Editing Cavan (section)

==History==
===Gaelic Cavan 1300–1607===

[[File:Cavan Towne Map 1591.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Cavan town from 1591 showing its market square and the O'Reilly castle on Tullymongan Hill]]
Cavan was founded by the [[Chief of the Name|Irish clan chief]] and Lord of [[East Breifne]], Giolla Íosa Ruadh O’Reilly, between 1300 and his death in 1330. During his lordship, a [[Priory|friary]] run by the [[Dominican Order]] was established close to the O’Reilly stronghold at Tullymongan and was at the centre of the settlement close to a crossing over the river and to the town's marketplace. It is recorded that the (Cavan) Dominicans were expelled in 1393, replaced by an Order of Conventual [[Franciscan]] friars. The friary's location is marked by an eighteenth-century tower in the graveyard at Abbey Street which appears to incorporate remains of the original medieval friary tower. The imprint of the medieval town can be followed in the area of Abbey Street, Bridge Street and Main Street (townlands of Tullymongan Upper and Lower).

Clan O'Reilly later built a new castle in the late fourteenth century on Tullymongan Hill, overlooking the town centre. In the 15th century, the local ruler, Bearded Owen O'Reilly, expanded the town marketplace which attracted merchants from [[Dublin]] and [[Drogheda]]. The phrase "life of Reilly" is believed to derive from the great wealth and power of the Chief of Clan O'Reilly, some of which came from the market. The Chiefs also allowed, however, counterfeit English and Scottish coins to be minted in their territory at this time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Parker |first=Kieran |title=The Ui Raghallaigh Lordship of East Breifne c.1250-.c. 1450 |journal=Brefne |year=1991 |volume=8 |issue=2 |page=415 |url=http://breifnehistory.com/journal.html}}</ref>

During the [[Elizabethan era]] religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop [[Dermot O'Hurley]], who would be one of the most celebrated of the 24 [[Irish Catholic Martyrs]], was covertly sheltered by [[Thomas Fleming, 10th Baron Slane]] at [[Slane Castle]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Irish Martyrs |editor1=Patrick J. Cornish |editor2=Benignus Millet |date=2005 |publisher=Four Courts Press |location=Dublin |page=69 |isbn=978-1-85182-858-6}}</ref> where the Archbishop was allegedly concealed inside a [[priest hole]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Conyngham |first=David Power |title=Lives of the Irish Martyrs |date=1873 |publisher=D. & J. Sadlier |location=New York |pages=63–64 |url=https://archive.org/details/livesofirishmart0000unse/page/62/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="Dermot O'Hurley">{{cite web |website=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]] |title=O'Hurley, Dermot |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/ohurley-dermot-a6817 |publisher=Royal Irish Academy}}</ref> but from whence O'Hurley covertly travelled to and from Cavan to visit with some fellow priests whom he had known while living in [[Catholic Europe]].<ref name="Dermot O'Hurley"/>

===Early modern history===
[[James I of England|King James I]] granted the town a charter in 1611. This also entitled Cavan town to [[Cavan Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|send two members]] to the Irish parliament.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cavan |url=https://www.ancestryireland.com/history-of-the-irish-parliament/constituencies/cavan/ |website=Ulster Historical Foundation |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127045518/https://www.ancestryireland.com/history-of-the-irish-parliament/constituencies/cavan/ |archive-date=27 January 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In February 1690, during the [[Glorious Revolution]], the [[Battle of Cavan]] took place after Williamite Inniskillinger forces led by Colonel William Wolseley attacked the strategic fort overlooking Cavan town at Tullamongan which was held then by the Duke of Berwick Jacobite army. During the battle much of the town was burned by Colonel Wolseley's soldiers and Jacobite general [[William Nugent (soldier)|William Nugent]] was killed.<ref name="Battle of Cavan">{{cite news |last=Parker |first=Ciaran |title=The Battle of Cavan, 1690 |newspaper=Cavan Echo |date=9 February 2007}}</ref> Later, during the 18th century, local administrative influence and power passed to the Maxwell family, descendants of [[Robert Maxwell (bishop)|Robert Maxwell]], [[Church of Ireland]] [[Bishop of Kilmore]] (1643–1672), a family who later entered the [[peerage]] as [[Baron Farnham]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/farnham2.pdf |title=National Library of Ireland – Collection List No. 95 – Farnham Papers |publisher=National Library of Ireland |access-date=10 November 2023}}</ref>

Farnham House, located at Farnham, a small rural district to the north-west of Cavan, is one of the largest [[English country house|country house]]s in the county. It was built for [[Barry Maxwell, 1st Earl of Farnham|Barry Maxwell, 3rd Lord Farnham]] (later created, by the second creation, [[Baron Farnham|Earl of Farnham]]), head of the Maxwell dynasty, around 1780. The house was designed by [[James Wyatt]]. It was extended in 1810 to the design of [[Francis Johnston (architect)|Francis Johnston]], a [[County Armagh]]-born, but Dublin-based, architect. It was sold by Diana, Lady Farnham (widow of [[Barry Maxwell, 12th Baron Farnham|Barry Maxwell, 12th Lord Farnham]]), to a local entrepreneur in 2001, and the house and estate has per 2006 been converted into a luxury hotel and leisure complex under the [[Radisson SAS]] international hotel group.<ref>{{cite web |title=First ever Radisson SAS resort in Ireland to open at Farnham Estate in Cavan |website=HoganStand |date=2006 |url=https://www.hoganstand.com/county/cavan/article/index/62251 |access-date=3 May 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817095515/http://www.hoganstand.com/cavan/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=62251 |archive-date=17 August 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irelandin1.com/Ireland-Hotel/FEH/Radisson-SAS-Farnham-Estate |title=Radisson Blu Farnham Estate Hotel, CavanHotels |website=Ireland in 1 |access-date=3 May 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503140843/http://www.irelandin1.com/Ireland-Hotel/FEH/Radisson-SAS-Farnham-Estate |archive-date=3 May 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Town Hall, Cavan Town, County Cavan, Ireland - geograph.org.uk - 336451.jpg|thumb|left|[[Cavan Town Hall]]]]
Developments in Cavan during the early 19th century saw the building of a new wide street that still bears the name 'Farnham Street'. This was lined with comfortable town houses, public buildings (such as [[Cavan Courthouse]] which dates from 1824) and churches. From the mid-19th century, Cavan became an important rail junction for the [[Midland Great Western Railway]] (MGWR) and those of the [[Great Northern Railway (Ireland)|Great Northern Railway]] (GNR). [[Cavan Town Hall]] was built between 1908 and 1910.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/40000161/cavan-town-hall-town-hall-street-keadew-cavan-rl-and-urban-cavan-cavan|title=Cavan Town Hall, Town Hall Street, Keadew (Cavan RL. and Urban), Cavan, County Cavan|publisher=National Inventory of Architectural Heritage|access-date=9 November 2023}}</ref>

===20th century===

In 1938, work began on the [[Cavan Cathedral|Cathedral of Saints Patrick and Felim]]; the original Kilmore cathedral was built c.1455, as the main church of the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Diocese of Kilmore (Roman Catholic)|Diocese of Kilmore]] located around five kilometres (3&nbsp;mi) south-west of Cavan Town, on the [[Regional roads in Ireland|R]]198. During the [[Plantation of Ulster]] in the seventeenth century, this church became the main [[Church of Ireland]] Kilmore Diocese church known as St. Feidhlimidh Cathedral. A new [[Kilmore Cathedral]] church was built in 1860 and dedicated to the memory of Bishop [[William Bedell]] who died and was buried here in 1642. Bedell was also famously noted for his translation of the old testament Bible into the Irish language. The present Cathedral contains a Hiberno [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] doorway dating from c. 1170, in the twelfth century, conjectured locally ''(but unlikely)'' originally to have come from Holy Trinity priory located a short distance away upon Trinity Island in [[Lough Oughter]]. Holy Trinity priory was built mid-thirteenth century. A short distance from the Kilmore Cathedral is the [[See (religion)|See]] House, a late [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]]-style house constructed in the 1830s. This house, designed by [[William Farrell (architect)|William Farrell]], was formerly the official residence (or "Bishop's Palace") of the [[Church of Ireland]] [[Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh|Bishops of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh]].

On 23 February 1943, a [[Cavan Orphanage Fire|fire at St Joseph's Orphanage]] in the town claimed the lives of 35 children and an elderly woman. A [[public inquiry]] found no culpability on the part of the nuns who ran the orphanage, but the circumstances surrounding the high death toll in the fire remain controversial to this day.<ref>{{cite news|last=Parker|first=Ciaran|title=Cavan's darkest day|newspaper=Cavan Echo|date=23 February 2007}}</ref> The secretary of the Commission of Enquiry, Brian O'Nolan, is better known to posterity as the writer [[Flann O'Brien]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/onolan-brian-flann-obrien-a6969|title=O'Nolan, Brian (‘Flann O'Brien’)|publisher=Dictionary of Irish Biography|access-date=10 November 2023}}</ref>

The former Cavan Town [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] Barracks was demolished in 1968. Its successor stood on the corner of Farnham Street (also known as Casement Street, named after [[Sir Roger Casement]]) and Abbey Street. The current [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] Station is further along Farnham Street, just across from the Courthouse.

===21st century===

In the 1990s and 2000s Cavan town expanded rapidly with extensive urban regeneration and suburban expansion. It is one of the main economic hubs of the north central part of Ireland and has an extensive range of financial services, legal, medical, industrial and retail enterprises.

Adjacent to the Courthouse is the Cavan Central Library building constructed in 2006. The entrance is dominated by an aquarium, with commissioned [[bog-wood|bog oak]] sculptures by local artist Joey Burns that portray Cavan history. An arts feature based on ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' enriches the interior space, and two large paintings by award-winning author PJ Lynch were commissioned by Cavan Library Service, in a lasting tribute to [[Jonathan Swift]] and to Cavan where ''Gulliver's Travels'' was written.