Articles in the Headline Category

As Diarmuid McCleary is pictured by Rory Geary putting the finishing touches to his ‘Graffiti Arts’ project in anticipation of the Harvest Time Blues Festival this weekend, it’s worth looking at the words by the late Rory Gallagher — which are edged in the piece — who says, “Blues is the most demanding form of music because it goes deeper, it goes beyond technique. Because it’s spiritual , it drains the artist”. These words bring us to the crossroads of the music were the legendary bluesman, Robert Leroy ...

By PATSY McARDLE A CROSS-BORDER drama which brought unwelcome media focus on the Mullyash area of Co Monaghan and Castleblayney unfolded last Thursday in the wake of a Northern robbery which led to the partner and son of a security firm’s driver who was abducted in Belfast, being taken to an isolated house in the area, in what was described as a so-called “tiger” raid. The woman and 16-year-old son were freed after the man was forced to hand over a substantial sum of money – ...

By PATSY McARDLE THE formal signing of a contract on Monday afternoon by Co. Monaghan Vocational Education Committee with John Sisk and Sons, to mark the go-ahead with the building of the new €37 million education complex at the twenty-acre site of the former army base along the Armagh Road outside Monaghan town is seen as a milestone for education and art in the region. With the inclusion of a new €3.3 million state-of-the-art theatre, replacing the existing Garage Theatre, the development will be the largest school building project to ...

A 38-years-old Lithuanian national, Zigimantas Gridziuskas, with an address at Ard Ross Avenue in Carrickmacross, appeared at a sitting of the District Court in Dundalk last Thursday on four charges arising from a collision on the N2 Dublin/Derry Road at Tullyvaragh Upper near Carrickmacross on Tuesday night of last week last, in which a 23 –year’s-old law student, Shane O’Farrell of Magheraboy, Carrickmacross, was fatally injured. The victim was cycling on the roadway when the collision occurred and was later ...

A man was being questioned at Carrickmacross Garda Station yesterday (Wednesday) about a fatal hit-and-run accident on the N2 Carickmacross/Castleblayney Road at Creevy on Tuesday night, in which a 23-years-old male cyclist was struck by a vehicle which failed to stop. It is understood the man called to the garda station to assist in inquiries into the fatality, and gardai also located the car involved in the fatal collision. The victim was named locally as Shane O’Farrell, son of Mr. and Mrs James O’Farrell of Magheraboy, ...

By PATSY McARDLE INVESTIGATIONS continued over last weekend into the discovery of an illegal fuel laundering plant near Ballybay, and the subsequent discovery during a major search operation at the premises, of an unidentified liquid, believed to be related to the banned livestock-fattening substance, clenbuterol, more popularly known, as “angel dust”. Two men were questioned by the Gardai following the swoop and search, which involved a team of Gardai, Revenue officers, and members of a Department of Agriculture investigations unit. Both men were later released, ...

Some town centre traders lost thousands of euro in business because of the closure of central Monaghan Town to through traffic during the course of the recent International Forge In festival showcasing the work of artist blacksmiths, Independent councillor Seamus Treanor claimed at Monday night’s meeting of Monaghan Town Council. Colr Treanor was critical of the disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic which the logistical arrangements for the hosting by the town of the event entailed, but an analysis of the event that laid greater emphasis on the publicity ...

The new multi-purpose education campus being provided at the site of the former Monaghan Military Barracks at Knockaconny outside Monaghan Town will provide a huge employment boost for Co Monaghan, Chief Executive Officer of Co Monaghan Vocational Education Committee Martin G O’Brien said this week. Mr O’Brien told Monday’s meeting of Co Monaghan Vocational Education Committee that between 500-600 jobs would be facilitated during the building period of the project, while 200 people would be employed there going forward. The CEO stated that the VEC expected to be ...

Comments in relation to the future funding of the Ulster Canal project made by Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan in Clones recently sparked concerns at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The Council agreed on the proposal of Pat Treanor, Co Mayor Seamus Coyle seconding, to write to Minister Deenihan requesting that he recommit to the necessary funding for the development and to the timescale previously agreed for the project’s delivery. When in Clones the Minister stated that he had been “warned not to ...

The opening stanza of the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem ‘The Village Blacksmith’ – recited in its entirety with some feeling by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan in Monaghan Town last Thursday), and imbedded in the memory of a certain generation of Irish schoolchildren – embodies the traditional romantic image of a craft that in its modern form was memorably celebrated in the International Forge In event hosted by Monaghan Town last weekend. The worldwide assembly of artist blacksmiths who converged on the crucible of the ...