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

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

term meaning yellow earth), is a village and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

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

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The village is located close to

Dartrey Forest Dartrey Forest (sometimes Dartrey Estate or Dawson Grove Estate) is a forest and estate near Rockcorry in north-west County Monaghan, Ireland. It was formerly part of the Barony of Dartrey and was the country estate of the Dawson family, who h ...

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. The English language name of the town is a port ...

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), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

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 rural ...

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, though there is also a sopr ...

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 disti ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

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

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner. British context In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...

that included Rockcorry, was bought in 1831 for

Richard Dawson, 1st Earl of Dartrey Richard Dawson, 1st Earl of Dartrey 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, and later Liberal Unionist, politician. Life Dartrey was ...

(1817–1897), the young head of the Dawson family of neighbouring

Dartrey Dartrey Forest (sometimes Dartrey Estate or Dawson Grove Estate) is a forest and estate near Rockcorry in north-west County Monaghan, Ireland. It was formerly part of the Barony of Dartrey and was the country estate of the Dawson family, who h ...

. 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 o ...

in 1866). Cremorne would go on to become a prominent

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

(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, centered on Dawson Grove (remodeled 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 neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

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 a British-born American actor, comedian, game-show host and panelist in the United States. Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in ''Hogan's Hero ...

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 mem ...

. 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 Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...

route 175, which operates daily linking Rockcorry with

and

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

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

People

John Robert Gregg John Robert Gregg (17 June 1867 – 23 February 1948) was an Irish educator, publisher, humanitarian, and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand. Life Childhood John Robert Gregg was born in Shantonagh, Ireland, as th ...

, a pioneer of

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

writing, grew up in Rockcorry.

References

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

History

Transport

People

See also

References