Articles in the Comment Category

Those pining for an ‘Indian summer’ return of the glorious weeks of weather we experienced a little while ago might find their hopes rising in the days ahead – if they vouch belief in the popular myth that the return of children to school always prompts the sun to re-emerge from its hiding place! Whether this dubious adage holds true or not, the reopening of primary and secondary schools that starts this week and continues into next is a significant time for pupils and parents, particularly in families which ...

The indications that international bank Investec are set to enter the Irish mortgage market are potentially positive ones for this important dimension of the economy. The move should generate competition and fresh activity in a sector moribund since the 2008 collapse. Those entering the housing market in the future, should, if the laws of competitive practice hold true, benefit from having more attractive variable interest rates on offer as the existing players jostle for the available business with a newcomer that, significantly, does not have to contend with ...

The days that precede and immediately follow the announcement of the Leaving Certificate examination results are among the most emotionally turbulent that young people and their parents experience. Around 57,000 candidates sat the examination this year, and in none of their households will the outcome of their efforts be greeted with ambivalence. There will be jubilation at the meeting of points goals that facilitate progress along the preferred academic and career pathways; despair at results that fell short of the aimed-for targets, or, perhaps predominantly, anxiety about borderline ...

The proportion of attention commanded in recent weeks by instances of serious abuse of the social networking media has prompted renewed calls for tighter regulation of this proliferating channel of modern communication. When young people take their own lives having been subjected to online bullying, and when others are targeted by messages threatening physical and sexual violence, demands for stricter controls of the platforms used, and punishment for the perpetrators of such vile abuse, are understandable. The nature of social media, however, makes the conventional system of checks ...

The brilliance of the summer sunshine we have lately enjoyed may have become interrupted by intermittent cloud and rain, but Monaghan people are still basking in the warm glow of the feel-good factor generated by our county footballers at all levels. With last weekend’s historic Ulster Final double still fresh in our minds and hearts, attention turns to Croke Park this Saturday when the senior side attempt to negotiate the difficult hurdle of traditional provincial rivals Tyrone and advance to the All-Ireland semi-finals. Success is a potent addictive, ...

The failure of Monaghan Co Council to debate an Urgent Business Motion at its meeting on Monday on the subject of The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill currently before the national legislators was an opportunity missed. Local elected representatives rarely turn down the chance to make their views known on the issues of the day – and there is no issue more topical at the present time that the Government’s decision to amend the country’s laws on abortion. In strict procedural terms, it is debatable whether the ...

A wartime injunction designed to ensure that the security of the British home front was not compromised by sensitive information falling into enemy espionage earshot was encapsulated in the words: “Careless talk costs lives.” The succinctness of the phrase guaranteed it longevity well beyond its initial context and it has lingered in the popular memory as a warning to the indiscreet. It surely surfaced in the minds of the senior bank executives whose taped conversations at the cusp of the financial crisis in 2008 dominated public conversation this ...

Given the hullabaloo that preceded it, the rapid and largely uneventful progress of the G8 summit in neighbouring Co Fermanagh on Monday and Tuesday of this week leaves behind it a lingering sense of anti-climax that invites the question of what all the fuss was about. Of course the lack of surrounding drama was in many ways a very good thing. The massive security arrangements, and the huge expenditure and considerable inconvenience they entailed, created an expectation of large-scale protests and considerable public disorder. The expressions of ...

A significant moment in the history of public education in Co Monaghan was reached on Monday when the final meeting of the county’s Vocational Education Committee took place. The moment marked both an end and a beginning – as the final chapter in the history of a structure that has served an important purpose in the education of Irish young people since 1930 was finished, so the first lines of its sequel were written as the transition to the new dispensation of Education and Training Boards began to be ...

We’ve got a glimpse in the past week of the visage of the Brave New World promised by Minister for Environment Phil Hogan TD when he launched his ‘Putting People First’ package of local government reforms some time back. That glimpse was disclosed by the publication of the report of the Local Electoral Boundary Commission charged with drafting the new lineaments of the battlegrounds upon which the 2014 local government elections and those immediately ensuing will be fought. But we have been presented with something more akin to ...