Community News: Emyvale Then and Now …….. HERE The Disappeared …….. HERE Newspapers ………….…… HERE Cancer test …………….. HERE Health Investment…….. HERE Childrens Hospital …….. HERE Priest Shortage ………. HERE Back to Nature ……….. HERE Community News 2 ….. HERE Covid 19 ………………… HERE Covid Confusion ………. HERE

New Road: The proposals for the realignment of the road from Ardee to the border has been published and the people of North Monaghan should be interested, especially in the section from Clontibret to the river Blackwater, where it will cross into Northern Ireland. The fact that Emyvale village will be by- passed should also invoke a response. Some will be for and some against. A By-Pass will remove the heavy flow of traffic and should offer a new impetus to Tidy Towns effort and make Main Street a safer and more peaceful place to live. However it could mean Emyvale becoming a ‘back water’, where nothing happens and our shops become redundant. Passing trade will pass but then the inhabitants of the area around the village, through which the new road will go, will face a number of problems - losing some land, increased noise, difficulty in moving from one area to another, etc. For all these reasons it is very important that people have their say now and not wait until final decisions are made. People should study the route and how it will affect them and submit their opinions to the Council before the deadline. At the moment, and into the future, there is a real business opportunity in the area for a good sit-down Restaurant. I have had quite a number of times, when people were looking for such as they pass through on a journey. When I am taking people on a guided Tour it would be a bonus to have a restaurant, where they could have a sit-down meal and chat. Just yesterday I met a family (Father, mother and two children) from Dublin, who holiday regularly in Donegal and they always pass through Emyvale, going and coming. They always stop for a break and Park round the corner at the Redboys, the mother goes up town and purchases food for a picnic and they all sit on the bench facing the river and they enjoy it and think it is a beautiful place, but I had to explain to them the biodiversity reason for the uncut grass, when they queried why the area around the river was not looking as neat and trim as previous visits. When I asked them about a Restaurant in the village, they agreed that it would be great as sometimes, when going through, the weather is too wet and/or cold to sit out so they would then use a Restaurant, which they used do until it closed and now in bad weather they picnic in the car down by the river.

I would be much happier if those serving food in Restaurants etc were to wear Masks as opposed to the visors above as when they breath out the wind goes downwards bringing with it the virus if it is present in their system and it lands on the food and plates that are then placed in front of me. How can I be sure there is no virus? Just a thought

Local Writer A local man, Francie Treanor, formerly from Toneyfinnegan, and then Tyholland, has published a book entitled ‘ Orphaned in the Fifties - a Monaghan Man’s Story of Survival’. It is available in Easons in Monaghan, among other places, at €10 and I am looking forward to reading it. I was talking to Francie some time ago and he told me about his work in putting the book together and it is now on the book self. Many in North Monaghan and beyond will know him and the local people will know him as one of the ‘’Roe’ Treanors and will be able to identify many of the people mentioned in the book. As I have just perused the first few pages it is an easy book to read and takes one on a journey through Francie’s life. It will make one recall one’s own lifetime and travails, both happy and sad times, and how Francie dealt with both. Beyond the local memories it recalls, this book is a historic record of life in rural Ireland in and since the 1950’s and how so many of our forefathers and mothers sacrificed, worked hard, survived and lived through tough times and where they got the power and capacity to live through it and of those who did not survive. Well worth a read.