Articles in the Comment Category

Decision day is fast looming for many people on the contentious €100 household charge. The comparatively paltry rate of payment thus far does not, we believe, indicate that the vociferous campaign of opposition mounted against the imposition has – yet – secured the major groundswell of support that its advocates are claiming for it. Rather, we imagine, those who have not yet discharged their unlooked for but unavoidable indebtedness in this regard fall into a variegated category of “Don’t Knows”. Some, we imagine, are confused or unclear ...

Manifestations of Irish pride are never too far from the surface of our character. They are simmering near the top of the cauldron of emotion evoked at the great festival of National Hunt racing in Cheltenham this week, ready to erupt in tumultuous celebration when a home-produced horse flashes past the winning post. Irish pride will also magnify the atmosphere of the weekend’s rugby international against England at Twickenham, which will stir particular emotions in the breasts of Monaghan people as they cheer Emyvale’s Tommy Bowe on to ...

A man called Tigran Petrosian might have studied the debating positions of the representatives of EirGrid and the members of Monaghan Co Council who met in Carrickmacross on Monday for another exchange of views on the controversial north-south electricity interconnector project and nodded with approval. One of the great Russian chess grandmasters of the Soviet era, Petrosian was not celebrated for the imagination or daring of his play, but was deeply esteemed, and greatly feared, by opponents for his unrivalled capacity to construct labyrinthine defensive positions of all but ...

No Leap Year matrimonial proposal will have been embarked upon as nervously this week as the leap of faith the Government has been compelled to make in the people of the country from whom they are to seek endorsement of the European Fiscal Stability Pact by referendum in a number of months. The instinctive reluctance many will feel at having to trudge to the polls to make another determination on a Europe-related matter, after enduring another tug-of-war campaign between Yes and No advocates that could well obfuscate rather than ...

A considerable good news story for the Monaghan area, and for the beleaguered angling tourism sector of our county, was confirmed at Monday night’s meeting of Monaghan Town Council when details were outlined by a three-member delegation of a major international coarse fishing event to be held on waters in and around the county capital in October of this year. Recent publicity generated by coarse fishing in this county has been of the adverse type. Concerns have been raised about illegal poaching practices that have been perceived as ...

There are several praiseworthy elements to the Government’s “Action Plan for Jobs” unveiled on Monday with much orchestrated fanfare by its creators and, subsequently, a pronounced want of enthusiasm by Opposition politicians and some media commentators. Its chief merit is perhaps an intrinsic one – by producing a wide-ranging blueprint for employment creation, with a sequel publication planned for next year and the promise of quarterly progress reports on its effect, the Government are signalling some serious, if overdue, concentration on the task of stimulating the economy. We’ve ...

The neglect of Co Monaghan as a location for inward investment by the State agencies charged with generating employment in this country was well illustrated by statistics that emerged in the Dáil last week – and powerfully re-emphasised by a debate at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council which resulted in a bid by councillors to secure a meeting with Minister Richard Bruton in order to redress what Colr Matt Carthy insisted, despite suggestions that he might diplomatically ameliorate the phraseology, was a situation of “blatant disregard”. The public ...

Despite some significant recent successes by the Gardai and the Customs and Excise authorities in striking at its means of production, it is clear that the manufacture, distribution and sale of illegally laundered fuel products remains a thriving organised criminal enterprise across the Border region in general, and in Co Monaghan in particular. While the breadth of its web extends nationwide, the threads of this pernicious illicit activity are largely spun from the region of which the circulation area of this newspaper is part, and the manifold ills of ...

One of the subjects most passionately debated in this country in recent years has concerned the law with regard to the rights of house and property holders to protect person and possession in the event of criminal intrusion. The subject, which touches on fundamental moral and constitutional issues, acquired force of feeling and relevance a number of years ago in light of the court proceedings taken against a Co Mayo farmer, Padraig Nally, who shot and killed an intruder he believed was trespassing with criminal intent on his farm. ...

Even in difficult times such as these, distinctions must be drawn between wise and ill-advised economies. Proposals apparently afoot to radically change the structures of local government administration in this country, which could involve the abolition of existing town councils and the reduction in the number of county councils as a new district council structure is evolved, would seem to fall into the latter category. A meeting arranged by Ballybay Town Councillor Gerry Treanor to take place in the town’s Wetlands Centre next Monday (see story page one) ...