Articles in the General News Category

Gardaí have appealed to witnesses to an incident which took place in the Killygoan area of Monaghan Town on Saturday last, in which a woman was assaulted and had property stolen from her, to come forward. The incident took place in the Ard Glás area of Killygoan shortly after 10 pm when the woman was out walking. The victim sustained injuries in the incident and was treated at Cavan General Hospital. Gardaí are appealing to anyone who was in the area, who witnessed this attack and who may be able ...

The Bank of Ireland branches in Clones and Castleblayney are set to close tomorrow, Friday October 8. The Bank of Ireland branch in Cootehill, and those located in Arva and Kingscourt in Co Cavan, are also due to operate for the last time tomorrow. Bank of Ireland announced in March that it was closing 83 of its branches in the Republic of Ireland as part of a restructuring programme. “We will continue to operate an extensive branch network with a strong nationwide presence of 169 locations. This will be complemented ...

This evocative image of “Driver Joe” was taken at Monaghan Railway Station on December 19 1959, just 12 days before the closure of the railway route. The passenger train pictured was the last one to use the line. The railway had been officially closed to passengers in 1957 although periodic “specials”, such as those bringing supporters to GAA matches, continued to operate for a time. The picture, from the National Library of Ireland archives, is featured in the book Old Ireland in Colour 2, which has just been published. The ...

Michael Fisher The latest figures for Covid cases show that the incidence rate in County Monaghan per 100,000 population over fourteen days continues to decline. The statistics released on Tuesday by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that the rate in the past fortnight up until midnight on Monday was 506.6, compared to a figure of 601 that was reported last week. This includes 311 reported cases of Covid-19 out of a total of 17,719. Three weeks ago Monaghan was topping the table with a rate of 1026.3 reported on ...

Co Monaghan’s vital mushroom and poultry production sectors are facing a serious threat because of labour shortages, Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil Senator Robbie Gallagher said this week. Senator Gallagher raised the issue in the Seanad this week with Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment Damien English TD. He told the Minister of State that the labour shortage facing the mushroom industry had reached “crisis levels” and was continuing to deteriorate on a monthly basis. An increase in imported labour was also vital for Co Monaghan poultry ...

Michael Fisher EirGrid has set out its plans to deal with electricity generation shortages that could potentially lead to blackouts this winter. The company says the controversial North South interconnector is currently expected to be commissioned during 2025 and become available for its first full year of operation in 2026. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, in response to EirGrid’s plan, said it was essential that the North- South Interconnector is progressed, to provide greater all-island resilience. LANDOWNER OPPOSITION The project involving a 400kV overhead line with 400 pylons was ...

A renewed appeal by Garda to the Co Monaghan public to protect themselves against online scams was made this week as the Gardaí’s National Economic Crime Bureau revealed that there had been an extraordinary increase in the incidence of online investment fraud over the past year. In the first seven months of 2021 alone, nearly €8 million was fraudulently taken from people through online fraud schemes. “We want to remind people that anyone who rings, texts or emails you out of the blue and requests personal information such as bank ...

Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys TD has paid tribute to the late Judge Denis McLoughlin as “a consistent example of our judiciary at its compassionate and considered best.” Judge McLoughlin’s sudden death on Thursday, September 23 last at the age of 62 evinced great shock and sorrow in legal and wider circles in Co Monaghan. He had served as the permanent District Court Judge for the District Court No 5 area of Monaghan and Cavan since 2015, taking up the position following the retirement of Judge Seán MacBride. A native ...

Waterford City has been named as Best Place to Live in Ireland 2021 – but the judges of the Irish Time competition this week showered praise on Glaslough village on its achievement in making it into the final five shortlist and Monaghan Town on achieving a top twenty placing. Waterford was the unanimous choice of the judging panel, but they emphasised that the winner beat off stiff competition from Glaslough and the other short-listed locations of Clonakilty, Co Cork, Galway City and Killarney, Co Kerry. Among the things which impressed ...

COMMENT Co Monaghan’s vitally important agri-food sector finds itself assailed by a number of significant pressures at the present time that our politicians, farm and business organisations should be monitoring with close care. The problem of labour shortages and the difficulties being presented for mushroom, poultry and meat producers was raised in Seanad Éireann in the last week by Fianna Fáil Senator Robbie Gallagher. Senator Gallagher identified the problem as arising from the time it now took to process employment permit applications, significant because of the extent to which the sectors ...