Articles in the General News Category

Heather Humphreys, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and Fine Gael TD for Cavan/Monaghan, has urged local businesses to accelerate their preparations for Brexit. Speaking on the matter, Minister Humphreys said: “According to a recent survey by Enterprise Ireland, 85% of their most impacted clients are taking steps to plan for Brexit, which is up from 38% at the same time last year. “These figures are very encouraging, and I warmly welcome this high rate of Brexitrelated activity. “However, notwithstanding the uncertainty that comes with Brexit, I want to see ...

Michael Fisher Next month we will be marking the 150th anniversary of the death of the famous Irish writer William Carleton. His most famous work was Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, a collection of stories that centred around life in the Clogher Valley area where he grew up in the early 19th Century. Carleton, while lodging with his cousin Paddy Treanor near Emyvale, received an early education at a hedge school conducted by his cousin Fr John Keenan at Glenna, close to the present chapel in the parish ...

COLM SHALVEY The presentation of the county minor footballers’ 2018 Ulster MFC and MFL medals brought a big crowd and a celebratory atmosphere to the Four Seasons Hotel, Monaghan Town last Friday night. Outgoing Monaghan minor manager Séamus McEnaney was enthused by the event: “The night itself was fantastic, the couple-of-hundred people here were very special to the players: their families, club-people etc. This is a phenomenal group of players; very special in my mind for as long as I live because they delivered a minor double.” ‘Banty’ spoke about the ...

Clontarf 8-14 Emmet Óg 2-05 AILBHE QUINN Monaghan and Ulster Intermediate football kingpins Emmet Óg came a cropper at the final hurdle last weekend in Dublin when going down by 2-5 to 8-14 to Clontarf in the All-Ireland club decider. In becoming the first Dublin side to come good at the intermediate level, the northsiders had an ace in Republic of Ireland women’s international Siobhan Killeen who grabbed an astonishing haul of 5-4 at Parnell Park to end Emmet Óg’s dreams of national glory. Played in extremely testing conditions with torrential rain at ...

Peter Hughes The Concra Wood Golf and Country Club in Castleblayney – venue in October for the Monaghan Irish Challenge golf tournament – is to host another prestigious event early next year: the January meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The local authority’s monthly meeting is to be brought to the Mid-Monaghan sporting venue by the Leas Cathaoirleach of the Council, Sinn Féin representative Colm Carthy. Cathaoirleach David Maxwell (Fine Gael) announced at Tuesday’s Council meeting that he was according the privilege of bringing the next meeting to a venue of ...

Peter Hughes Castleblayney Fine Gael representative Aidan Campbell led strong condemnation at Tuesday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council of the dissemination by some social media and national broadcast media outlets of filmed footage of part of a road traffic incident in ‘Blayney on Tuesday November 27 last which resulted in the death of a well-known community figure. Councillors united in paying tribute to Stephen Marron, who was killed when his parked car was struck by another vehicle, and sending sympathy to his family, relatives and friends. Good wishes were extended ...

Michael Fisher “It’s a landmark day for our county and Monaghan is on a roll at the moment” is how Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys described the announcement on Monday of a €5 million biotechnology research centre in Monaghan that could completely transform the local economy. It will employ 250 highly trained biotech specialists. According to one of the leading members of the Bioconnect company, Peter Corcoran of Monaghan Biosciences, the centre would have the potential to create a further 1,000 jobs in the agrifood industry locally, ...

By PATSY McARDLE A WELL KNOWN former Carrickmacross councillor, who is a local auctioneer and estate agent, is Chairman of a working group set up by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland which released a very challenging Report, this week, claiming that restrictions on out- of- town shopping centres, and the provision of high-speed broadband, are just two measures which need to be implemented urgently, if the present decline in business in the main streets of small towns, is to be reversed. Shane O’Hanlon has described the Report as one ...

Peter Hughes Independent member of Monaghan Co Council Seamus Treanor has called into question the value of elected representatives attending local authority conferences. But when Councillor Treanor posed the question: “What’s the point of conferences?” at Tuesday’s Co Council meeting, he got a robust response from Cathaoirleach David Maxwell. The Fine Gael Chair-holder answered: “Learning and networking”, and pointed Councillor Treanor to the widely perceived success of the recent Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) conference hosted in Monaghan Town. “Does anyone ever come back from conferences with news to ...

Peter Hughes What Monaghan Co Council Chief Executive Eamonn O’Sullivan described as a significant new tool for the promotion of enterprise on a regional basis was launched in Monaghan Town on Monday afternoon (December 3). The Northern and Western Regional Assembly unveiled a new publication marking the designation of their eight-county area a 2018 European Entrepreneurial Region. Regional Assembly Cathaoirleach, Monaghan Co Council member Seamus Coyle, and the organisation’s EU Programmes Executive Brendan Mooney were joined for the occasion by Cavan/Monaghan TD and Minister For Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather ...