Shercock

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Town in County Cavan, Ireland

title: "Shercock" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["towns-and-villages-in-county-cavan", "civil-parishes-of-county-cavan"] description: "Town in County Cavan, Ireland" topic_path: "general/towns-and-villages-in-county-cavan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shercock" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town in County Cavan, Ireland ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Shercock
native_name	ga
settlement_type	Town
image_skyline	St. Patrick's Church, Shercock, Co. Cavan - geograph.org.uk - 933114.jpg
image_caption	St. Patrick's Church
pushpin_map	Ireland
pushpin_label_position	right
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Ireland
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Ireland
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Ulster
subdivision_type3	County
subdivision_name3	County Cavan
unit_pref	Metric
population_as_of	2022
population_footnotes
population_total	574
coordinates
blank_name	Irish Grid Reference
blank_info
area_code_type	Telephone area code
area_code	+353(0)42
postal_code_type	Eircode routing key
postal_code	A81
timezone	WET
utc_offset	±0
timezone_DST	IST
utc_offset_DST	+1
::

Shercock ( ); ) is a small town and civil parish in the east of County Cavan, Ireland. As of the 2022 census, the population of the town was 574.

Shercock is 12 km west of Carrickmacross, at the intersection of the R162 and R178 regional roads. It sits on the shores of three lakes: Lough Sillan, Steepleton's Lake, and Muddy Lake. Lough Sillan is the largest of the three, covering approximately 162 hectares. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Shercock,_Co.Cavan-geograph.org.uk-_933102.jpg" caption="Main Street"] ::

History

The town was founded in the early seventeenth century as a plantation village to accommodate mainly Presbyterian Scots who settled in this part of County Cavan. Usually, these planters gave their new settlements English or Scottish names—the neighbouring towns are Kingscourt, Cootehill, and Bailieborough—but Shercock retained its Irish name. The modern Irish-language name is Searcoig or Searcóg.

Nearly all of the surrounding townlands have kept their Gaelic names. For example, the townland of Lecks, on the Kingscourt road on the outskirts of Shercock, has been so named for a thousand years because of the flat-slabbed rocky landscape (leac is the Irish word for a flagstone).

By the mid-nineteenth century, the village and immediate area had a population of about 5,000. However, the great famines and subsequent emigration affected the county of Cavan, reducing the population by 50% between 1841 and 1891.

There were less than 300 people residing in Shercock by 1910. The town previously had a post office, which had telegraph and money-order departments.Wednesday was the market day around this time.

Industry

The region is known as "Drumlin Country" owing to its topography of small hills and lakes formed at the end of the last ice age. County Cavan borders County Fermanagh and County Monaghan. Together, they form the colloquially named "Drumlin County". Shercock lies on the border between County Cavan and County Monaghan.

The Shercock area's main industry for nearly 300 years was the growing of flax for linen-making. One townland just outside Shercock is named Miltown, after the flax mill which lies ruined at its center. The industry gradually died away with the decline of the linen industry in northern Ireland.

Nowadays the town has some light industry and a small number of tourists based mainly on water sports and angling. Lough Sillan, on the edge of the town, is a noted coarse fishing lake. Annaghieran lake is situated one mile from town, and populated with Roach and Bream.

One of the enterprises which brings employment to the town is Manor Farms and Carton Brothers Chicken factory, which employs over 800 people and sources chicken from some 160 local chicken farms.

Transport

Sillan Tours Limited provides daily bus connections from Shercock to Kingscourt, Navan and Dublin. Local Link launched route 171, from Shercock to Dundalk via Carrickmacross and Inniskeen, in July 2023 with several journeys each way daily. An electric bus is used on the route. Bus Éireann route 166 links Shercock to Cavan, Carrickmacross and Dundalk on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only.

Arts

The Shercock Drama Festival takes place annually in March, with amateur dramatics groups from around the country participating in the event. St Patrick's Hall in Shercock serves as the venue. The 36th edition of the Shercock Drama Festival took place in March 2024.

Sport

Shercock GFC, the local GAA club, play in the Cavan Senior Football Championship. In 2017, the club won the Tommy Gilroy Cup and, in the same year, received funding for the improvement of their dressing room and gym facilities.

Shercock Athletics Club provides coaching in middle distance running, cross country and track and field disciplines (sprints, jumps and throws). The Shercock AC track and the Craig Lynch High Performance Centre, both located in Shercock, have indoor and outdoor facilities.

People

Brendan McCahey - Voice of Ireland singer
Oisin McEntee - soccer player
The great-grandfather of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, also named John Murtha, was born in Shercock c. 1858. He moved to the United States in 1882.
The family of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (author of The School for Scandal) had an estate in Shercock.
Patrick Kavanagh's 1948 novel Tarry Flynn is nominally set in the countryside around Shercock; although based on characters from his native Inniskeen.

References

(May 26, 2021). "Shercock, County Cavan, Irish Accent (Female) AccentBase File #217". YouTube.
"Searcóg / Shercock". Placenames Commission.
"Census Interactive Map – Towns: Shercock". [[Central Statistics Office (Ireland).
"The Belfast and Ulster Towns Directory for 1910".
"Annagheran Lodge - Surrounding Area". Annagheran Lodge.
"Bus Timetables". Sillan Tours.
(14 July 2023). "New Local Link bus service from Shercock to Dundalk".
"Schedule : Dundalk − Carrickmacross − Cavan". Bus Éireann.
(1 October 2017). "IFC final: Shercock stun Ballyhaise to bridge 33-year gap". HoganStand.com.
(25 October 2017). "Killian Clarke selected on International Rules Squad". Cavan GAA.
(1 December 2017). "Local clubs awarded €960k in sports funding". [[The Anglo-Celt]].
"John and Mary Ann Murtha". Jim's Irish Genealogy Pages.
Lewis' ''Topographical Dictionary of Ireland'' cites Shercock as Sheridan's birthplace, though most sources say Dublin.[http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/s.php] {{Webarchive. link. (28 May 2007)

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