Articles in the Comment Category

The bid by Independent Senator David Norris to become a contestant in the Presidential election later this year has ended ignominiously. The decision made by Senator Norris to withdraw his candidacy in light of the controversy over his misguided plea for clemency for a former partner convicted of statutory rape was the correct one. His aspiration to the office of President has been rendered untenable by the poor judgement he displayed in this matter. Although to a degree ceremonial, the position of President in this country has ...

A maturity of approach was evident on both sides when representatives of the Lough Muckno Community Partnership met the members of Monaghan Co Council to discuss a strategy for the future development of a Mid-Monaghan amenity long regarded as having enormous, if frustratingly untapped, potential to lead the growth of our county’s ‘Cinderella’ tourism industry into a substantial component of the local economy. To applaud experienced local authority representatives on the one hand and responsible and dedicated community leaders on the other for a ‘grown-up’ approach to a subject ...

The Co Monaghan Border town of Clones has long been a place of extraordinary contradictions. The people of the town have grown accustomed to, although not perhaps always happy with, their home place being held up as a prime example of the destructive dimensions of partition and the physical manifestations of economic decline. There is much evidence to sustain these diagnoses. Yet the town is also a realm for high achievers, and has incubated remarkable talent in sporting, literary and community development fields, and many who have ...

It is deeply ironic that a major public infrastructural development that has as one of its dimensions the intent of improving the environment for electronic communications in this country should, in its prolonged and troubled genesis, be distinguished by a signal failure of its advocates to engage meaningfully and reassuringly with the huge public concerns that have arisen with regard to it. The development by EirGrid of a 400kv north-south electricity interconnector using high-voltage overhead powerlines has proven an issue of widespread public unease in the communities in which ...

Today’s meeting in Dublin between Minister for Health Dr James Reilly and representatives of Monaghan Town and Co Councils and the Monaghan General Hospital Community Alliance will, hopefully, prove both informative and reassuring for the people of our county. The meeting was already of crucial importance in clarifying the level of hospital services we can expect to see provided in Co Monaghan in the future. Events of earlier this week have accentuated that importance. The local delegation will want the Minister to authoritatively dispel or confirm the ...

The trek up the arduous Everest of educational attainment formed by the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations has begun over recent days for hundreds of students in our circulation area. They deservedly carry with them the prayers and good wishes not alone of their family, loved ones and teachers, but also of all in the community cognisant of the particular pressures on this emerging generation. The exam students are destined to emerge out of the current crucible of pressurised performance into a world that, because of widespread economic ...

The death of former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald has sparked an outpouring of public sentiment, tinged with spontaneous affection, rarely evoked by the passing of a major political figure. Longevity had been kind to the former Fine Gael leader. He had made the transition from active political life as easily as, at a comparatively late age, he had entered it – maturing into a magus-like commentator on economic and social issues whose newspaper columns, television analysis and campaigning on European referenda distilled a lifetime’s scholarship and projected a ...

Whether one welcomes it or resents it, it is impossible in the week that’s in it to ignore the visit of the British Queen to our shores. While it is difficult to assess fully the nature and impact of an occasion that is still in progress, it seems fair to say that the immediate impression left upon Irish people will have confounded expectations. The unprecedented security operation attendant to the royal visit was much signposted in the media but its elaborate and somewhat overbearing extent will have only ...

A mood seems to be growing in the country that we need to change the office of president to make it more compatible with the times. Every time a presidential election looms, a debate seems to occur along the lines of opening up the windows of Aras an Uachtaráin to admit the fresh air of modernity. But a particularly sharpened focus on the nature of the presidential function and the type of individual who should discharge it is likely to colour the build-up to the election of a ...

The crews of Monaghan Fire Service are fully deserving of the words of praise directed their way at Tuesday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council for their courageous endeavours to bring under control the major gorse fires that swept across the scenic Bragan area of North Monaghan over the Bank Holiday weekend past. The one positive dimension of this incident is that it brings to the forefront of public attention the bravery and expertise that the fire fighters in our community devote as a matter of course to the preservation ...