Articles in the General News Category

Monaghan County Council and LEO Monaghan welcome the announcement by The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, today (Friday, 22 May 2020) launching the new €250m Restart Grant providing direct grant aid to micro and small businesses. The Restart Grant is aimed at helping micro and small businesses with the costs associated with reopening and reemploying workers following COVID-19 closures. Eligible businesses who have stayed open throughout the crisis, as well as those who are reopening under Phase 1 (from 18 May) and Phase 2 (8 June) ...

Michael Fisher The Co. Antrim parent company of BD Foods in Glaslough has announced it is to close its Co. Monaghan distribition operation with a potential loss of 48 jobs. BD Foods was purchased by Henderson Foodservice based in Mallusk, outside Belfast in 2018. The firm began trading in 1993 as Barbarrie Duckling Ltd. It was founded by Emyvale businessman Paul Bowe in 1993 to import and supply barbarrie duck and other poultry from France to the expanding continental restaurant trade in Ireland. The company grew to establish its products ...

Michael Fisher Gardaí investigating the disappearance of a man last seen in Clones, Co. Monaghan eighteen years ago have confirmed that the man’s car has been located in Upper Lough Erne near Lisnaskea in Co. Fermanagh. The discovery of the vehicle is a significant breakthrough in the search that was renewed earlier this year for 55 year-old Michael ‘Tony’ Lynch. The last known sighting of Mr Lynch was at Fermanagh Street in Clones around 6:00pm on Sunday 6th January, 2002. The father of four came originally from Magheraveely, Co Fermanagh, ...

The 46th anniversary of the 1974 Monaghan and Dublin bombings was marked with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial in Church Square in Monaghan Town last Sunday morning. The wreath was laid by Cathaoirleach of the Monaghan Municipal District Seán Conlon, the sole figure present in light of the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions but acting in situ for the elected membership and staff of the local authority and the wider local community. Following Councillor Conlon’s formal wreath-laying at 9 am, other representatives of the Municipal District later gathered at the Church ...

Every year the Beech Hill College Graduation ceremony takes place in the College library followed by lots of photographs, hugs and handshakes in the garden. Due to the current social distancing restrictions, however that type of ceremony was not possible this year. The teaching staff of Beech Hill College could not let the wonderful Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied students’ progress to the next stage of their lives without a ceremony to wish them well and say goodbye….

Patsy McArdle Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan TD said this week that the Government was committed to exploring every avenue to uncover the truth about the 1974 bomb attacks in Dublin and Monaghan. Minister Flanagan issued a statement to mark the 46th anniversary of the incidents. Covid-19 restrictions meant that there was no commemorations held this year that involved significant public gatherings although the victims were remembered at smallerscale events held in Dublin and in Monaghan Town (see separate story). Relatives of those killed or injured in the attacks recalled ...

Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan/Monaghan Niamh Smyth has criticised a new Restart Grant for businesses reopening after Covid-19 restrictions which was announced this week by her constituency rival Heather Humphreys of Fine Gael, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. The two TDs (who could be Cabinet colleagues if speculation about the make-up of a new Government involving FF and FG proves accurate) are at odds over the effectiveness of the new scheme. Minister Humphreys said the grants available would make a big difference to eligible businesses, but Deputy Smyth ...

Balancing Public Health and Economic Damage Considerations Michael Fisher As the country took the first steps on Monday on a gradual pathway towards returning to normality, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, presented a report to the Cabinet on the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. She also announced details of a new €250 million restart fund, to provide businesses with grants of up to €10,000, based on their commercial rates bill from last year. Minister Humphreys spoke at a news conference in Dublin on Saturday alongside ...

ALONE, the organisation that supports older people, has received more than 20,000 calls to their COVID-19 helpline for older people since it launched in March. ALONE has hugely expanded their services since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ireland to meet the needs of older people nationwide, and is running a national helpline for older people as part of Community Call in collaboration with the Department of Health, the HSE and local authorities including Monaghan County Council. In addition to this, ALONE staff and volunteers have made 71,715 calls to older ...

Comment Covid-19 may have supplanted Brexit as the predominant news preoccupation of the times but it appears that the ramifications of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union are about to re-emerge as a topic of major interest and contention. Brexit has been bubbling under the surface of media attention and scrutiny in recent weeks as troubling dispatches from the UK’s trade deal discussions with the EU began to emerge and key areas of concern such as harmonisation of standards and competition appeared mired in deadlock. As we went to ...