CLONES  , a

market town of Co . Monaghan, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 641 in . S.W. by W. from Belfast, and 931 in . N.W. from Dublin by the Great Northern railway, on which 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), 2968 . The town has a considerable argicultural 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 .