Articles in the Castleblayney Category

By Patsy McArdle THE re-opening after major restoration work on the historic Gate Lodge at the entrance-way to Hope Castle in Castleblayney last Monday was described yesterday as a “good news story for Blayney” by the Cathaoirleach of the Carrickmacross/Castleblayney Municipal District, Cllr. Aidan Campbell. The restoration of the building—as reported elsewhere this edition had a very personal aspect for the popular Blayney Fine Gael local authority councilor—as it was once his own family home! His late father, Leo, who was a very prominent Macra na Feirme and ...

PETER HUGHES The simmering controversy over the “RTÉ Investigates” programme on which Monaghan Co Council member Hugh McElvaney was featured last December came briefly to the boil again at the conclusion of Monday’s meeting of the local authority in Castleblayney. Having asked for and received a statement from Chief Executive Eamonn O’Sullivan on comments made by Colr McElvaney at the recent Co Council Annual Meeting, Sinn Féin’s Brian McKenna insisted that, contrary to the tenor of Colr McElvaney’s remarks, an internal Co Council report into allegations arising from the RTE programme had ...

By PATSY McARDLE SPECULATION was rife in Castleblayney during the past week over the future development of the town’s former shopping complex and car park, off New Street, which were developed by local businessman Mr. Jim McConnon. It it emerged last Thursday that the property, which was placed in receivership by Zurich Bank, went under the auctioneer’s hammer. It was reported that reserve estimates of between €320,000 and €440,000 were placed on the shopping complex, with the adjacent car park area of 2.27acres of land separately ...

PETER HUGHES Cathaoirleach of Monaghan Co Council P J O’Hanlon was compelled to adjourn the business of Monday’s meeting of the local authority in Castleblayney for a five-minute “cooling off period” after councillors’ tempers became frayed over how best to address the issues arising from the UK’s recent ‘Brexit’ referendum decision to leave the European Union. Sinn Féin councillors wanted a discussion to proceed at Monday’s meeting on a motion of urgent business they had tabled on the topic. But the Council instead decided to convene a special meeting for yesterday, ...

Plans to engage in a process of public consultation and to develop a “master plan” for the future development of the Hope Castle and Lough Muckno areas of Castleblayney and the realisation of their potential to attract visitors to the county were referred to by Co Tourism Officer Dympna Condra when she addressed Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The local authority’s July meeting convened in Castleblayney to enable councillors to tour the scenic Muckno grounds and to examine the Hope Castle building, which is awaiting extensive renovations after undergoing severe ...

A Castleblayney boy who is battling Leukaemia had the honour of graduating from the Garda College in Templemore last week alongside this year’s new garda recruits. Ceejay McArdle of Castleblayney town, who just turned four on Monday past, 13th June, was kitted out in his Garda hat and a bespoke Garda uniform which was pressed especially for the day, as he joined the new gardaí at their ‘passing out’ ceremony in the Tipperary town on Wednesday, 8th June. He attended the event with his mother Susan Brown, his father Marcus McArdle and ...

A Castleblayney man will be featured on this Sunday night’s episode (22nd May) of RTE’s Dragons’ Den. Paul Kelly, a secondary school teacher in Beneavin College in Finglas, Dublin, will ask the Dragons for €60,000 for a 10 per cent share of his company, Homeschool.ie Homeschool.ie is an online teaching platform that gives Junior and Leaving Certificate students access to video lessons from the comfort and safety of their own home. The website allows users to connect with the very best teachers in the country no matter where they live or what ...

Spring Clean in 2016 has seen a massive effort by almost 50 communities, school and other groups in County Monaghan. Thousands of pieces of litter have been removed by these volunteers from roads, hedges, lane ways and streets of the County. It’s just a pity that it is there in the first place. Saturday the 14th will see one of the biggest Spring Clean events, not only in County Monaghan but in the Country, when up to 100 volunteers will litter pick up 30km of carriageway on the Castleblayney By Pass ...

By Veronica Corr The HSE came in for harsh criticism with regard to the shortage of GPs and the pressure on the North East Doctor-on-Call (NEDOC) service based in Castleblayney at last week’s meeting of Carrickmacross/ Castleblayney Municipal District. The debate arose out of an item of correspondence from NEDOC’s Operations Manager Geraldine Kane in response to a letter from the Municipal District dated February 3rd. Councillor Colm Carthy stated that some people in Carrick were finding it hard to get a GP to look after their families. He went on to point out that ...

Monaghan Sports Partnership hosted a sports club networking event last week at the Íontas Arts & Community Resources Centre in Castleblayney to provide sports clubs in County Monaghan with information and advice under a number of different themes. The event kicked off with an opening from Monaghan Sports Partnership Coordinator, Michelle Murphy who, having firstly shown highlights of the Sports Partnership work in the past year, presented on the areas of funding for sport – indicating to those present, some avenues for potential club funding and the importance of ensuring that ...