system it is an
important junction, the lines from Dublin, from Belfast, from
Londonderry and Enniskillen, and from Cavan converging here. Pop. of
urban district (1901), 2068. The town has a considerable agricultural
trade, and there are corn mills and manufactures of agricultural
implements. A former lace-making industry is extinct. The market-place,
called the Diamond, occupies the summit of the slight elevation on which
the town is situated. Clones was the seat of an abbey founded in the 6th
century by St Tighernach (Tierney), to whom the Protestant parish church
is dedicated. Remains of the abbey include a nave and tower of the 12th
century, and a curious shrine formed out of a great block of red
sandstone. Other antiquities are a round tower of rude masonry, 75 ft.
high but lacking the cap; a rath, or encampment, and an ancient market
cross in the Diamond.

CLONMACNOISE, one of the most noteworthy of the numerous early religious
settlements in Ireland, on the river Shannon, in King's county, 9 m. S.
of Athlone. An abbey was founded here by St Kieran in 541, which as a
seat of learning gained a European fame, receiving offerings, for
example, from Charles the Great, whose companion Alcuin the scholar
received part of his education from the great teacher Colcu at
Conmacnoise. Several books of annals were compiled here, and the
foundation became the seat of a bishopric, but it was plundered and
wasted by the English in 1552, and in 1568 the diocese was united with
that of Meath. The most remarkable literary monument of Clonmacnoise is
the Book of the Dun Cow, written about 1100, still preserved (but in an
imperfect form) by the Royal Irish Academy, and containing a large
number of romances. It is a copy of a much earlier original, which was
written on the skin of a favourite cow of St Kieran, whence the name of
the work. The full title of the foundation is the "Seven Churches of
Clonmacnoise," and remains of all these are extant. The Great Church,
though rebuilt by a chief named McDermot, in the 14th century, retains
earlier remains in a fine west doorway; the other churches are those of
Fineen, Conor, St Kieran, Kelly, Melaghlin and Dowling. There are two
round towers; O'Rourke's, lacking the roof, but occupying a commanding
situation on rising ground, is dated by Petrie from the early 10th
century, and stands 62 ft. in height; and McCarthy's, attached to
Fineen's church, which is more perfect, but rather shor