Articles in the General News Category

The death on Friday last, July 16 in a road traffic accident of 19-year-old Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh, the captain of Co Monaghan’s U-20s Gaelic football team, has caused widespread shock and grief throughout the county and in sporting circles nationwide. Mr Ó Dufaigh had played a starring role as centre half back in Monaghan’s 3-10 to 1-11 victory over Donegal in the Ulster U-20 Championship semi-final in Brewster Park in Enniskillen earlier in the evening and was driving home from the Monaghan GAA training facility at Cloghan when the ...

Margaret Urwin of the Justice for the Forgotten campaign group, established in relation to the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan Town, has called on the Irish Government to seek the intervention of United States President Joe Biden to try to halt the intention of the British Government to introduce an effective amnesty for crimes carried out during the Northern Ireland Troubles. Ms Urwin urged President Biden to speak out on the issue and said it would be helpful if the Irish Government could make representations to Mr Biden in ...

Confirmation that 23 new step-down care beds promised for Monaghan Hospital were now all fully operational was welcomed at Monday’s meeting of the Monaghan Municipal District. But Sinn Féin representative Brian McKenna emphasised that what was required at the facility was additional services and the medical staff to run them, pointing to the disincentive to economic investment in the county which the lack of full hospital services created. Welcoming the 23 beds that had come on stream at the hospital, Independent councillor Seamus Treanor said it was great to see ...

Monaghan Co Council received presentations last week pointing to the development of adventure biking trails across the scenic Sliabh Beagh moorland and blanket bog expanse in the Border area, and the establishment of a network of ancestry tourism gatherings based on the county’s most prolific surnames, as a potential formula for transforming the county’s tourism status from Cinderella to Killarney! Fiona Connolly of the Knockatallon-based Sliabh Beagh Adventures called on the elected and executive members of the local authority to pursue funding opportunities for the development of the existing network ...

The Border Communities Against Brexit campaign groups has said that the British Government’s attempts to seek major changes in the Northern Ireland protocol is an attempt to pit the two communities in Ireland against each other. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis MP in a statement to the House of Commons yesterday called for an end to virtually all checks on goods made in Britain intended for sale in Northern Ireland. There was speculation as we went to press that the British Government was prepared to back its calls for major ...

Representatives of the CMP or Commercial Mushroom Producers group in Monaghan met with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue when he visited Monaghan Town on Tuesday of this week. The CMP representatives urged Minister McConalogue to address the current plight facing the sector due to the proposed ban on the harvesting of horticultural peat. Co Monaghan IFA and ICSA members also engaged in discussions with the Minister, emphasising the need they saw for the appointment of a Beef Regulator and raising a number of issues in the poultry sector. The recent ...

Taoiseach’s Aide de Camp Commandant Caroline Burke joined the attendance in St Macartan’s Cathedral in Monaghan Town yesterday, Wednesday morning for the Funeral Mass of Brendan Óg “Ógie” Ó Dufaigh, the Monaghan football U-20 captain and Monaghan Harps player who died in a road accident at Clontibret on Friday last. The attendance at the Cathedral was limited by Covid-19 regulatory guidance but the depth of grief in the community engendered by the young man’s passing and the solidarity with the Ó Dufaigh family was evident from the large crowds of ...

Everyone is welcome to a day of discovering and learning about nature in Rossmore Park this Sunday 25th July as Monaghan Tidy Towns holds the first of two Bioblitzes as part of their work on water quality. The Bioblitz is funded under CatchmentCARE. CatchmentCARE (Community Actions for Resilient Eco-systems) aims to improve freshwater quality in cross-border river basins across three cross-border catchments through the development of water quality improvement projects in the Finn, Blackwater and Arney catchments. The day will be led by ecologist Karl Hamilton on behalf of CatchmentCare ...

A game “as blistering as the Newry sun” saw Monaghan rise above tragedy to edge closer to Ulster glory – JACK MADDEN was there A minute’s silence where time stood still. Sixty seconds perfectly observed. How we wish we will never see the likes of it ever again. On Saturday morning there was much doubt surrounding the first of the 2021 Ulster semi-finals. Word came through that the game would indeed go ahead. According to the BBC before throw-in, the Monaghan team had met on Saturday morning and agreed to fulfil ...

Colm Shalvey A weekend in which Monaghan qualified for two Ulster finals would normally be cause for unbridled celebration, but the county was left reeling by the tragic death of U-20 captain Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh in a two-car collision late on Friday night. Monaghan GAA postponed all club games scheduled for last weekend as a mark of respect to Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh, while the Ulster U-20 final, which had originally been scheduled for this Saturday, has been postponed until the following Friday, July 30. Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh was ...