Articles in the General News Category

Sitting Sinn Féin MEP for the Midlands North West Matt Carthy confirmed this week that he will be accepting the nominations he has received to go before his party’s convention to select a candidate to contest May’s European Parliament elections in the constituency. The convention will take place this Sunday, February 3, in Cavan. The MEP has been selected to contest the next General Election for SF in the Cavan/Monaghan constituency, where long-serving party Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has declared that he will step down from politics at the end ...

The Labour Party’s candidate for May’s European Parliament elections in the Midlands North West constituency has strong links to Monaghan, being the son of a retired local teacher. Dominic Hannigan’s mother Brid and aunt Alice May both taught in Rackwallace National School. He is a grandson of Pat Boylan, formerly of Ardaghey parish and a nephew of Cormac Boylan, formerly Monaghan Co Engineer. His brother Cormac is a Garda in Monaghan Town and his niece Amelia attends the Model School in Monaghan. The selection convention took place last Sunday in ...

A strong contingent of Co Monaghan people were among the hundreds who assembled at the old Dundalk-Newry road at Carrickcarnon on Saturday last to participate in a protest event over the prospect of the return of a hard Border after Brexit. Campaign group Border Communities Against Brexit organised the event, which featured mock Customs checkpoints and other representations designed to conjure images of what the return of Border infrastructure might mean for communities in its hinterland. Participants took the roles of uniformed Customs officials and military personnel for what Border ...

Mrs Lucia O’Farrell, mother of the young Carrickmacross law student Shane O’Farrell who was fatally injured in a hit-andrun road traffic accident near his home in 2011, has declined an opportunity to make a presentation to Monaghan Co Council “in committee” outlining her family’s ongoing quest for justice. In an open letter to Monaghan Co Council which was supplied to the Northern Standard this week, Mrs O’Farrell is critical of the decision taken by majority vote at the January meeting of the Council to hold the presentation “in committee”, which ...

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has appointed Monaghan Co Council’s Social Inclusion Officer Bernie Bradley to the Disability Advisory Committee. Ms Bradley is one of eleven people appointed to serve on the first ever statutory advisory committee in Ireland to support monitoring of Ireland’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Ms Bradley has been involved in accessibility and equality work in the community, voluntary and public sectors for the past 25 years. Her role in the local government sector since 2004 ...

For the first time in history, the President of the GAA, John Horan, addressed the Seanad. He gave a wide ranging speech, after which Senator Robbie Gallagher used the opportunity to impress upon him the importance of retaining the Ulster Final in Clones. He asked him to keep it in its historic home of St Tiernach’s Park. Senator Gallagher began by noting that Mr. Horan had pinpointed many aspects of the GAA and its qualities, referring briefly to the recent tragic accident in Co. Donegal, where four young men lost ...

Malachy O’Rourke hails O’Hanlon’s “dream” debut PATRICK SMYTH O’Rourke was generosity itself in handing out the plaudits after his side’s encouraging victory over NFL opponents Dublin on Sunday last in Clones. However, he reserved special praise for promising attacker Stephen O’Hanlon who made a big impression on his senior county debut: “He took his goal very well,” O’Rourke enthused of rookie O’Hanlon. “I suppose when you put someone like Stephen in like that, the start he got you can only dream about it, because with his first touch he had created the ...

Monaghan 2-13 Dublin 1-13 JOHN GRAHAM A resurgent Monaghan staged an increasingly effective second half performance after a somewhat sluggish start to get their campaign off to the best possible start at the expense of League holders Dublin in this at times tough, hard hitting yet totally absorbing contest that was played in chilly conditions in front of a crowd of 10,556 in Clones on Sunday afternoon last. The reigning league and All Ireland champions arrived in Clones determined to get their search for a sixth league title in seven years off to ...

The prospects of a hard Border in the event of Britain exiting the European Union in a “no-deal Brexit” scenario loomed larger this week following comments made by the Chief Spokesman of the European Commission. Margaritis Schinas said it “was pretty obvious you will have a hard Border” in Ireland if the deal reached by the British Government and the European Union was not implemented. The comments prompted Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD and Government Ministers to strongly re-affirm their stance that Ireland will not accept a hard Border on the ...

By Veronica Corr “Rural type towns are dying as we speak, what with Post Office closures and Shane Ross’s attack on rural Ireland. We all have to be very alarmed,” Fianna Fáil representative Seamus Coyle told Tuesday morning’s meeting of Ballybay/Clones Municipal District. “Everyone is entitled to retire with dignity, but it is an underhand way of An Post taking the Post Office out of an area. We are losing Post Offices because of retirements, nothing else is provided and we are losing a vital cog in the community forever,” ...