Much regret in Monaghan Town and over a wide area greeted the news of the passing at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin on Saturday last, May 18 of Nóra Mac Cinna (née Holland), Leacht Lorcáin, Muineachán. A noted educationalist, campaigner, advocate, and enthusiast for the Irish language, Nóra was an Old Cross Square and Monaghan Townswoman through and through, She spent her childhood with her paternal grandparents, Mary Ann and John James Holland, in the Gate Lodge of Monaghan Hospital.
The streets of her beloved town were her playground from the Jail Hill to Market Street, Back Street, the Plantation, Dublin Street and Old Cross Square. Nóra possessed a great knowledge of the town and its people. Living with her grandmother Mary Ann gave her insight that straddled generations. John James Holland, her grandfather, lit and extinguished the gas lights of the town. Her maternal great grandfather, John Treanor, was a prominent auctioneer and businessman in Monaghan Town in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Nóra was an educationalist and a campaigner on many issues at local and national level. She had a great love for her family and for Monaghan. A fluent Irish speaker, she had a love for Ireland, the Irish people, language and culture. Her tenacity in advancing just causes in society at large was matched on the camogie playing fields of Monaghan. Nóra taught in Dundalk, Tapagh, Tullycroman, Knockatallon, St Louis Girls’ School and St Mary’s Boys’ National School, Monaghan. She married Seán Mac Cinna in 1966 and settled in Latlurcan.
Nóra’s funeral mass was celebrated on Tuesday, May 21 at St Macartan’s Cathedral. She was interred in St Joseph’s New Cemetery, Latlurcan. Nora was predeceased by her husband Seán, her parents John and Brigid Rose Holland (née Treanor) and her brother Seán. She is survived by daughters Síona (David Lydon) and Nuala (Fintan Gorman), sons Lorcán (Elizabeth Loughrey), Colm (Martha McCague) and Eoin (Amy McKernan), grandchildren Daire, Briana, Aoibhín, Cathal, Conn, Caoimhe, Trea, Dónal, Seán, Ódhrán, Aifric, Éilis and Caolán, brothers Paddy, Joe, Maurice and Philip, sister Jennifer and wider family circle.
