Articles in the Headline Category

PETER HUGHES “The last time I stepped on stage at the Monaghan festival, it was like being in Glastonbury – the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic!” So stated Ireland’s favourite Louisianan Robert Mizzell when he supplied the closing (verbal) notes for last Friday’s official launch of the Monaghan Town Country Music Festival 2015. The exhibition gallery of Monaghan Co Museum echoed, with infectious incongruity, to intermittent cheers of the “Yee-har!” variety as the invited guests, many of them in appropriate attire, indulged in their own prelude of the big July event when a comment ...

– Support urged to make late Oliver Brady’s life-saving dream a reality Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael TD Heather Humphreys, leading officials of the GAA and a host of other political and sporting personalities assembled at Croke Park last Thursday for the official launch by Shabra Charity of a major new fund-raising initiative to purchase genomic sequencing equipment for the Mater Hospital. The late Co Monaghan entrepreneur and philanthropist Oliver Brady had a last wish to see the specialist life-saving equipment put in place at the Mater Hospital, ...

PETER HUGHES The first stages of a mobilisation campaign aimed at maximising the non-payment of water charges among the citizens of Monaghan were put in place at a public meeting in the town’s Hillgrove Hotel last Thursday evening. A crowd of over 70 people heard Anti-Austerity Alliance TD for Dublin South-West Paul Murphy state that a nationwide campaign of large-scale water charge non-payment would put immense pressure on the political establishment to abolish the controversial levy following the next General Election. Deputy Murphy exhorted people who had not yet paid to hold off ...

By Cianna McNally A young Smithboro man has much to be proud of after raising over €1,200 for the Holy Family School in Cootehill. Sean Collins, from Mullandavagh, Smithboro, who is son of Annette and Donal, dyed his hair pink last Saturday to raise money for the Special Care Unit in The Holy Family School in Cootehill, Co Cavan. The 12-year-old has a close link with the school as his older sister, 14-year-old Kathryn, attends it and her kind-hearted brother was aware of how much she loves it and the benefit she gets ...

PETER HUGHES “Let us work together to make this good county a great county,” stated Sinn Féin’s Noel Keelan upon his election on Monday as the new Cathaoirleach of Monaghan Co Council. The South Monaghan public representative, a Council member since 1999, was unanimously elected as first citizen at the local authority’s Annual Meeting, succeeding Fianna Fáil’s Pádraig McNally. Seamus Coyle (FF) was appointed unopposed to the Leas Cathaoirleach or vice-chair position. In an exceptionally comprehensive address, the new Cathaoirleach detailed the issues confronting the Council over the remainder of its term but ...

By Cianna McNally “It really hasn’t sunk in yet that I am a Triple World Champion but when I see how it has made my family and friends feel and how proud they are then it makes me feel like the happiest girl on earth.” So said Emyvale woman Louise McKenna who won her impressive title at the World Single Lift Championships in Telford, England last weekend. Louise, who is daughter of Antoinette and Martin McKenna, was one of 100 lifters (50 men and 50 women) from the Irish Drug Free Powerlifting Association who represented Ireland ...

By PATSY McARDLE CAVAN/MONAGHAN Fine Gael Dail deputy Sean Conlan has taken up the cudgels this week against Monaghan County Council and the powers-that-be at local authority level over the ‘scandal’ of the permitted ongoing deterioration of Castleblayney Courthouse and Markethouse building which is a key landmark in the mid-Monaghan town. Deputy Conlan’s statement came in a week in which the Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald welcomed public- private partnership for development of seven new or upgraded courthouses, elsewhere in the country. The Castleblayney courthouse is however no longer classified as ...

PETER HUGHES Newly-elected Cathaoirleach of the Monaghan Municipal District, Fianna Fáil Co Councillor Robbie Gallagher, has urged the body to work with commercial and community interests to maximise the potential for development of Monaghan Town and its surrounding hinterland. “Monaghan has a lot to offer and I think we can deliver it,” Colr Gallagher stated following his election at the Municipal District’s Annual Meeting last Tuesday. “With people all pushing in the same direction there is no limit to what the town can achieve.” Colr Gallagher succeeds Sinn Féin’s Sean Conlon in the Cathaoirleach ...

Monaghan Social Inclusion week 2015 brought a great atmosphere of celebration to the county last week. A wide range of events, activities and celebrations took place throughout the week that all said clearly the same message. It’s ok to be different. Not everyone in Monaghan feels ok to be different, not everyone in Monaghan feels its ok for others to be different. The truth is, every day in Monaghan, Ireland and the rest of the world people are often treated differently because they are different. But Monaghan social inclusion measures group, led ...

Renowned Anti-Austerity Alliance activist and TD, Paul Murphy, is coming to the Hillgrove Hotel on Thursday 18th June at 19:30 to discuss the anti- water charges movement so far, and how Irish Water and the Government’s charges can be defeated through mass non-payment. “Paul’s arrival comes in the context of the ongoing battle of ordinary people against the water charges, and is a particular timely discussion as the government refuse to release the figures of payment, which indicates that the boycott has been successful so far. “Come along to hear ...