Articles in the General News Category

Rugby star announces this season will be his last famous contemporary sporting sons has announced his plans to retire. Rugby international Tommy Bowe said this week that this season will be his last as a professional. Tommy took to Twitter to announce the news, and did so in verse: “I’ve spent most of my career in Belfast. At first George said I wasn’t very fast. I eventually found my gears, Had some incredible years, But it’s time to tell you – this is my last!” The 33-year-old Emyvale-born wing made his debut for Ireland in 2004 and has won 69 ...

Scheme had to date resulted in the retention of an estimated €2.1 million in spending in the local economy, the members of the Monaghan Municipal District were informed at their meeting last Monday. Monaghan Town Centre Retail Co-ordinator Trevor Connolly stated that the scheme, introduced by the Monaghan Town Team as a “shop local” initiative, had amassed total sales of €855,000 to date, which, when the “multiplier effect” was applied, translated into approximately….

Some of the impact of the heavy snow on Monaghan life this week is reflected through the lens of Northern Standard photographer Rory Geary

By PATSY McARDLE A WORSENING crisis in the health service which, apart from many patients from all over Co. Monaghan being placed in trolleys, instead of hospital beds, in Cavan, and Drogheda, and an escalating increase in the exit of doctors and nurses from the area, leading to an unacceptable increased pressure on the Doctor-on-Call service, has led to a public call this week by South Monaghan Sinn Fein councillor Colm Carthy to the HSE and to Health Minister Simon Harris T.D., to take immediate action to remedy the present ...

increasing occasions over recent times, and particularly in our own Co Monaghan area this week, the weather has served notice on humanity that it still holds primacy over our lives to a governing extent only slightly mitigated by our technological and societal development. While some continue to question with Luddite stubbornness the legitimacy of the evidence for global warming and climate change, extreme weather events are becoming a worryingly frequent feature of the 21st century. When even the temperate nature of the Irish climate, oft described in terms akin to the ...

The strength of ladies club football in county Monaghan was highlighted last weekend when eight ladies representing Donaghmoyne, Latton and Corduff Gaels collected Gaelic Life Ulster Club All Stars awards for 2017 on Friday night last in the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan. In front of a bumper attendance of Gaelic games stalwarts, full backs Rosemary Courtney (Donaghmoyne)and Sarah Boyd (Latton) were honoured as were half-back pair Sharon Courtney (Donaghmoyne) and Laura McEnaney (Corduff). Midfielder Barbara Wards (Carrickmacross), half-forward…

This is only January and it’s timely to remind ourselves that highbrow analysis of recent Dr. McKenna Cup fare is about as useful as an iron glove on a surgeon. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been treated to a cocktail of Gaelic football in afflicting weather conditions and we’re no further on really in attempting to finger a likely winner of this year’s Ulster SFC. That said, the general consensus is that Tyrone’s success in reaching their…

THE FIRST BABY of the year in Cavan General Hospital was the hail and hearty Holly! Weighing in at a healthy 8lbs 12oz, Baby Holly Smyth brought cheer and smiles all round with her arrival at 12:15pm on Tuesday 2nd January as the first to be born in the Cavan’s maternity ward for 2018! The beautiful Holly may have been first in Cavan/Monaghan this year ….

McKENNA URGES COUNCILLORS TO “GROW UP” AND WORK TOGETHER By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie WHILE giving unanimous backing to a Sinn Féin motion calling for the restoration of oncall services to Monaghan Hospital at their meeting on Monday last, the members of Monaghan Co Council also witnessed a heated cross-table row about which party was or wasn’t able to manage health services on this island, north and south. The flare-up between Sinn Féin’s Sean Conlon and David Maxwell of Fine Gael ignited after Cllr Conlon accused the FG-led administrations over the past ...

COUNTY COUNCILLORS STAND UNITED ON UNDERGROUNDING Michael Fisher Minister Heather Humphreys is arranging a meeting between the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten T.D. and members of Monaghan County Council to discuss EirGrid’s plans for the North South interconnector. It follows a special meeting of Monaghan County Council on Monday, attended by local Oireachtas representatives. Meanwhile EirGrid has added two more agricultural liaison officers to its team. Their representatives will be in Castleblayney next Thursday for anyone who wants to talk to them about the interconnector plans. Cathaoirleach ...