CANADIAN AMBASSADOR SEES PROGRESSIVE PICTURE

A progressive picture of entrepreneurial and infrastructural development was presented to the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Loyola Hearn, when he fulfilled a busy round of engagements in Co Monaghan yesterday.
The former Minister for Fisheries in the Canadian Government took particular interest in activities at the fish farm operation of Mr John Connolly in the Ballybay area, which he inspected around noon, prior to a tour of the McAree Engineering enterprise in Ballinode, stops on his schedule interspersed with lunch in Monaghan Town’s Westenra Hotel.
The Ambassador had begun his itinerary in the south of the county, where he was shown the impressive array of facilities available and under development at the new civic offices building in Carrickmacross, with Town Mayor Noel Keelan and his fellow members of the Town Council engaging Mr Hearn in discussions about local economic development and the prospect of cultivating further mutually beneficial links between Co Monaghan and Canada.
In the afternoon the Minister and his party were met at the site of the €38 million Education Campus development at Knockaconny by the Chief Executive Officer of Co Monaghan Vocational Education Committee Martin G O’Brien, and VEC Chairperson Matt Carthy.
The Ambassador was shown the various facets of the new multi-purpose complex, now at an advanced stage of construction, and spoke with the CEO and VEC representatives about the potential of the development as an engine of social and economic impetus for the town, county and surrounding region.
As we went to press, Ambassador Hearn was being feted as guest of honour at a civic reception hosted by Monaghan Town Council in the Town Hall at Dublin Street in the county capital, where he was formally greeted by Cathaoirleach David Maxwell, Town Manager David Fallon and other members of the Council’s elected membership and executive.
Former member of Monaghan Co Council and Monaghan Town Council Willie McKenna, who has played a pioneering role in developing the cultural connections between Monaghan and those parts of Canada where a significant proportion of the population have heritage links with this county, accompanied the Ambassador on his tour.