Articles in the Headline Category

By Cianna McNally “Now that our deficit has been eliminated we see the future of Clones Credit Union as secure. We now look at how we can improve our services to you, the members.” So said President of Clones Credit Union Brendan Carolan at the 55th AGM which took place in the Creighton Hotel, Clones last Wednesday evening. The fact that the facility is back in the black for the first time since 2009 was something that was warmly welcomed by a number of speakers at the AGM, where the mood overall was upbeat. Speakers included Martin Sisk, President of the Irish League ...

Jane Duffy, First Year student at Ballybay Community College who won the GloHealth All Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships Minor Girls Race last Saturday, 7th March.

By PATSY McARDLE MONAGHAN-produced Celtic Pure,   bottlers of the finest natural spring water in the country, were named last week as winners of the Manufacturer of the Year category, sponsored by competitive energy provider, Energia, at the prestigious Small Firms Association Awards 2015. The Celtic Pure plant is located at Corcreagh, Raferagh, near Carrickmacross in South Monaghan. The company is operated by Padraig and Pauline McEneaney since 2000, and manufactures all its own bottles, thus eliminating the risk of contamination associated with packaging transportation. It was previously nominated for an award in 2013. Mr. ...

Tributes to Oliver as new Shabra national fundraising drive gets off to flying start THE LATE, great Oliver Brady’s “Up Monaghan” jersey-wearing routine was given an unexpected re-run at the Shabra Cheltenham Preview held in his memory in the Glencarn Hotel on Tuesday night, when his partner in business and life Rita Shah took it on herself to give his much-loved party piece another run on the stage! And if she had any jitters prior to going through with it, who better than man-of-the-moment Tommy Bowe to help her whip off the ...

By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie DRUMGOON’S lifelong GAA mentor and Gaelic culture enthusiast Aogán Ó Fearghail passed the most major milestone of all in a remarkable career last Saturday when he was officially inaugurated President of the GAA after spending a year sharpening up for the position as Uachtaráin-Tofa. The Association’s 38th president got off to a flying start at the GAA’s annual congress in the his native county’s Slieve Russell Hotel with a trademark off–the-cuff address that stressed the value of the tradition but looked at modern issues like the role of women, ...

By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie THE official opening of the new €3.5 million Carrickmacross Water Treatment Plant on a hill at Nafferty, to the north of the town on Thursday last was hailed as a “fantastic occasion” by Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly TD, who subsequently unveiled a plaque to mark the event. The Minister, who had earlier passed a group of about 70 or 80 anti-water charges protesters at the nearby Ballybay Road roundabout on his way into the plant (see story in Carrickmacross News), repeatedly sought to ...

HUNDREDS of people attended the funeral on Saturday of Emyvale man Kieran McAree, where local sadness at the loss of the 23-year-old was offset by a sense of relief that the 63-day search for his body had finally ended. Kieran was missing since 17th December, but his body was found near the Round ‘O’ riverside jetty in Enniskillen shortly after midday on Wednesday last, exactly seven weeks after he disappeared. Parish priest Fr Hubert Martin told the overflow congregation at St Patrick’s Church, Corracrin that great joy that spread around the shoreline ...

The ‘Clones Cyclone’ Barry McGuigan made a welcome return to his hometown on Friday last to officially open a park that had been   named in his honour. The Barry McGuigan Park, which cost almost €172,000, was completed in two phases. Funding was received from a number of sources – Cavan-Monaghan LEADER, Clones Town Council, Clones Community Forum and the East Border Region. “CHUFFED TO BITS”  A clearly humbled Barry described having the park named after him as amazing. “I didn’t realise the money nor the investment in this park, it’s pretty overwhelming that you gave that ...

Union members at the Bose factory in Carrickmacross, due to be closed at the end of May with the loss of 140 jobs, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of redundancy proposals negotiated by their representatives. SIPTU Industrial Organiser Jim Mc Veigh welcomed the result of the ballot saying: “We negotiated what we considered to be a fair and reasonable redundancy package. We recommended the proposals to our members and they have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the package. SIPTU will be continuing discussions with the company, the government and the IDA, ...

By PATSY McARDLE A ‘CHELTENHAM Preview and Race Night’   to be staged at the Glencarn Hotel in Castleblayney on Tuesday 3rd March next, kicks off a massive national campaign to raise €1 million for the provision of specialist DNA testing equipment—which will be new to Ireland—at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, and thereby fulfill a final pledge by the late Oliver Brady, the famed Co. Monaghan racehorse trainer and co-founder/director of Shabra Plastics in Castleblayney. Sadly, Oliver (75) passed away last September, after bravely fighting a protracted battle with cancer, but his ...