Articles in the General News Category

Monaghan Community Alliance Chairman Says It May Have to Become Active Again Michael Fisher “Monaghan General Hospital no longer exists”, is the reaction of Monaghan Community Alliance to statistics on hospital waiting lists released to members of the Dublin and North East Regional Health Forum. The HSE figures show that hundreds of patients in the area that includes Monaghan and Cavan have to wait more than twelve months for inpatient and outpatient services. The November meeting was attended by Monaghan Cllr Seamus Coyle, who drew attention to the current waiting lists ...

A Garda Sergeant who passed away in tragic circumstances on Christmas Eve has been remembered as “a true leader” by his colleagues in the force. Detective Garda Sergeant Gabriel Bell, of Kiltubrid, Threemilehouse and formerly of Bog Road, Mullins Cross, Dunleer, Co Louth was a wellknown and long-serving police officer in the Monaghan District and was widely respected for the exacting manner in which he discharged his professional duties. His tragic passing on December 24 evoked shock and sadness across a wide area, and the community’s sympathy resides with his ...

Monaghan has dropped three places to 22 in the latest IBAL or Irish Business Against Litter survey. Although receiving a “clean” rating, the An Taisce report on Monaghan said that “a strong performance” by the town had been “let down by two heavily littered sites”. Cavan improved to 18th in the ranking of 40 Irish towns and cities. IBAL said that the 2017 survey in general showed increased litter on roads outside of towns. The verdict on Co Monaghan’s capital town was: “A strong performance by Monaghan, let down by ...

Details of an initiative to accord the status of “biodiversity town” to Monaghan in 2018 were outlined to the December meeting of the Monaghan Municipal District by Emer Brennan of Monaghan Tidy Towns and ecologist Billy Flynn. Introducing the speakers, Municipal District Cathaoirleach Paudge Connolly pointed out that there had been considerable praise from the members earlier in the meeting for the way in which the Tidy Towns bar had been raised on an ongoing basis in Monaghan over recent years. “Tidy Towns is something which is very much on ...

Enterprise Ireland, the Government agency responsible for developing Irish business globally, has reported strong job creation by its client companies in Co Monaghan, with a 4% increase in the number of jobs created. 5,366 people are now employed by companies supported by the agency in Monaghan. This is the highest level of employment in Monaghan by Enterprise Ireland backed clients since 2007. A total of 19,332 new jobs were created by companies supported by Enterprise Ireland in 2017. 209,388 people are now employed in companies supported by the agency. This ...

Monaghan Co Council is to receive allocations totalling €12,578,398 for expenditure on the county’s national roads network in 2018. The funding is more than three times the €4.2 million received in 2017. The announcement, made shortly before the turn of the year, was welcomed by Minister for Business Enterprise and Innovation, Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael Dáil Deputy Heather Humphreys. Minister Humphreys attributed the significant increases in national roads money for both counties in her constituency (Co Cavan is to receive €12.3 million) to the economic recovery

“Sean warmed so many peoples’ hearts during his life but so many hearts have been broken with his passing.” The heartfelt reaction of current Ireland Under 19 manager Tom Mohan to the passing of his predecessor in the role and long-time friend Sean McCaffrey fairly epitomises the sadness which has engulfed the soccer community in Monaghan this past week. The death of the legendary coach – after an illness bravely borne – in Cavan General Hospital on Saturday morning last has spawned a wave of tributes to the personable 58 ...

Several good causes benefited from the brief pause in action on the local playing fields over Christmas. The Monaghan Gaelic football senior team were kept busy at their bag-pack fundraiser in Fleming’s SuperValu, Monaghan Town on December 23 in aid of the local Special Olympics group. Monaghan Harps hosted their annual charity match at Gavan Duffy Park on New Year’s Day (for local causes yet to be announced), while Tyholland’s Christmas charity match on December 27 raised …

Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael TD and recently appointed Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys brought good news to Ballybay on Monday last. Speaking at the town’s Enterprise Park, Minister Humphreys announced funding for the development there of a new Regional Food Centre of Excellence – one of 21 regional projects set to receive a total of €30.5 million in competitive funding from Enterprise Ireland. Pictured by Rory Geary at the announcement event are from left: Brendan Mallon, Mallon’s Foods; Minister Humphreys; Julie Sinnamon, Chief Executive of Enterprise Ireland; Monaghan ...

Michael Fisher A visit last week to the Monaghan/Armagh border at Middletown by a group of British MPs from an influential House of Commons committee demonstrated the differences over Brexit amongst the parties at Westminster, where the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill was being debated yesterday. Meanwhile government leaders from 27 countries excluding the UK will meet at the European Council in Brussels tomorrow to decide when the next stage of the Brexit talks should begin. There was some optimism after a position paper on the status of the Irish border ...