Articles in the Comment Category

THE EQUALITY JOURNEY The wide range of activities that took place across our county during the recent Social Inclusion Week undoubtedly sharpened awareness of the eternal topicality of equality issues, reinforcing the message that while a great deal has been done to extend social opportunity to everyone in our county, there remains a great deal more to do. We tend to pride ourselves as individuals upon our modern acceptance of groupings that were once marginalised or isolated – the single mother, the person with different skin colour, same-sex couples, people with disabilities, ...

TThe importance of the GAA to the Irish social engine is indisputable. From its very beginnings the Association has laid legitimate claim to territory beyond the demarcations of the playing field, drawing to itself a governance of influence on aspects of life that are interwoven with how we define what it is to be Irish. It has facilitated, and often battled to preserve, the identifying distinctiveness of our language and forms of cultural expression – and it has provided an interlocking structure that has enabled our social building ...

The outcome of the development phase of the Wood FootPrint Project initiated in Monaghan over two years ago to examine the causes of decline in the furniture production sector and chart avenues for its revival was presented at a launch function on Friday last. The report, “Whither the Furniture Industry?” takes a question posed some time ago in this editorial section of our newspaper and answers it with a comprehensive Local Action Plan based on a series of key implementation measures addressing organisation, training, design, manufacture and marketing. ...

The outcome of the same-sex marriage referendum, while in conformity with most predictions, was sufficiently emphatic for it to take on the appearance of marking a very significant change in the prevailing attitudes, and social landscape, of the country. If indeed such change is discernible from the referendum’s passing by a comfortable majority, it has not come about overnight or been wrought by the workings of the campaign that preceded last Friday’s poll. The accommodation of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as a discrete minority component of the population has ...

The people of our county take great and justifiable pride in the achievements of Monaghan Mushrooms. It has long been a flagship emblem for the entrepreneurial flair we believe distinguishes us – a company founded in the 1980s by a local businessman, Ronnie Wilson, with a novel idea and the vision and energy to develop it to the optimum, that has gone on to be a global leader as well as a significant local employer. Monaghan Mushrooms has commanded a position of majesty in the business world for so long now that ...

Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown Shakespeare’s famous summation of the burdens of command in Henry IV will resonate strongly with the leaders of the political parties contesting the Westminster elections up for decision in the next days. For there could be regicidal consequences for some of the figures who have occupied centrestage in Northern Ireland and UK politics over the past decade or so from what is widely expected to be an indeterminate outcome when the votes are tallied. Such is the do or die ...

Although those campaigning on the opposing sides of the argument in relation to the same-sex marriage referendum to be put to the people on May 22 will insist with increasing emphasis otherwise as polling day approaches, whether the constitutional amendment in question is accepted or rejected will not transform the social, legal and moral landscape of the country overnight. If the Yes side prevails, gay, bisexual and transgender people may experience some immediate euphoria, and the sense of being part of a more accepting Republic that has given enhanced esteem to ...

It must have looked so good on paper. The new streamlined model for local government in Ireland is now almost a year in operation but its progenitors will be perturbed as they look upon their fledging creation. For there is a ghost in the machine – or, more accurately, a revenant, a spectre from the dark days of local administration that has come back to haunt them. At a time when bodies such as Monaghan Co Council should be getting down to their new business of being drivers of community development and economic ...

The development of a new Co Museum premises, a vision for which was outlined at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council, is one of the most important projects for the enhancement of our county currently in preparation. Spending on cultural and artistic initiatives, particularly at a time when the privations of recession are still being experienced by many despite the insistence of Government and some economic commentators that the country is in recovery mode, carries with it an almost apologetic air. But to regard investment in this area ...

One of the more onerous duties allotted to the incumbent of the Education portfolio in Government is to address the various teaching union conferences that take place at this time of the year. Given the cuts the education sector has had to cope with in the austerity period, there has been a heightened sense of running the gauntlet about these occasions for recent Ministers of the day, and Jan O’Sullivan will have had the “trial by ordeal” experience accentuated for her this week by the still live Junior Certificate ...