Articles in the Comment Category

Co Monaghan is often perceived as impoverished in relation to other parts of the country when it comes to its attractions as a tourist destination. It is an obstacle of perception that those whose livelihoods are to a significant degree dependent on attracting visitors to the county have to labour hard to overcome – and it is one that is founded on a rather narrow interpretation of what appeals to the tourist market. In one respect, however, we have riches around us that few other areas of the ...

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills.” Seasoned Fine Gael member of Clones Town Council Peter Mulligan had perhaps the famous words uttered by US President John F Kennedy in the 1960s in mind when he made the audacious proposal on Tuesday that his local authority extend an invitation to JFK’s current successor Barack Obama ...

The passing of the proposed constitutional change presented to the people as the Children Referendum represents – notwithstanding the much closer than expected margin of outcome, and the low turnout of voters – an important decision. In the end, it was a close-run thing – but a distinct, if cautious, imprimatur has now been given to the Government to framework legislation and go about the reform of child protection services in a manner that will give a weight of meaning to the wording of the amendment now constitutionally enshrined ...

There is traditionally great Irish interest in the United States Presidential election, and many of us will have woken up yesterday morning eager to learn the outcome of the contest between Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney – or commenced our daily routine bleary-eyed from following the all-night coverage on radio and television. The news that the American people have granted Mr Obama the “four more years” he craved will be broadly welcomed here. Continuity of itself is no bad thing when it comes to ...

Given that all the major political parties are broadly in favour of its adoption, the proposed change to the Constitution concerning the rights of children on which the country will vote on Saturday, November 10 is generating, in at least some of the areas to which it is relevant, a remarkably high level of emotive and conflicting points of view. Remarkable perhaps, but hardly surprising – The Children Referendum touches upon subjects that have been, to a good many of our population, a source of profound emotional stress and ...

It is reasonable to anticipate that, despite the intensive advertising campaign that formed the prelude to yesterday’s demise of the analogue television signal in this country, there are probably a sizeable number of households in our circulation area which did not make the necessary preparations in time for the digital switchover, and are now deprived of a television service as a result. For whatever reason, there appeared to be an unusually high level of recalcitrance among the Irish public about preparing themselves for the change – and the ...

The local government reforms announced on Tuesday by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan are certainly radical ones. Governments have been playing keepy-up with this particular political football for an eternity, it seems, producing intermittent spasms of fancy footwork before kicking firmly to touch. Minister Hogan, never one to shirk a tackle, has now muscled his timorous predecessors aside, grasping the ball and running with it in an emphatic direction. The question is: is he heading towards his own goal? The headline feature of the new ...

There was undoubtedly a strong Co Monaghan representation among the thousands of farmers who assembled in Dublin for Tuesday’s ‘day of action’ to articulate concerns over pending changes to the Common Agricultural Policy and other issues of pressing importance to the agri-sector. It has been one of the defining strengths of the IFA and our other farming representative bodies that they can very efficiently and effectively mobilise their members in organised demonstrations of protest. The approach is effective in that it draws the attention of the wider public ...

It has traditionally been almost a defining characteristic of Irish people in general, and perhaps Co Monaghan people in particular, that they live in particular intimacy with their natural environment. Lest we be accused of advancing an overly romantic concept, it should be acknowledged that in the practical business of human conduct this relationship has not always been a happy or harmonious one historically, and there are many examples in the contemporary world of self-interest being pursued to the detriment of our heritage and our environment. But the ...

A very powerful road safety message was presented to the members of the Co Monaghan Joint Policing Committee on Monday – it is a message that deserves to be heard at all public forums in this county and across the gamut of our community organisations in the months ahead, traditionally a main danger time for serious and fatal traffic accidents. Contained within a five-minute DVD compiled by a group of young people from the Comhairle na nÓg youth forum, with the support of the cross-Border Driving Change Project and ...