Articles in the General News Category

Michael Fisher Dealing with the steadily increasing numbers of coronavirus cases has placed tremendous responsibilities on front line medical staff in our local hospitals and nursing homes. The developing situation earlier this month prompted a group of twenty consultants at Cavan General Hospital to clarify the situation there. It followed the revelation that Cavan, with 33 cases of Covid-19, was the hospital outside of the greater Dublin area with the most cases at that time. The physicians, anaesthetists and peadiatricians signed the following letter which they have given the Northern ...

A 40-year-old man with an address at Tyholland, Co Monaghan was remanded in custody at the High Court in Dublin on Tuesday, when his extradition to the UK was sought on charges linked to the deaths of 39 migrants whose bodies were found in a refrigerated lorry container in Essex on October 23 last year. Ronan Hughes, Leitrim, Silverstream, Tyholland faces 39 charges alleging manslaughter and a further charge accusing him of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. He was detained at his home in Co Monaghan on Monday by Gardaí ...

Cavan/Monaghan could have two seats at the Cabinet table if the current process being engaged in by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to form a partnership government reaches a successful conclusion. And the constituency could also lay claim to the distinction of having two female Government Ministers, with both Heather Humphreys and Niamh Smyth being tipped for office in a “grand coalition” of FF, FG and one of the smaller political groupings in the Dáil. Such was the speculation among pundits and media commentators as the process towards the formation ...

Michael Fisher As part of the HSE’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a community assessment hub has been set up in Castleblayney to serve Co. Monaghan. It has been established at the Crannog Day Care centre at Bree. People who have been tested in this area and are confirmed as having Covid- 19, and who require a face-toface clinical assessment, can attend this community based unit, following referral from a GP. The HSE says the aim of the unit is to divert those who are mildly symptomatic and require medical ...

Michael Fisher Congratulations to 26 year old computer scientist Conor McMeel from Lucan in Co. Dublin who was part of the winning team from Imperial College London on University Challenge. There was plenty of interest in Glaslough and Emyvale in his performance on the prestigious quiz show hosted by Jeremy Paxman and broadcast on Monday evening on BBC2. It turns out that Conor’s grandfather, John James (JJ) McMeel, a Garda in Dublin for many years who died in 2011, was a native of Glaslough. JJ left Drumgahan in 1952 to ...

€127,444 in funding has been secured for the local response to Covid-19 in counties Monaghan and Cavan. The money comes from the Emergency Fund established to assist the Government’s Community Call initiative which is being led by local authorities. Co Monaghan has received an allocation of €62,247. Co Cavan will get €65,197. Local Fine Gael TD and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys said the funding would prioritise organisations delivering frontline services, such as Meals on Wheels. “Local community and voluntary groups are supporting significant numbers of vulnerable ...

The following is the text of a media release in relation to the recent Sinn Féin commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising: Designated solitary figures this year deputised for the many hundreds of Co Monaghan Republicans who, year after year, turn out to collectively commemorate the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the cause of Irish freedom and the reunification of Ireland and its people. The 2020 Sinn Féin commemorations of the Easter 1916 Rising were, in line with national public health advice, low-key affairs with one ...

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Winston Churchill’s famous cautionary utterance at a crucial juncture of the Second World War appears applicable to the situation this country is currently heading into with regard to our response to the Coronavirus pandemic. In the days between now and the projected end point of the current Covid-19 restrictions on May 3, the Government will share with us some of the detail of their plans for ...

When An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD made the announcement on Thursday March 12 that schools all over Ireland were due to close with immediate effect, teachers, school leaders, pupils and parents were left in a cloud of uncertainty. Subsequent to this announcement and successive announcements on the restriction of movement on the basis of protecting public health, schools have remained closed with no clear return date being identified. Schools have had to adapt and respond to the needs of their students in a fashion that was previously untried at primary ...

Concern voiced over hygiene at drinking water outlets A Carrickmacross- Castleblayney Municipal District councillor has raised an important hygienic issue in the county this week in relation to the use of public drinking water outlets. As will be noted in the Castleblayney News, Cllr Colm Carthy has raised concerns over animals being ‘fed’ from the same outlets as humans, without any hygiene restrictions. Cllr Carthy said yesterday: “As many of you will know, Monaghan County Council, over the last couple of years, have funded a number of Drinking Water Fountains throughout ...