which links

Cootehill Cootehill (; ) is a market town and townland in County Cavan, Ireland. Cootehill was formerly part of the neighbouring townland of Munnilly. Both townlands lie within the barony of Tullygarvey. Cootehill is 20 km north-east of Cavan tow ...

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

town).

History

Rockcorry was originally built as a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

by the Corry family. The ruin of an old stone-built brewery and mill can be seen on the outskirts of the village. Rockcorry Market House was built in 1835 by Thomas C. Steuart Corry. It is a simple, almost square building of two stories and three bays. There is a tall central arch in each facade. On the main front, the central bay breaks forward slightly and is topped by a pediment.

Cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

Walter Corry built the town of Newtowncorry, later renamed Rockcorry, and the now vanished Rockcorry Castle. The current main street of the village was built in the 1840s. According to the ''Introduction to the Dartrey Papers'' (published by

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a division within the Engaged Communities Group of the Department for Communities (DfC). The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is dist ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

), part of the Fairfield Estate, the Corry family's

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which generates income for its owner. British context In the United Kingdom, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, tenanted buildings, and ...

that included Rockcorry, was bought in 1831 for

Richard Dawson, 1st Earl of Dartrey Richard Dawson, 1st Earl of Dartrey Order of St. Patrick, KP (7 September 1817 – 12 May 1897), styled the Hon. Richard Dawson until 1827 and the Lord Cremorne from 1827 to 1866, was an Anglo-Irish Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, and later Libera ...

(1817–1897), the young head of the Dawson family of neighbouring Dartrey. Most of the rest of the Fairfield Estate was later bought in 1840 by the young Lord Cremorne (later created

Earl of Dartrey Earl of Dartrey, of Dartrey in the County of Monaghan, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in July 1866 for the 3rd Baron Cremorne. Thomas Dawson, Burgess of Armagh, came from Yorkshire to Ireland during the reign ...

in 1866). Cremorne would go on to become a prominent Liberal (and, later,

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

) politician. The Fairfield Estate was added on to the vast Dartrey Estate, centred on Dawson Grove (remodelled and greatly enlarged in the 1840s as Dartrey Castle). Thus, the village of Rockcorry also changed ownership at that time, now being owned by the Dawson family. The Dawson Monument, a neo-classical

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...

and erected around 1808, still stands on the Cootehill/Rockcorry road in memory of

Richard Dawson Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was an English-American actor, comedian, game-show host, and panelist. Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in ''Hogan's Heroes'', as a regular panel ...

MP, who died in 1807. It was erected by the independent voters of County Monaghan in praise of their member of Irish parliament and following the Act of Union, member of the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

. Richard 'honest Dick' Dawson voted against the Act of Union and was suspected of radical sympathies during the period of the United Irishmen.

Transport

Rockcorry is not served by rail services, as Rockcorry railway station (which opened in 1860) closed for passenger and goods traffic on 10 March 1947 and closed altogether on 20 June 1955. Bus routes which serve the village include

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

route 175, which operates daily linking Rockcorry with

and

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

. There are four journeys each way Mondays to Fridays inclusive and two in each direction on Saturdays and Sundays.

People

* John Robert Gregg, a pioneer of

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...

writing, grew up in Rockcorry.

References

{{County Monaghan Towns and villages in County Monaghan Townlands of County Monaghan

History

Transport

People

See also

References