Articles in the Headline Category

By Patsy McArdle THE SEVERE flooding which hit many parts of Co. Monaghan over the Christmas and New Year period led to local Dail deputy Sean Conlan making a direct call to the Minister for Transport Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, who has responsibility for roads, to provide additional special funding to deal with the aftermath of the flooding in this region. Prior to Tuesday’s additional €18 million government funding announcement, Deputy Conlan had written to the Minister to outline the areas in County Monaghan which were the worst affected by the ...

By Cianna McNally Tickets are selling well for a fundraising dance that is set to take place early next month in support of five-year-old twins with severe health challenges. Maeve and Francis McCabe from Avelreagh, Clontibret are the only children of Kevin and Kate and were born in July 2010. Francis was born with a very rare lung condition and is the only person in Ireland to suffer from it. He has to be 100% tube fed, needs oxygen and has a serious low blood sugar condition that can require immediate hospitalisation. ...

By PATSY McARDLE IN a widely-ranging Christmas and New Year message to all the citizens of Co. Monaghan, the Cathaoirleach of Monaghan County Council, Cllr. Noel Keelan (Carrickmacross) said his hopes are that 2016 will be “an excellent year for the county, bringing fresh economic progress, jobs for the unemployed, and an easing of financial pressures on many families who through no fault of their own are victims of austerity”. In his good wishes for Christmas, the Sinn Féin county council Cathaoirleach said that his overall wish for the Festive Season was ...

Utility should reimburse hard water users for resultant expense says Colr Bennett PETER HUGHES Irish Water should compensate people in Co Monaghan who have been put to expense because of the hardness of their domestic water supply. This argument was made at the December meeting of Monaghan Co Council by Sinn Féin representative Cathy Bennett, who has been crusading on behalf of people in the Scotstown, Ballinode and Smithboro areas who want something done to soften the quality of the water coming out of their taps. Colr Bennett was reacting to a letter the ...

Drogheda & North East Branch of Samaritans – which serves counties Monaghan, Cavan, Louth and Meath – have had their busiest year to date answering 26,194 calls in the last 12 months. Details of the increase in use of Samaritans’ service were revealed in the charity’s 2014-2015 Impact Report covering Samaritans’ work in Ireland. According to the report, launched on Wednesday, December 16 in Dublin, over 653,161 calls for help were answered by Samaritans volunteers across Ireland in the last year. Calls to Samaritans have increased by 60 per cent since it launched ...

Over 150 households have been provided with Christmas food hampers thanks to the annual food appeal by Monaghan Lions Club. Lions collected at three locations in town over the weekend: at Flemings SuperValu, Tesco in the shopping centre and outside the Courthouse. As well as items of food, donations were also gratefully received. All this will go a long way to making a huge difference for Christmas in a large number of local houses. Thanks to members and non-members including the helpers from St Vincent de Paul for all their efforts in ...

PETER HUGHES Underfire public representative Hugh McElvaney has been requested to resign from the membership of Monaghan Co Council. The Council at a specially convened meeting yesterday, Wednesday afternoon, voted in favour of a Sinn Féin motion moved by Pat Treanor which requested the resignation of the veteran local politician because of “his clear breaches of the code of conduct binding the behaviour of councillors, as demonstrated by the contents of the RTE Investigates programme broadcast on Monday, December 7.” The programme had depicted the long-serving Co Councillor, now in his 42nd year ...

By Cianna McNally “At the time I felt shocked but absolutely delighted to have won! Now that it’s all out in the open, I’m getting to relive that and share it with everyone who’s been watching from Monaghan, which is even nicer.” These were the words of Cathy MacKenna, who won the final of The Great Irish Bake Off last Sunday evening. Speaking to The Northern Standard, Cathy described the competition, which was filmed in September, as “intense and tough at times” but said overall it was hugely enjoyable. “I had the chance ...

Gardaí in Castleblayney have launched a missing person investigation. They are appealing to the public to assist them in locating Paddy Kelly who was last seen on Monday night. Mr. Kelly (35), who is originally from Drumillard, Castleblayney, was more recently living in the Oram area. Paddy’s car is a Toyota Auris which is silver-blue in colour. It’s registration plate is 09 MN 6569. Anyone with information is asked to contact Castleblayney Gardaí on 042 9740668. His family are said to be very concerned for his safety.

By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie IF Monaghan’s veteran public representative Hugh McElvaney had hoped his recent resignation from Fine Gael would put him in the media spotlight, he could hardly have foreseen the kind of blanket national broadcast and print coverage he is attracting this week — for all the wrong reasons. In an investigative documentary aired on RTÉ television on Monday night, Cllr McElvaney is filmed telling an undercover female reporter that, for £10,000 sterling (roughly €13,800), he will help a company she pretends to represent to set up a wind farm project ...