County Roscommon Guide (Ros Comáin)
“The Rossies” - in the province of Connacht. County town: Roscommon.
Rolling pastoral county and ancestral home of the O’Conor kings.
A pastoral, often-overlooked county in the heart of Connacht, Roscommon is a place of cattle country, bogland and quiet lakes. It was the seat of the O’Conor kings, the last High Kings of Ireland, and its monastic ruins, like Boyle Abbey, and the recreated Iron Age site at Rathcroghan reward the curious traveller.
Roscommon is royal country. At Rathcroghan near Tulsk lies Cruachan, the ancient capital of Connacht and seat of the legendary Queen Medb, a complex of more than 240 archaeological sites spread across the plains. The O'Conor kings of Connacht ruled from here, and two of them, Turlough and Rory, were the last High Kings of Ireland; remarkably, their descendants still live at Clonalis House in Castlerea, one of the oldest documented family lines in Europe. The county's name comes from Ros Comáin, the wood of St Comán, who founded a monastery where the county town now stands.
This is a quiet, low-lying county of cattle pasture, esker ridges and water, bounded by the Shannon to the east and the River Suck to the west, and the only county in Connacht without a coastline. It bore a terrible share of Famine suffering, losing a greater proportion of its population than almost any other county, a history confronted head-on at the National Famine Museum in Strokestown. Sheep and suckler farming still shape rural life, Lough Key Forest Park draws visitors to the north, and the county's scattered diaspora keeps strong ties to towns like Boyle, Elphin and Ballaghaderreen.
Cities, towns and villages in Roscommon
- Roscommon - The county town, dominated by the ruins of its 13th-century Anglo-Norman castle and a Dominican priory founded in 1253.
- Boyle - Handsome north Roscommon town beside Lough Key, home to the beautifully preserved 12th-century Cistercian Boyle Abbey and the Georgian King House.
- Castlerea - Market town on the River Suck beside Clonalis House, ancestral home of the O'Conors, descendants of the last High Kings of Ireland.
- Strokestown - Planned estate town whose Palladian big house now holds the National Famine Museum, documenting the 1847 emigration of 1,490 tenants.
- Elphin - One of Ireland's oldest ecclesiastical centres, a diocese traditionally founded by St Patrick, with a restored 18th-century windmill.
- Ballaghaderreen - West Roscommon market town with a cathedral, transferred from County Mayo to Roscommon by boundary changes in 1898.
- Frenchpark - Village where Douglas Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League and first President of Ireland, grew up in the local rectory.
- Tulsk - Small village at the heart of the Rathcroghan complex, ancient royal site of Connacht, with a visitor centre interpreting Queen Medb's Cruachan.
Famous people from Roscommon
- Douglas Hyde - First President of Ireland and founder of the Gaelic League, raised at Frenchpark where his father was Church of Ireland rector.
- Rory O'Conor (Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair) - King of Connacht and the last High King of Ireland, whose reign ended with the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century.
- Turlough O'Carolan - The celebrated blind harper and composer spent much of his life under Roscommon patronage and is buried at Kilronan near Ballyfarnon.
- Percy French - One of Ireland's best-loved songwriters, composer of The Mountains of Mourne, born at Cloonyquin House near Tulsk in 1854.
- Maureen O'Sullivan - Boyle-born Hollywood star who played Jane in the Tarzan films of the 1930s and was mother of actress Mia Farrow.
- Chris O'Dowd - Boyle-born actor and comedian of Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd fame, who set his Sky series Moone Boy in his hometown.
- Albert Reynolds - Taoiseach from 1992 to 1994 and a key architect of the Northern Ireland peace process, born in Rooskey on the Roscommon-Leitrim border.
- Sir William Wilde - Eminent Victorian eye surgeon, antiquarian and father of Oscar Wilde, born near Castlerea in 1815.
Did you know?
- Roscommon is the only landlocked county in Connacht, bounded instead by the River Shannon and the River Suck.
- The cave of Oweynagat at Rathcroghan was described in medieval literature as Ireland's gate to hell, and folklorists link the site to the origins of Samhain, the festival behind Halloween.
- According to well-documented local history, an 18th-century condemned prisoner known as Lady Betty was spared execution at Roscommon jail on condition she serve as the town's hangwoman.
- Coal was mined at Arigna in north Roscommon for around 400 years until 1990, when Ireland's last working coal mine closed; it is now a visitor experience.
- Clonalis House in Castlerea, home of the O'Conor family, preserves the harp of the composer Turlough O'Carolan among its heirlooms.
- The main street of Strokestown was reputedly laid out to be one of the widest in Ireland, inspired by the grand boulevards of Vienna.
- The National Famine Way, a 165-kilometre walking trail, follows the 1847 route of 1,490 evicted Strokestown tenants who walked to the Dublin ships.
- Douglas Hyde of Frenchpark became the first President of Ireland in 1938, having earlier founded the Gaelic League to revive the Irish language.
Surnames from Roscommon: Kelly · O'Connor · Murray · Brennan · Flynn · Flanagan · Kenny · Moran · Naughton · Fallon · Geraghty · Dolan