Welcome to Clontarf!

History of Clontarf 

Clontarf received its first settler in June of 1876, and was organized on January 16th, 1877. Clontarf got its name from a town & water place in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The site was chosen in 1876 by the catholic colonization Bureau to develop as it second colony in Minnesota.  The inhabitants are mostly Irish, a colony having settled here in 1878. The two main groups who chose to settle in the Clontarf area were the Irish & the French. For the most part the Irish settlers came as a result of Bishop Ireland's catholic colonization efforts. The French settlers must have also been attracted by the presence of a Catholic Church & a resident priest, which were the two major draws for the Irish colonists. 

The city of Clontarf was platted in 1876, incorporated as a village on November 17, 1881, reincorporated on April 21, 1904, & separated from the township on Aril 7, 1916. with postmaster Dominick F. McDermott, who came from Ireland in 1834 & to Minnesota in 1856. Settlers came to Clontarf from all over the Country. For most on Clontarf's pioneer settlers, this was a second, third, or fourth stop in the migratory process. Clontarf is similar to the hundreds of small towns that popped up along the railroad as it stretched through the western United States. 

 Clontarf Today 

The small town of 155 people now enjoy locally owned business in various industries such as motor repair, electrical service, oil, cleaning, and fertilizer. 

A few businesses you can find in Clontarf today, include: Razink Gravel, Kent Electric Motor Repair, Route 22 Bar & Grill, Captain Clean, & Chamberlin Oil Company.