Articles in the Castleblayney Category

AN early morning bid by a cross-border gang to snatch an ATM machine containing several thousand euro at the Ulster Bank premises on Dublin Road, Castleblayney, failed yesterday (Wed) when the raiders were unable to open the safe or convey it away from the area. The raiders had also placed a gas tank and other paraphenelia on the road near the bank, in a bid to thwart gardai from moving to the scene. Irish army bomb disposal experts later dealt with the contraption, making it safe. It ...

BY PATSY McARDLE A HUGE all-Ireland boost for Castleblayney’s annual agricultural show this year was announced during the week with the disclosure that the final of the Irish Shows Association and the Craft Butchers of Ireland “Home Cook Championship 2015” will be staged during the Co. Monaghan event on the August Bank Holiday, Monday 3rd August next. This is a new national competition, which carries a very attractive prize of one week’s cooking course at the world renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, and also includes accommodation. The ...

Our Lady’s Secondary School, Castleblayney ended a ten-year wait in some style when they won Tuesday’s all-Monaghan Danske Bank Ulster Colleges MacLarnon Cup Final against Patrician High School, Carrickmacross in Armagh. Like in the 2005 final, Our Lady’s hit four goals, but this time they were much more convincing winners than a decade ago, when they only managed to kick one point. Both teams had impressed on their way to this decider, but goals by Micheál Bannigan, Jamie Walshe, James Wilson and Barry McGinn separated the teams. Bannigan produced a powerful ...

The potetial threat posed to the rich angling tourism resource of Lough Muckno in Castleblayney by invasive invertebrate, fish and plant species was graphically outlined to Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council in a presentation made by Joe Caffrey and Dick Caplice of Inland Fisheries Ireland. “To keep Lough Muckno invasive species free, it must be managed and used responsibly by all stakeholders,” Mr Caffrey stated. Mr Caplice, who was praised by the councillors for the exceptional contribution he had made to the development of the Mid-Monaghan watersourse into the major international ...

THE wider Mid-Monaghan community was stunned and deeply saddened by the news on Thursday last of a tragic road accident near Lough Egish in which a 70-years old pensioner Mr. Pat Connolly of Brackley, Loughmourne, was fatally injured. It appeared the deceased, who was a hugely popular local resident, was driving a car which was involved in a collision at approximately 5.45 pm at Cooltrimegish, Castleblayney—on the main Ballybay to Carrickmacross Road about six miles from Ballybay The deceased’s car collided with a tractor pulling a trailer with a feeder. The late ...

By PATSY McARDLE ALLEGED sensational claims by anonymous sources published in a Sunday newspaper suggesting there are toxins being pumped into Lough Muckno near Castleblayney, and the water supply to Dundalk, led to a public assurance at a meeting of Louth County Council on Monday last,   from the Council’s Director of Services, Mr. Frank Pentony, that tests carried out on the water, during the past year, had found “no issue” with the supply. The senior official categorically assured councillors—and the public generally—that the water supply to Dundalk was “safe”. The issue was raised ...

The signing of a €4.3 million contract for the new single campus Castleblayney College is a landmark occasion for students, parents, teachers and the community at large. The whole of the county is aware of the long-running saga of the split school campus at the college. For fifteen years the college has mounted a campaign to have a single campus and eliminate the dangers of having the N2 roadway through the college. More than a thousand crossings daily between buildings posed a risk to students and now that risk is to ...

By PATSY McARDLE CASTLEBLAYNEY was again the focus of a ‘good news’ story last week, when the town was deservedly adjudged as having staged the ‘best festival in Ireland’ last year!. And there was huge jubilation in the mid-Monaghan town on Friday last when the popular and successful Muckno Mania Festival was declared ‘Best Festival in Ireland’ in a special Today FM Best in Ireland Awards’ Competition. The Best in Ireland Awards was held in association with Board Gais Energy and ran in conjunction with the Ray Darcy morning show on Today FM. Over ...

Monaghan Co Council has backed the ongoing campaign to have the decision by Ulster Bank to close its branches in Castleblayney and Clones reversed. Two motions of urgent business which highlighted the significant economic and social impact that the closures would visit upon the towns in question were adopted at Monday’s meeting of the local authority in Carrickmacross. A proposal in the names of Sinn Féin representatives Pat Treanor of Clones and Jackie Crowe of Castleblayney sought an urgent meeting with senior Ulster Bank management to demand a reversal of the decision ...