County Monaghan

In my quest to do something "touristy" in every county of Ireland. I hit two counties this weekend: County Cavan and County Monaghan. These counties constituted a small detour from my house-hunting efforts (trying to find a place to rent for a month that's a little bigger for when Beth and RJ next come over) in County Meath. Both counties are north of Meath in the Province of Ulster, though still part of the Republic of Ireland (most of Ulster is part of Northern Ireland).

I had a hard time finding something touristy to do in County Monaghan as there really isn't much to do there. I settled on driving up to the village of Tydavnet, just north of Monaghan town. Why Tydavnet? Because there is a story there and I love stories. This story is about St. Dymphna.

St. Dymphna's father was King Damon who, when his wife died, looked long and hard for a replacement that was as beautiful and virtuous. It turns out Dymphna, his teenage daughter, possessed all those characteristics that the king found beautiful in his wife. Damon made sexual advances at his daughter, who then fled her incestuous father and ended up in Gheel, Belgium. Unfortunately King Damon tracked her down and when she did not return to Ireland with him, he had her beheaded.

St. Dymphna is the patron saint of those who suffer from mental illness, nervous system disorders, epileptics, mental health professionals, incest victims and runaways.

In Irish her name is Davnet, hence the village named Tydavnet is named in her honor. The parish there is also named after her. The picture that I've posted is of a old celtic cross in a cemetery that also bears her name.

I also tried to get out to her shrine a few miles outside of Tydavnet, however, the directions were hard to follow and I ended up driving around rural Monaghan for about an hour. By the time I arrived at Dympna's Well, it seemed to be closed. I did glimpse it from a neighboring hillside (while lost), but didn't get any good pictures.

Later that evening, I got tossed out of a pub in Monaghan town for bringing my take-out food inside. All I wanted to do was to have a meal, a pint and watch the US World Cup match. The bouncer, however, thought that since they had a restaurant upstairs, I shouldn't bring in my own food. After telling him I would have ate at their restaurant if they would have showed the match on TV, he proceeded to tell me to take my food elsewhere.

As you can see, there really wasn't much to do in County Monaghan. It is a beautiful county to drive through, with rolling green hills, but I wouldn't advise stopping. So far county Monaghan has been my least favorite county, mostly due to the fact that I got tossed out of a pub for wanting to eat and watch a sporting event. Apparently they don't have the concept of "Sports Bars" over here.