Articles in the Comment Category

One of the temperature gauges of the state of economic and community health of our towns and village settlements is the condition of its physical, particularly its trading, landscape. The prevalence in all Co Monaghan’s towns of closed business premises, some in advancing stages of dereliction, testifies to the austerity-driven times of recent years – like pockmarks or amputations, they are the residual traces of the widespread economic blight that has swept the country. If the current fragile shoots of economic improvement take root, the resultant growth will efface some of this ...

The maxim that, if you don’t deal with a problem, it eventually deals with you probably doesn’t need much practical demonstration – but it is getting a highly conspicuous one in the overcrowding chaos afflicting the Irish hospital system this week. The good people of the Monaghan General Hospital Community Alliance, and the other campaigners who fought valiantly if largely unavailingly to resist the removal of acute services and emergency medical provision at smaller Irish hospitals in recent times, must be shaking their heads sadly at the scenes that have convulsed ...

The glow of warm light in winter darkness remains the most potent symbolic association that the approaching days of Christmas possess. In towns and villages throughout our county, a great deal of effort and no little expense is incurred in garlanding the streetscapes with festive lights. The impetus for this is ostensibly commercial, the creation of an atmosphere conducive to lively trade and the maximisation of the enhanced opportunity this time of year offers for the businesses that are crucial to the healthy functioning of our local economies. But the governing impulse is ...

One of the irresolvable conundrums of life in Co Monaghan is that, given our conspicuous level of achievement in Tidy Towns competitions and the widespread evidence of community pride in place, the problem of littering should continue to be such a massive drain on local authority resources and a highly visible blight on many of our highways and byways. Street-cleaning costs – estimated by Sinn Féin Co Councillor Pat Treanor during the recent Budget discussions of the authority as being close to €1,000 per day – eat up a great deal ...

The crucial Christmas trading season for the county’s commercial and retail sectors that is now upon us has been ushered in on a tide of cautious optimism that seems to gauge the temperature of the wider economic climes. But, if the country is creeping stealthily away from austerity, its shadow is still a long one, with the music made by the clash of spare spending coinage in the pockets of the people hardly yet rising to orchestral heights. If shoppers contemplating their Christmas wants and needs have a little more fiscal leverage ...

Measures announced by US President Barack Obama this week that alleviate the problematic situation of undocumented Irish people Stateside will have gladdened the hearts of a good many families in our circulation area. There are many Co Monaghan people among the thousands of Irish in America over whom the shadow of deportation has long hung because of their twilight legal status. That law-abiding immigrants with established family ties making productive contributions to the economy will be able to live and work in the US in the future without looking over their shoulders ...

The Government were expected to unveil clarifying measures yesterday afternoon designed to dilute the widespread public bile over the imposition of water charges. Advance “leaks” of the placatory package indicated that charges for single adult households would be capped at €160 per year, with all other households paying an annual maximum of €260. Some legislative reassurance was also to be provided to assuage fears over any future privatisation of the new Irish Water utility. Bringing clarity to exactly what water will cost people in the future is welcome – it is just ...

The escalation of farmer protest over the beef price issue visible at factory gates throughout the country again this week was not a welcome sight. Aside from the disruption caused to production and the considerable economic cost to the food processing sector, the image of Irish agriculture abroad will have taken another bruising at a time when our ability to meet the requirements of the export marketplace can least afford a diminishment of reputation. As farmer and industry representatives gather for another round of Beef Forum talks over the coming days, ...

The significant escalation of protest over the current extremely difficult situation pertaining in the beef sector marked by this week’s 24-hour demonstrations by the Irish Farmers’ Association at meat factories in Co Monaghan and throughout the State has certainly heightened awareness of the issue at hand. While the sight of protesting farmers has not been an uncommon one across the country over the years, the action taken this week by the IFA is of a deeper and more serious order than the norm, reflective of the very testing circumstances many of ...

Recent public meetings held in the Teach na nDaoine Family Resource Centre in Monaghan Town have cast a chilling ray of illumination on the extent of drug dealing and drug taking in our midst. Although prompted by one community’s reaction to the tragic death of a young local man, it is clear from the contributions made at the meetings and the wider debate and publicity they have generated that this is not a problem specific to any one area and location in Co Monaghan – drugs are ubiquitous, and ...