| Clontibret Cluain Tiobrad |
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| Location | ||
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| Irish grid reference H668338 |
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| Statistics | ||
| Province: | Ulster | |
| County: | County Monaghan | |
| Population (2006) | 300 | |
Clontibret (Irish: Cluain Tiobrad, meaning "Well of the meadow") is a village and a parish in County Monaghan, Ireland.
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The village is situated close to the border with Northern Ireland, between the towns of Monaghan and Castleblayney, along the N2 National primary road, which links Dublin and Derry. The village population in 2006 was approximately 300.
Clontibret is a parish in the Diocese of Clogher. The Catholic parish has three churches - St. Mary's, north of Clontibret village, St. Michael's, in the nearby village of Annyalla and All Saints, in the village of Doohamlet, which is between the towns of Castleblayney and Ballybay. The Anglican Church of Ireland church is located on the ancient Christian site in Clontibret village. The wider parish area has a population of approximately 3,000 persons.
The Gaelic Athletic Association club in Clontibret is called Clontibret O'Neills (in honour of Hugh O'Neill Earl of Tyrone, victor at the Battle of Clontibret 1595).
In 1595 the adjacent countryside was the site of the Battle of Clontibret. The territory of Monaghan had been wrested from the control of the MacMahon clan in 1591, when the clan leader was executed by English authority. Subsequent encroachments by the English in to the province of Ulster led to the Nine Years War (1595–1603). The battle was the earliest clash between the two sides, with the Irish led by Hugh O'Neill and the English by Sir Henry Bagenal. Although O'Neill won the battle, the war ended with the completion of the English conquest of Ireland. In 1610 the Plantation of Ulster was established, an event that still defines certain political allegiances in the north of Ireland.
On 7 August 1986, in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Northern unionist politician Peter Robinson led an "invasion party" of 500 unionist militants into Clontibret and held a military parade with drill in the square, before retreating back across the border. Robinson and others were later arrested, tried, and fined for the incident.
Clontibret was the birthplace of the famous historian and academic J. B. Bury (1861–1927). He was Professor of Roman History at Trinity College Dublin and later at Cambridge.
Another son of Clontibret was General John O'Neill, who led the ill-fated Fenian invasions of Canada in 1866, 1870 and 1871. He was born at Drumgallon in Clontibret in 1839. After a promising Army career in the American Civil War he joined forces with the Fenians and later established an Irish colony in Nebraska where today the city of O'Neill, Nebraska stands as a memorial to his endeavours on behalf of the Irish communities in the United States of America.
Roman Catholic Bishop Brendan Comiskey, former Bishop of Ferns, Co Wexford, was born in Tassan, Clontibret on 13 August 1935. He was auxiliary Bishop of Dublin from 1980 until his appointment to Ferns in 1984. He resigned as Bishop of Ferns in 2002 following allegations that he failed to deal adequately with complaints of child sexual abuse.
Another famous Clontibretan is James Francis Evans, son of Francie Evans. James is renowned from as far east as Derrynoose to as far west as Clones for his spectactular welding ability. James worked as a Welding Technician with NC engineering of Hamiltonsbawn for two decades before deciding to break away and form his own engineering firm with his uncle, Patrick Evans. The new firm goes by the title of J.F.E. engineering. They can be located just north of Clontibret in the rocks of Carrickaderry.
Recently the village has been in the media spotlight due to the discovery of a major gold resource in the locality estimated in excess of 1 million ounces. This resource estimate, the result of ongoing work in the area by Dublin-based mineral exploration company Conroy Diamonds and Gold, is believed by the Company's directors to be the largest ever reported in the British Isles.[1][2][3]
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