Articles in the General News Category

Sinn Féin TD for Cavan/Monaghan Matt Carthy has welcomed news that work on the design stage of the major road improvement scheme on the N2 from Clontibret to the Border will recommence following formal confirmation of EU funding support. Deputy Carthy said that the N2 road schemes were pivotal for the economic development of Co Monaghan and the Border region and he described as “discrimination” the actions of government which had withheld funding for the schemes over the past two years. Speaking to the Northern Standard this week, Deputy Carthy ...

A new programme which will allow ambulances to bring suitable patients to the Minor Injury Unit at Monaghan Hospital for treatment came into effect on Monday last. The programme is an extension of one introduced recently at Roscommon University Hospital and allows patients to be brought to the unit in Monaghan under strict criteria. Its introduction has been welcomed by Fianna Fáil Senator for Cavan/Monaghan Robbie Gallagher, who recently raised the possibility of it applying in Monaghan with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD. Senator Gallagher told the Northern Standard ...

Monaghan Co Council at its Annual Budget Meeting on Friday last adopted an income and expenditure plan of €90 million for 2024. The drafting of the Budget was described as “very difficult” by Chief Executive Robert Burns, who said it had been “framed in the context of the continuing uncertainty of global events, leading to challenging economic circumstances and associated financial risk”. The Budget contains a 3% increase over 2023 on the ARV or Annual Rate on Valuation that is levied on the business and commercial sphere of the county, ...

Public parks, greenways, cycleways, play areas and poorly lit streets have all been identified as places in Co Monaghan where woman and young girls feel unsafe. The issue of women’s safety was the theme of a major conference organised by the Monaghan Public Participation Network in Monaghan Town’s Hillgrove Hotel on Thursday morning last (see report inside). Survey findings from the conference fed into the annual public meeting of Co Monaghan’s Joint Policing Committee at the same venue on Thursday afternoon and led to calls for a major planning rethink ...

By Veronica Corr The Northern Standard met with Garda Chief Superintendent Alan Mc- Govern of Louth Monaghan Cavan Division recently to find out about the strengthened Cavan Monaghan Drugs Unit that is being formed within the constituency. Recruitment towards the unit is at an advanced stage. The dedicated unit will be made of Gardaí of various ranks, who wish to specialise in the area of drug detection. Chief Superintendent McGovern was delighted by the large amount of applications received after the intention to form the unit was announced. “We have ...

MAITIU MONAGHANCOMMENTARY It’s very easy to forget the whole “love of the club” or “this means more” narrative in the middle of the inter county season. 2023 started with controversy when Shane Walsh’s Kilmacud team controversially beat Glen in the All-Ireland Club Final. In the weeks that followed, there was talk of replay’s and sending the cup up the road to Derry in a taxi. When the inter county season began, we got swept away with the drama of it all. It’s just over five months since Monaghan’s All Ireland semi-final ...

The peaceful passing at Cavan General Hospital on Saturday November 4 last, in the loving presence of his family, of Mr Tommy Smyth, 16 Manor Wood, Monaghan Town occasioned deep sadness in his home town and wider North Monaghan area. Aged 73, Tommy was the eldest son of a family that has played a significant role in the business life of Monaghan Town for two generations, guiding the fortunes of the Northern Standard newspaper and its former sister company R & S Printers Limited. As a printer and later a ...

Friday, November 10 last was assuredly “a day for the books” in Co Monaghan. Literally so in Castleblayney where Minister for Rural and Community Development and local TD Heather Humphreys cut the tape to inaugurate the town’s new library facility – having two days earlier performed the official opening of the new 15-classroom extension at ‘Blayney’s Our Lady’s Secondary School. Elsewhere in the county on Friday Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was also a busy man, doing the honours for the official openings of the new Primary Care Centres now ...

The future protection of Castleblayney’s Lough Muckno into the future must be the governing priority in any new development plans, a local group has stated. The Friends of Muckno organisation has delivered its assessment of the recent analysis conducted by consultants Fehily Timoney of the “Vision” plan presented to Monaghan Co Council in 2021 outlining options for the future use of Hope Castle and the surrounding Muckno estate. The group has welcomed aspects of the consultants’ assessment and set out their views in detail in the following statement: The Lough ...

Lakeland Dairies announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it plans to close three of its facilities over the next 16 months in order to cut overhead expenses, including its operation in Monaghan and its milk drying facilities at Lough Egish. There was speculation following the shock statement that as many as 78 jobs across the co-operative could be impacted. Lakeland’s Banbridge site in Co Down will also close. Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys TD yesterday said that supports would be put in place for the workers impacted by the decision, which ...