Articles in the Headline Category

michael@northern-standard.ie A genuine belief and conviction that this country can, and will, get through the current economic turmoil if everyone pulls together in a collective effort, was central to the message given by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen in a lengthy, off the cuff and at times passionate address given to a dinner hosted by Monaghan Chamber of Commerce in the Four Seasons Hotel last Friday evening. The event was organised by the Chamber’s Infrastructure and Industry Committee with a view to giving representatives of various business, economic, educational and social sectors an ...

Last weekend, Pairc Grattan managed to morph into a conspiracy theorist’s dreamscape. 10-10-’10. 1-10 to 1-10. What will the deities conjure up for the replay this coming Sunday? Clontibret and Magheracloone’s fabled resourcefulness saw both of them bend but not break over the course of a stamina-sapping tussle. This weekend, something has to give in what we can confidently predict will be another blood and thunder clash. As most pundits predicted, a familiar tale unfolded last weekend in Inniskeen’s temple of a ground. Stalemate ruled the roost. “Before the game I felt that a draw ...

“An innovative strategy which will seek to drive the economy of the county in the short to medium term” was presented to the members of Monaghan County Council at their October meeting on Monday. Prepared by the Co Monaghan Development Board in active consultation and participation by heads of business and community activists, the new report was described by consultant Padraig Warren as a broad-based approach to economic recovery that placed emphasis on stimulating growth in the areas of business, education and training, infrastructure and employment. The ‘Economic Strategy & Implementation Plan’ ...

By PATSY McARDLE A PLAN  to construct Ireland’s biggest biomass power station has been given the go-ahead in the North by  the Environment Minister of Northern Ireland, Mr. Edwin Poots—-after a fifteen-year campaign by a North Monaghan firm failed to get approval for a similar type of project in the Republic. THE  disclosure has particularly angered  everyone who was supportive of the efforts to get this type of plant set up in Co. Monaghan. Yesterday Mr. Aiden McCarron, who along with his brother Maurice, had been working on building a similar biomass  power ...

Whatever one’s view might be of the cavernous site of the interrupted mixed use development project in the heart of Monaghan Town – and there are many colourful descriptions of it circulating in local parlance – there is no doubt that it stands as a powerful symbolic testament to this country’s alarming change in economic health.  Effulgent growth and ceaseless property-related development turned almost overnight, seemingly, into stasis and abandonment.  Economists speak figuratively of the “black hole” of Irish fiscal fortunes…Monaghan townspeople can point to a real-life one on their ...

The members of Monaghan Town Council agreed on Monday night to the suggestion of Town Manager Declan Nelson that the developers of the stalled ‘mixed use’ project in the town centre be requested to fill in portion of the site in order to restore car-parking close to the Dublin Street part of the town. The Manager expressed the view that the measure would keep the project alive, stating that at the same time the developers could pursue their stated objective of providing the civic offices portion of the scheme as its ...

By Veronica Johnston Rita Shah, Joint Managing Director of Shabra Plastics Packaging and Recycling, has been  appointed to the Board of Enterprise Ireland. The announcment was made by Batt O’Keeffe, Minister for Enterprise and Innovation  on Thursday last, who was clearly impressed when he officially opened a new €3.5 million bottle sorting facility at the Shabra Plant in Castleblayney. It is envisaged that 35 jobs will be created at the over the next three years at what is the first post-consumer plastic bottle sorting plant in Ireland. The new plant has the capacity ...

Considerable, although not unanimous, opposition was expressed at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council to the introduction of a €2 gate fee charge at the recycling facilities operating at Scotch Corner and Carrickmacross. But the wider issue of the escalating expense of the Council operating a landfill facility at the Scotch Corner location was introduced to the debate by Co Manager Declan Nelson, who stated that the Council were currently conducting an appraisal of the situation to determine the future of landfill operations in the county. The Manager pointed out that the ...

FARMERS and residents in the Mid Monaghan border area have expressed anger and concern during the past week over the dumping of hundreds of discarded tyres on roadside farms. It was claimed that some racketeers are collecting discarded rubber casings from garages in several cities and towns, as far away as Dublin, and transporting them at night in trucks for dumping at isolated locations close to the Monaghan-Armagh border. The rogue hauliers are believed to be collecting up to €1,000 per load, for ...

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith TD on Monday officially opened a new €12 million state-of-the-art mushroom growing facility which has been built by Tyholland Mushrooms Limited, an associate company of Monaghan Mushrooms at their headquarters in Tyholland, on the outskirts of Monaghan town. The new facility, which will generate 150 jobs, is made up of 18 individual mushroom growing houses that together provide a total growing area of 21,306 square metres. When operating at full capacity, it will have an output of 115 tonnes of mushrooms per ...