Newbliss grew as a market settlement on the Ker estate. Nearby Annaghmakerrig became the home of theatre director Tyrone Guthrie and, through his bequest, a residential workplace for artists.
Illustration, Church of Ireland parish church, Newbliss, County Monaghan
⊕Recorded locationNewbliss54.15773° N · 7.13595° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Cúil Darach· Irish · main form · validated name
Newbliss· English · main form
Place & story
A market on one wide street
In 1837 Samuel Lewis counted ninety-five houses and 497 inhabitants in Newbliss, describing a single wide street beside Andrew Ker's estate and plantations. The Saturday market dealt mainly in pigs and flax, while monthly fairs brought cattle and pigs into the town. A market house, shambles, inn, dispensary and Presbyterian meeting house supported its commercial and social life. The flax trade connected the settlement with the linen economy of the surrounding Monaghan countryside, while its road and postal links tied it to Clones and Cootehill.[2]
The market house on Main Street
The market house was built around 1830. Its five-bay frontage combines limestone and red brick, with an arcade and a central carriage passage at ground level. Projecting end bays give the building a strongly symmetrical form. The architectural survey records timber sash windows, wrought-iron gates and cobbles within the archway. Different treatments of the stonework and brick add detail to a building that once supplied the physical centre for the trade Lewis described. It remains a distinctive part of Newbliss's main street.[3]
People & connections
A theatre director and a jam factory
Tyrone Guthrie's international career took him into broadcasting and theatre in Britain, Canada and the United States. His family home was Annaghmakerrig, near Newbliss. The Ulster History Circle records a less familiar local enterprise: in 1962 he established a jam factory in the village in an attempt to provide employment. The business went into liquidation in 1971, the year of his death. His concern for Newbliss therefore extended beyond the arts into a practical effort to support the local economy.[4]
Annaghmakerrig becomes a workplace for artists
Guthrie inherited Annaghmakerrig after his mother's death in 1956, and he and his wife Judy made it their permanent home. He bequeathed the house to the Irish State for artists' use after their deaths. The Tyrone Guthrie Centre opened in October 1981, supported by the arts councils in both parts of Ireland, with Brian Friel delivering the opening speech. Guthrie also stipulated that residents of the main house should dine together in the evening, preserving a shared social life alongside individual creative work.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Newbliss — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Newbliss, Monaghan — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Newbliss, Monaghan — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Newbliss, Monaghan — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Newbliss, Monaghan
Published census settlement populations
327people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
Church of Ireland parish church, Newbliss, County Monaghan illustration: based on a Newbliss CoI Parish Church by Eric Jones. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
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