Articles in the General News Category

Solutions urgently being sought as EPA refuses future licences over ammonia emission concerns Active steps are being taken at local authority and stakeholder level to identify a solution to a planning quandary which is stifling expansion of the important poultry production sector in certain areas of Co Monaghan. Monaghan Co Council is being prevented from granting planning permission for poultry units in some locations because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not grant the developments a licence because of concerns over ammonia emissions. The EPA wrote to licence applicants and planning ...

The indications given by a number of Irish Catholic Bishops, including Bishop of Clogher Larry Duffy, that Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies could proceed in their dioceses later this month has drawn a hostile reaction from the Government, a reformist church organisation and some individual parish priests. Under current Covid-19 guidelines, places of worship are open for religious services for up to 50 people but Communion and Confirmation ceremonies should not take place pending an update in the guidelines expected at the end of August. Baptisms may proceed from today, ...

Irish Water and Monaghan Co Council have reminded customers supplied by the Newbliss Public Water Supply Scheme that the Do Not Consume Notice remains in place until further notice. Following consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE), Irish Water and Monaghan County Council issued a Do Not Consume Notice for all consumers on the Newbliss Public Water Supply Scheme due to elevated levels of iron and manganese. The Do Not Consume Notice remains in place pending the completion of remedial works and receipt of satisfactory monitoring results. The notice applies ...

Development and local TD, Heather Humphreys, has announced a further €1.05 million to improve rural roads and laneways in Co Monaghan. The Local Improvement Scheme allocation adds to a previous LIS subvention to Monaghan Co Council of €270,000 earlier in the year. The total scheme funding of over €1.326 is one of the highest allocations in the country, Minister Humphreys noted. The LIS is used to supported the continued improvement of non-public roads in rural communities. Demand for the scheme is high in Co Monaghan and there is a considerable ...

490 people received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the Glencarn Hotel in Castleblayney over the Bank Holiday weekend as the county’s vaccination centre – which relocated from the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan Town last week – took part in the walk-in clinic initiative put in place at locations across the country. HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said it had been “a significant weekend for the vaccination programme”, with the success of the walk-in approach – where people could turn up without a prior appointment providing they brought ...

As part of a collaboration with Monaghan Tidy Towns, M Power Youth Group and funded by Environmental Services, Monaghan County Council, a beautiful wall mural was commissioned and painted on the wall of the Northern Standard Office in the past number of weeks. Sharon Finnegan Environmental Awareness Officer who collaborated and organised this work had the following to say…” this mural was a fantastic opportunity to work with both Monaghan Tidy Towns and M Power’s Youth Group – Transition Year Students from St. Macartan’s College, Monaghan. They were such a ...

The death on Friday last, July 16 in a road traffic accident of 19-year-old Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh, the captain of Co Monaghan’s U-20s Gaelic football team, has caused widespread shock and grief throughout the county and in sporting circles nationwide. Mr Ó Dufaigh had played a starring role as centre half back in Monaghan’s 3-10 to 1-11 victory over Donegal in the Ulster U-20 Championship semi-final in Brewster Park in Enniskillen earlier in the evening and was driving home from the Monaghan GAA training facility at Cloghan when the ...

Margaret Urwin of the Justice for the Forgotten campaign group, established in relation to the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan Town, has called on the Irish Government to seek the intervention of United States President Joe Biden to try to halt the intention of the British Government to introduce an effective amnesty for crimes carried out during the Northern Ireland Troubles. Ms Urwin urged President Biden to speak out on the issue and said it would be helpful if the Irish Government could make representations to Mr Biden in ...

Confirmation that 23 new step-down care beds promised for Monaghan Hospital were now all fully operational was welcomed at Monday’s meeting of the Monaghan Municipal District. But Sinn Féin representative Brian McKenna emphasised that what was required at the facility was additional services and the medical staff to run them, pointing to the disincentive to economic investment in the county which the lack of full hospital services created. Welcoming the 23 beds that had come on stream at the hospital, Independent councillor Seamus Treanor said it was great to see ...