Articles in the General News Category

Significant additional funding for the repair of roads in Co Monaghan was announced this week. Monaghan Co Council is to get €550,000 for regional and local road repair, and €290,841 for the repair of non-public rural roads under the Local Improvement Scheme. The announcements come after a much-criticised visit to the county recently by Minister for Transport Shane Ross TD which failed to satisfy local public representatives who had been petitioning him to make a more extensive tour of the county to see the condition of roads for himself. The ...

Michael Fisher The queue just before 9am outside the leisure centre in Cavan waiting for the ballot boxes to be opened in the Presidential election count told its own story. Sinn Féin party activists including MEP Matt Carthy and several Monaghan and Cavan Councillors as well as supporters from neighbouring counties had assembled to carry out a tally. Nearly four hours later their tally of all but four of the 226 boxes was complete and the SF figures were to prove remarkably similar to the official first count result in ...

The Brennan family strike a suitable pose as they prepare to savour the devilish delights of the Haunting of Rossmore Park on Monday last, in this picture by our photographer Rory Geary. The pre-Hallowe’en scare-fest staged by the Friends of Rossmore Park sold out at an early stage as hundreds queued to experience the Scary Woods Trail which became progressively more frightening as the sun sank over the forest and darkness assumed its dominion. Just what was lurking to be encountered by those brave enough to go down to the ...

Peter Hughes The members of the Co Monaghan Comhairle na nÓg Youth Council were declared champions of inclusion and equality after they unveiled a new DVD at their Annual General Meeting in the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday last. Bernadette Quinn of the Dundalk Outcomers support group for the LGBT community conferred the “champions” accolade on the Comhairle representatives after viewing their thought-provoking social inclusion video presentation and the colourful and pertinent posters designed to accompany it. The video utilises the rainbow colours motif of the LGBT community to highlight ...

Young Carrick girl Grace Cogan’s journey with the aid of Temple Street children’s hospital to cope with the challenges of the rare condition Morquio Syndrome is the subject of a moving new video. Grace’s Temple Street experience forms the subject of the third of Temple Street Foundation’s ‘Living Proof’ series of patient video stories, which highlights the real-life experiences of just some of the families who benefit from public donations and support for the children’s medical facility. Grace, now 11, has been coming to the hospital since she was a ...

By Patsy McArdle CONTROVERSIAL United States’ President, Donald Trump, has finally been toppled, this week, as he was forced out of the ‘Top 10’ Best Selling Books’ chart, in Ireland, by the late Castleblayney-based ‘king of Irish country music, Big Tom McBride. As the book “Big Tom – The King of Irish Country” continued its unbroken run in Ireland’s ‘Top 10’ for a fifth consecutive week, its battle for longevity in the best sellers, with the book “Fear – Trump in the White House” by Bob Woodward, has seen the ...

The Church of Ireland Diocese of Clogher, like its Catholic counterparts, covers congregations on both sides of the border in Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal and Leitrim. One of the churches which could be affected by Brexit is St Mary’s in the Drummully salient in Co. Monaghan on the main road between Clones and Cavan, that dips twice in and out of Fermanagh. It is part of the parish of Galloon, Sallaghy and Drummully, with a Rector based in Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh. Aghadrumsee, Clogh (near Roslea) and Drumsnat (near Smithborough) covers ...

It would be fallacious, perhaps, to try to extract some definitive ‘state of the nation’ diagnosis from the outcome of last week’s Presidential and referendum votes. The return of Michael D Higgins to Arás an Uachtaráin for another seven-year term is undoubtedly a strong endorsement for Mr Higgins personally, with his often passionate and unerringly inclusive discharge of his stately duties obviously conforming closely to what the majority of voters expect from the holder of this particular office. But the parties of the Irish political establishment who explicitly or tacitly ...

Clonduff 3-07 Castleblayney HC 2-14 reports PATRICK SMYTH Ulster Club Junior Hurling Championship Semi Final Castleblayney hurling boss Jimmy Lacey hailed his side’s character after the ‘blayney boys sealed a place in this year’s Ulster Club JHC final with a 2-14 to 3-7 victory over Down champions Clonduff on Sunday last in Crossmaglen. The Monaghan kingpins started the game well only to concede two goals in the seventh and sixteenth minutes which put them on the backfoot and left Clonduff in the driver’s seat. However, Lacey’s lads refused to push the panic button and, ...

DOOHAMLET V ST. ENDA’S JOHN GRAHAM This Sunday the Monaghan intermediate club champions Doohamlet O’Neill’s embark on another Ulster Club Championship campaign, their fourth this decade, when they travel to Corrigan Park, Belfast, to take on the Antrim champions St Enda’s, Glengormley, who are competing at this level for the first time. Doohamlet last competed at this level just three years ago, back in 2015, when they reached the semi-final only to lose out to a very slick, mobile Loughinisland team from Down and most of this current Doohamlet squad would have ...