Articles in the Headline Category

“I want to see an Ireland proud of its identity and comfortable with its history, going forward with confidence and pride,” Acting Minister for Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys stated this week when asked by The Northern Standard what she hoped the lasting legacy of last weekend’s major State commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising would be. “I want to see us go forward into the future with a much deeper understanding of our history and a greater respect for our different cultural traditions.”In an exclusive interview with this ...

 From Patsy McArdle in Brussels  A Northern Standard news team, which included South Monaghan photographer Pat Byrne, and reporter Patsy McArdle, was at the centre of Tuesday’s bomb drama in Brussels, when an Aer Lingus plane on Flight EI360, which was on course to land in the bomb-targeted Zaventem Airport was alerted to the shocking runway turmoil, just minutes before the scheduled landing, and was diverted to Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, thereby miraculously escaping the horrific ground chaos. The Aer Lingus captain, and his co-pilot, as well as the entire flight staff, ...

By Veronica Corr “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” The above quote from Anatole France is hanging in Paul Derrick’s kitchen, Creevy Lake, Carrickmacross. Paul has an unusual hobby which he is really passionate about and has earned him the title of Military Architect in Lego. Two years ago Paul got the idea for his most ambitious project to date, building Sackville Street 1916 (modern day O’Connell Street, Dublin) including the iconic GPO, entirely out of Lego. Initially, Paul was a bit ...

Gardaí have confirmed that an investigation is continuing into the cause of a house fire in Carrickamacross in which a 61-year-old man, Gerry Marron, lost his life. One unit from Carrickmacross Fire Station, backed up by one from Castleblayney, responded to a call from control at 1.31am on Monday morning last. It is understood that the blaze at 7 St. Macartan’s Villas, Carrickmacross, was brought under control in less than an hour and contained in the hallway, but that there was smoke damage elsewhere. Mr. Paul L’Estrange, Chief Fire Officer, Monaghan County Council, ...

By Veronica Corr After fourteen bouts of chemotherapy, thirty sessions of radiation (which took place over six weeks), six surgeries including biopsies, as well as the installation of a Hickman (Freddie) line to her heart and a feeding (Peggie) line to her stomach, and having her right leg amputated above the knee, ten-year-old Laura Crossan from Greaghdrummitt, Corduff, Carrickmacross has come out smiling on the other side. When this reporter and our photographer Pat Byrne visited the Crossans at home last Friday morning, March 18th, we found dad Jonathan, mum Sinéad, Dylan ...

A report carried out by Monaghan Co Council as a consequence of allegations made on an “RTÉ Investigates” programme in December of last year has been referred to the Standards in Public Office Commission, Chief Executive Eamonn O’Sullivan told Monday’s meeting of the Council. A member of the Co Council, Hugh McElvaney, was one of three local public representatives featured on the programme, and against whom allegations of transgressions against public office standards were made as a consequence of their secretly filmed interactions with an undercover journalist posing at a representative ...

A former Cavan/Monaghan Dail deputy who resigned from Fine Gael and lost his seat in the recent General Election, when he stood as an Independent, appeared in court yesterday (Wed) having been remanded on bail on charges relating to an alleged assault at his family-owned pub last year. Sean Conlan, who   resigned from Fine Gael—because of what he termed as his dissatisfaction over “the response” to issues he raised in the constituency—had been remanded from a previous sitting of Carrickmacross District Court on January 27th last on his own bail of ...

PETER HUGHES Justice for the Forgotten spokesperson Margaret Urwin was “aghast” at the contents of a letter sent by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers MP to Monaghan Co Council in relation to the 1974 no warning car bomb attacks in Monaghan and Dublin. So Sinn Féin councillor Sean Conlon told Monday’s meeting of the Co Council, which considered the correspondence from the North Secretary in which she stated that two inquiries carried out into the attacks – which resulted in the worst loss of life in a single day ...

This spectacular view of the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights was supplied to us by Gabriel Murphy, who took the picture in Emyvale on Sunday night last.  The celestial phenomenon, which occurs when electrically charged particles from the Sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere, was in its full splendour in the night sky over the weekend.  The hour when the aurora is often best seen has given rise to the description “magic midnight”.

By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie VOTERS in Cavan/Monaghan confounded the pundits again this time out by managing to remain faithful to the three larger parties while at the same time delivering the very result that was least expected. Speculation that the coveted fourth and final seat would be tightly contested by Sinn Féin and Fine Gael proved well wide of the mark when Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth defied the commentators and managed to book her party’s second ticket to Dáil Éireann after polling well and transferring strongly throughout the two-day count. A delighted and pleasantly ...