Clones is a small town in western County Monaghan, Ireland. The area is part of the Border Region, earmarked for economic development by the Irish Government due to its currently below-average economic situation. The town was badly hit economically by the Partition of Ireland in 1921 because of its location on the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The creation of the Irish border deprived it of access to a large part of its economic hinterland for many years. The town had a population of 1,680 at the 2016 census.
Festivals
Clones Film Festival
Clones Film Festival was launched in 2002 and takes place on the October Bank Holiday weekend.
Flat Lake Festival
The Flat Lake Festival was an annual arts, music and cultural event hosted by Kevin Allen from 2007 to 2011 at Hilton Park, a country house and demesne located between Clones and Scotshouse. From its launch in 2007, it hosted readings, comedy, music and theatre events within a farm estate. It was held in the demesne surrounding Hilton Park over a long weekend, a few miles outside the town of Clones on the back road to Cavan town. It usually took place in mid-August.
Railways
Clones was linked by rail to Dundalk from 1855, Enniskillen from 1859, Cavan from 1862 and Armagh from 1863. Clones railway station was opened on 26 June 1858 by the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway. From 1876 all of these lines were part of the Great Northern Railway (GNR).
The Partition of Ireland in 1922 made Clones a border post on the railway, which combined with road competition to cause the Great Northern to decline. In 1954, the governments of the Republic and Northern Ireland jointly nationalised the GNR and in 1957 Northern Ireland made the GNR close its lines from Armagh and Enniskillen to Clones. This made it impractical to continue services on the Cavan and Dundalk lines so the GNR withdrew passenger services on those lines as well, leaving Clones with no passenger trains and a freight service truncated at the border. The GNR closed Clones station to passenger traffic on 14 October 1957.
In 1958 the two states partitioned the GNR between the Ulster Transport Authority and CIÉ. CIÉ withdrew freight services from the Cavan line in 1959 and from the Dundalk line in 1960, leaving Clones with no railway at all.[13] CIÉ closed Clones freight depot on 1 January 1960.
Ulster Canal restoration
The national inland waterways agency, Waterways Ireland, is planning to restore the Ulster Canal from the Newtownbutler area of Lough Erne to Clon
