Iniskeen, six miles east of Carrickmacross, is the birthplace of Patrick Kavanagh. There's a small plaque bearing some of his verse in the village, and the house he lived in is well signposted - but you can't go in and it's an entirely uninteresting building.

Kavanagh is buried in the graveyard of St Mary's church. The church is also home to the Patrick Kavanagh Rural and Literary Resource Centre (Mon-Fri 11am-5pm; Sat, Sun and bank holidays 2-6pm; which has displays on Kavanagh and his work as well as local history.

In a more distant past, Iniskeen was the site of a sixth-century monastic centre: scant remains of the abbey and a round tower survive. The Folk Museum (by arrangement only, tel 042/937 8102) deals with local history, folk life and the old Great Northern Railway.

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