Articles in the General News Category

Michael Fisher The Northern Ireland Executive has published a five-point plan for a phased exit from Covid-19 restrictions. It was released at Stormont on Tuesday by the First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill as the official coronavirus death toll in the North rose to 449 and the number of positive cases reached 4253. Fermanagh and Omagh is the Council area least affected, with 78 Covid- 19 cases and 10 deaths, while Belfast is the area most affected by the virus. Unlike the phased recovery plan on ...

Monaghan County Council are working to ensure that services are maintained during this Covid-19 Pandemic. The Planning Office has continued to provide full services throughout the pandemic in line with the requirements of Extension Orders under Section 251A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). These orders have now been extended to 23rd May 2020. Planning applications are accepted, validated and made available to view online. ePlan is kept updated when timelines are extended. A “drop box” is provided for receipt of applications at the main entrance to ...

Golf courses are set to reopen for play next week in the first phase of the Government’s ‘road map’, but the picture remains far from clear for the return of team sports. Golf clubs in Monaghan and across the country are readying themselves to reopen on a restricted basis from next Monday, May 18, with play for members only and competitions not permitted in the initial stage. Golf’s national governing bodies – Golf Ireland, the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union and the Golfing Union of…

The GAA seems to be still planning to hold club and inter-county championships in 2020, but have ruled out any games before October and say there is a lack of interest in playing matches behind closed doors. A series of conference calls on these matters between senior Croke Park officials and county chairpersons were held during last week, following much recent speculation from various stakeholders, managers, referees, players and officials, as to whether the 2020 season should be abandoned. Counties had already been asked to suspend all activity until July ...

By Veronica Corr Monaghan County Councillor Richard Truell has seen COVID-19 from more angles than most, since he is a public representative for Fine Gael and a frontline healthcare worker who has recently made a full recovery from the virus. He was good enough to take time out on Bank Holiday Monday (May 4th) to speak to this reporter about his personal experience of the pandemic. Cllr. Truell told The Northern Standard that he had completed his fortnight in self-isolation as of Friday last (May 1st), admitting that the virus ...

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly area of which Co Monaghan is a part will bear the heaviest economic brunt of the current Covid-19 national medical emergency, according to its Director, David Minton. Mr Minton told the Northern Standard that the Northern and Western region had 48.6% of its commercial units operating in the sectors worst impacted by the pandemic. “Having been considered one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union in recent years, the Irish economic landscape has profoundly changed due to the outbreak of Covid-19,” Mr ...

A Dáil appeal for compensation for Co Monaghan poultry farmers whose production has been impacted by avian influenza has been made by Sinn Féin TD for Cavan/Monaghan Matt Carthy. Deputy Carthy made the call to Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed TD when the Dáil convened on Thursday last. A significant drop in national egg production and a consequent rise in imports have been recorded since the outbreak, which has seen over half-a-million egg-producing hens in the county culled. “On Thursday last I asked the Minister to give me a yes ...

• NEW SYSTEM NEEDED – Ó CAOLÁIN Michael Fisher A Dublin registered company has been paid more than €34 million by the State over the past eighteen years for the operation of a Direct Provision Centre in Monaghan. St Patrick’s accommodation centre at Drumgoask was set up in the buildings of the former agricultural college. It began by taking in 40 asylum seekers in December 2001 and at one stage accommodated 223. The total number is now believed to be just under 200. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice and ...

In view of the recent announcement by the Irish Government that there is to be a phased lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, the Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Larry Duffy, has asked parishes to reflect on how some degree of normality can be returned to parish life. Bishop Duffy states that ‘while it will be some time yet before we see the restoration of what we would consider a normal routine at parish level, journeys always begin with small steps, taken together and for the good of all and, especially, taking into ...

A Castleblayney mechanic has been unsuccessful in his appeal against a conviction for membership of the IRA imposed after a “booster tube” device was located on his property. The Court of Appeal last week rejected all ten grounds of James Joseph Cassidy’s appeal. In its ruling the court found that the evidence against Mr Cassidy, aged 57 and with an address at Tullycollive, Castleblayney, was “particularly cogent” and “compelling”. He was convicted by the Special Criminal Court in March 2019 of membership of an unlawful organisation, styling itself the Irish ...