Cootehill is a small market town in County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland. It has a population of approximately 4000 people.
The late Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, was born there in 1895. He was Archbishop of Dublin from 1940 until 1972. Also born there in 1895 was Major General Eric Dorman-Smith, (later Dorman-O'Gowan) a noted British Army soldier, and the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway's "Colonel Cantwell". McQuaid and Dorman-Smith were boyhood friends, despite the apparent disparity of background and later career. Paddy Smith, Fianna Fáil TD and the longest-serving member of Dáil Éireann was born there in 1901.
