Cavan

Cavan grew up in a hollow beneath the O'Reilly stronghold at Tullymongan, in the Gaelic lordship of East Bréifne. A Franciscan friary, traditionally founded by Giolla Íosa O'Reilly around 1300, became a focus of the settlement and a burial place for the ruling family. Its market made the town a centre for the surrounding country, though warfare repeatedly brought destruction to its streets and religious house.

English forces burned the friary and town in 1468. In the late sixteenth century the friary served as a fortified position during the fighting in Ulster, and the town was attacked again in 1595. The plantation of the early seventeenth century brought English and Scottish settlers; in 1610 James I granted Cavan a charter of incorporation, giving the borough a framework for its markets and government. The friars returned in 1616, continuing their work despite the loss of their medieval house.