Clones - People

People

• Birthplace of world featherweight champion boxer Barry McGuigan, 'The Clones Cyclone'.
• Author Patrick McCabe is from the country; his novel The Butcher Boy is set in a thinly-disguised version of Clones. Parts of Neil Jordan's 1997 film adaptation of the book were filmed in the town. McCabe is honorary patron of the Clones Film Festival, which takes place annually on the October bank holiday weekend.
• Writer and playwright Eugene McCabe also comes from the town and is known for his television dramas (including Victims) and novels such as Death and Nightingales.
• Clones was the birthplace of poet Thomas Bracken, who wrote "God Defend New Zealand", one of the national anthems of New Zealand.
• General Joseph Finegan, who commanded the Confederate Army to victory at the 1864 Battle of Olustee in Florida during the American Civil War, was born at Clones on 17 November 1814.
• It is also the home town of noted boxers Barry McGuigan and Kevin McBride.
• Birthplace of Diarmuid Johnson AKA Chops Johnson.
• Birthplace of His Grace The Most Rev. Dr. John Joseph Lynch (1816–1888), first Archbishop of Toronto (1860–1888).
• Burial place of Roger Boyle, at the church.
• Birthplace of John George Bowes, Mayor of Toronto (1851-1853).