Monaghan is a town in the Republic of Ireland, the administrative capital of County Monaghan. The name derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning "brake" (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes "hillock". The county council's preferred interpretation is "land of the little hills", a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area. Another translation of the name splits the Irish name into "Muine Acháin" with "acháin" meaning field so depending on your interpretation of "muine" it either menas an over-grown or bushy field or a hilly field.
The Battle of Clontibret between the forces of Hugh O'Neill and the English Crown was fought in northern Monaghan in May 1595. The territory of Monaghan had earlier been wrested from the control of the MacMahon sept in 1591, when the leader of the MacMahons was hung by authority of the Dublin government; this was one of the events that led to the Nine Years War (Ireland) (1595-1603) and the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland.
On the Hill of Lech or previously Mullach Leaght, the Hill of the Stone , three miles south-west of Monaghan was the inauguration stone of the Mac Mahons. It was last used in 1595, but unfortunately this petrosomatoglyph was destroyed by a farm owner in 1809