Articles in the General News Category

Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has been appointed Co-Chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Speaking to the Northern Standard this week, Deputy Smith expressed delight at the appointment, which he said came “at a critical time when there will be a much greater emphasis on more parliamentary engagement between Dublin and London following Brexit.” He said the British-Irish…

This beautiful tableau was captured by Northern Standard photographer Rory Geary on the frozen Hollywood Lake near Scotstown this week, with ducks taking flight and a swan serene in the nascent New Year light.

A monthly meeting of Monaghan Co Council will take place for the first time remotely on Monday next. The Council has decided to hold its January meeting online in an effort to reduce the potential spread of Covid-19. Agreement was reached between members and the Executive to carry out their January monthly agenda from home; the media will be facilitated to attend remotely also. Recent meetings of the Council were held in Monaghan’s Garage Theatre to ensure that social distancing and other Covid-19 health and safety protocols could be observed. ...

BUT VIRUS EXPERT SAM MCCONKEY SAYS JABS ARE NOT A SIMPLISTIC ANSWER TO THE PANDEMIC Michael Fisher Medical staff from Monaghan and Cavan Hospitals began to receive their Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccinations yesterday at Cavan General Hospital. Residents of 25 nursing homes throughout the country have also been receiving injections this week as the HSE begins its inoculation programme. The first groups to get the COVID-19 vaccine are people aged 65 years and older who live in long-term care facilities as they have a greater risk of serious illness if they ...

Monaghan’s Combilift was announced as the winner in the Large Company Category of the 2020 Generation Apprenticeship Employer of the Year awards by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris TD on Thursday December 10. There were 28 award nominees for 2020 Generation Apprenticeship representing more than 24,000 employees across so many vibrant industry sectors. Combilift currently have Apprentices across a range of Apprenticeship programmes such as Electrical, Metal Fabrication and The Original Engineering Manufacturing Apprenticeship (OEM). Minister Harris commented on the winners as “being outstanding leaders in their ...

A judge has postponed the start of the trial of four men accused of abducting and assaulting Quinn Industrial Holdings executive Kevin Lunney because of the current spike in Covid-19 case numbers. Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the Special Criminal Court on Tuesday that it would be undesirable and imprudent to proceed with the trial on January 11 as scheduled because of the sharp rise in Coronavirus cases. However, the judge added, it was the court’s absolute intention that the trial would commence on February 1. Luke O’Reilly (66), from ...

Leading healthcare company, MSD, has today announced the appointment of Rockcorry woman Mairead McCaul as Managing Director of its Human Health business in Ireland. Daughter of Mary and the late Michael McCaul, Mairead attended the St Louis Secondary School in Monaghan Town. She will also assume the role of Head of the MSD Ireland Country Leadership Team which includes representatives from MSD’s six sites in Ireland as well as key business areas, succeeding Ger Brennan, who recently moved to a new role. Mairead is currently Business Unit Director, Oncology and ...

Michael Fisher As the level of Covid-19 cases throughout the Republic increases rapidly since the start of the New Year, the number of people in Co. Monaghan claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has risen by 654 in the past week. A total of 335,600 in the State (an increase of 58,000) received the PUP on Tuesday and 4162 are in the Monaghan area, compared with 3502 people who were eligible on 22nd December 2020. At the height of the pandemic last May, 8200 Monaghan residents were in receipt of the ...

By Veronica Corr Stephen Reburn from Maudabawn, Cootehill spent his Christmas and St. Stephen’s Day 2020 enduring the elements for a great cause. He was inspired to do a long-distance barefoot run for Pieta House because he lost two close friends last year to suicide. Not only did his efforts raise awareness of the issue, but Stephen also managed to raise over €10,000 for the suicide prevention charity. ‘Stephen’s no sock run for suicide’ event page on feelgoodwithpieta.ie is still open and accepting donations. FeelGood with Pieta is about taking ...

Comment When life in Ireland and across the globe began to be significantly impacted by the coronavirus in march of last year, people accepted the growing sacrifices and curtailments of movement and freedom with the then realistic shared hope that the public health emergency would be a relatively transient thing. It became a common conversational prediction that by Christmas the crisis, or at least the worst of it, would be over, and the pressures that Covid-19 exerted on physical and, increasingly, mental wellbeing were borne with the reasonable conviction that, this ...