By PATSY McARDLE
A SOUTH Monaghan man, who is a member of a highly esteemed family near Carrickmacross, has received a top global engineering award for a range of mind-boggling and unique construction projects in the Middle East.
David Murray, who is son of well known Fine Gael county councillor Aidan Murray and Anne Murray of Rahans, has received the highest prestigious international engineering award on the world circuit for his outstanding performances.
Although now based in the Middle East, Mr. Murray has literally …

veronica corr
Carrickmacross Town Council passed a vote of congratulations to retired Garda duo Valerie and Anthony Campion at Monday’s meeting.
They also plan to make a presentation to the couple at a future meeting of Carrickmacross Town Council.
Fianna Fail Cllr. Padraig McNally, who was in attendance of their retirement function in the Nuremore Hotel last Thursday night, said that Valerie had been the first female Garda ever to be stationed in Carrickmacross 28 years ago.
Their former colleagues in Carrickmacross Garda Station were delighted that the retiring husband and wife got the …

A man from a Travellers background who was arrested for a public order breach in Carrickmacross last Sunday night and who had 118 previous convictions was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment at Monaghan District Court on Monday, in a case where the defendant’s tragic personal circumstances were also outlined.
John McDonagh (42) of St Margaret’s Halting Site, Finglas, and with a new address at 2 St Vincent’s Park, Navan admitted to the court that he was intoxicated in public and had failed to comply with garda directions at Drummond …

By PATSY McARDLE
FARMERS and other residents in the South Monaghan area have expressed strong condemnation over the dumping last week of diesel sludge—a product of illicit fuel laundering by racketeers—on the Crossmaglen Road outside Carrickmacross.
Last week, a Monaghan county council environment team was called to deal with a possible pollution threat posed by the illicit dumping.
The emergency clearance operation was necessary to prevent diesel sludge—the substance left after a fuel “doctoring” operation to remove colouring from tax-rebated fuel so that it …

By PATSY McARDLE
A 29-years-old Carrickmacross man who was the driver of a car which claimed three lives, and the life of an unborn infant, in a horrific crash in South Monaghan, was ordered to spend three years in prison by a judge at a sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court in Carrickmacross on Tuesday last.
Kevin McArdle of Longfield, Carrickmacross, appeared in custody and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in the wake of a three-vehicle …

A 33-years-old Co. Monaghan female shop assistant who stole in excess of €80,000 from her employer over a period of several weeks in 2009 and 2010 was ordered by a judge to undertake 240 hours community service, as an alternative to a two-year jail sentence at Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday.
Linda Creegan, of 4, The Grove, Corduff, Carrickmacross, and also with an address at Ardenew, Longwood, Co. Meath, pleaded guilty to five charges of stealing cash in excess of €80,192 from Terry Cassidy …

By Veronica Corr
Last Thursday night, the grotto incorporating the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes on Castle Street, commonly known as the Convent Hill adjoining the Ardee Road, was vandalised.
The statue was so badly smashed that it has been deemed beyond repair. Local people on their way to Mass on Friday morning discovered that the statue had been destroyed and reported the vandalism to long-term caretaker Eddie Byrne.
The statue was presented to Brother Serenus by a nun in Portadown, and he decided to erect the shrine, which was unveiled …

A 38-years-old Lithuanian national, Zigimantas Gridziuskas, with an address at Ard Ross Avenue in Carrickmacross, appeared at a sitting of the District Court in Dundalk last Thursday on four charges arising from a collision on the N2 Dublin/Derry Road at Tullyvaragh Upper near Carrickmacross on Tuesday night of last week last, in which a 23 –year’s-old law student, Shane O’Farrell of Magheraboy, Carrickmacross, was fatally injured. The victim was cycling on the roadway when the collision occurred and was later …

TWO families were engulfed in grief this week after separate weekend tragedies which claimed two lives in Mid-Monaghan and left a third man seriously injured in hospital.
The first fatality took place late on Sunday night on the main Castleblayney-Ballybay Road (R183) at Killycrum, a short distance from Doohamlet village, in which a pedestrian, Michael Murphy, in his mid-thirties, of Cois Locha, Doohamlet, was struck by a car which also collided with a roadside wall at a dwelling, causing severe head and shoulder injuries to the driver, also a …

CARRICK MAN BENEFITS FROM JAIL ‘JOKE”!
By PATSY McARDLE
A YOUNG Carrickmacross man who was sentenced to three months imprisonment from the District Court earlier this month, when convicted for public order offences, has highlighted the present ridiculous “revolving door” dilemma in relation to the Irish prison service!
The prisoner has indicated how he unexpectedly benefited from the situation in a way that has undoubtedly proved hugely embarrassing for the State, the gardai, and the courts’ service!.
It emerged yesterday that while the prisoner was transported …