Articles in the Comment Category

The most important day of their lives? Hardly. It would open up a depressing vista indeed to contemplate the existence of the 58,000 or so Leaving Certificate students who received their examination results yesterday and perceive their futures as offering up nothing richer in terms of an occasion that will exercise defining influence on their characters and careers. Examination performance has its importance in the scheme of things, but the fuss and furore that surrounds the annual revelation of the Leaving results has got completely out of hand. ...

The vulnerability of rural areas to crime is a subject of intermittent and often quite impassioned debate in this country. Incidents in which countryside farms and residences are targeted for the purpose of robbery, occasionally resulting in the occupants being subjected to violence or terrified by the threat of it, although quite infrequent, occur from time to time and evoke strong feelings in the public. They also carry with them a legacy of fear and unease for those living in isolated areas, to the extent that the question is asked ...

No matter how the Health Service Executive try to legitimise it with cant and their own odious take on the Orwellian conceit of newspeak, the decision revealed this week to remove the location of important emergency ambulance services away from the North Monaghan area can only be described as one showing outrageous disregard for the health and safety of local people. The relocation of these services to Castleblayney in order to serve North Louth as well as North Monaghan beggars belief, particularly as the Rapid Response Vehicle concept was ‘sold’ to ...

EirGrid’s decision to formally withdraw the planning application for their cross-Border electricity interconnector development following the exposure of a major flaw in documentation marks an ignominious moment in the history to date of this project and the manner in which its presentation to the public and to the relevant planning authorities has been handled. The strong lobby of community interests across Co Monaghan and the other counties which are affected by the proposal have greeted the news in triumphant terms. In the words of Mid-Monaghan Co Council member Owen Bannigan, ...