2022 Dundalk news in review - January

January 4th 2022

Commerce in Dundalk started off the year on a happy note with Dundalk Chamber of Commerce announcing that sales of the Shop Local Gift Vouchers hit a record of over €1.2 million in 2021.

The amount brings total sales to over €5 million since their launch five years ago.

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The community in Omeath were been left shocked and disappointed after a donation box was stolen from a Santa’s grotto display in the village.

The donations were being collected to help fund the costs associated with the ‘Festival of Christmas Lights’ display held in the village each year, it is estimated that approximately €150 to €200 was taken.

House prices in Louth rose by 9.6% in the past 12 months, with the average house price in the county now standing at €249,525, according to the Daft.ie, Irish House Price Report Q4 2021.

Irish Water (IW) announced that they have successfully completed a programme of works to replace old and damaged water mains along the Ecco Road, Dundalk.

January 11th 2022

Dundalk Chamber of Commerce PRO Paddy Malone criticised the “ill-timed” introduction of Minimum Unit Alcohol Pricing, citing worries it will take business away from the town.

Mr Malone told the Democrat that “the chamber has consistently argued for at least two years that we have no objection, in principle, to minimum alcohol pricing, but we have serious problems with the fact it wasn’t done in a coordinated fashion with Northern Ireland.

“We are seriously concerned about trade being diverted across the border.”

Up to 100 fulfilment jobs were at risk at National Pen, after the company announced on Friday 7 January that they planned to cease fulfilment operations at their Dundalk facility from next year.

In a statement, the company said that they plan to conduct the fulfilment of European orders at their facility in the Czech Republic from 2023.

A number of areas in Dundalk were deemed “top ranking” sites, but the town missed out again on achieving a clean status in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey, due to a number of “heavily littered sites.”

Dundalk was ranked 28 out of 40 towns and cities in Ireland in the survey, carried out by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, and was deemed “moderately littered” in the report produced by An Taisce.

January 18th 2022

Hundreds of people gathered at the Market Square in Dundalk on the evening of Friday 14 January for a candlelight vigil in memory of Ashling Murphy.

Ms Murphy, a 23-year-old primary school teacher in Tullamore, was killed along the banks of the Grand Canal at Cappincur in Co Offaly.

Councillors at the Dundalk Municipal District January meeting voiced their concerns over public safety at Mount Avenue, if the planned 93 unit social housing development takes place at a site on the road, without work taking place first to improve Mount Avenue itself.

Tenants are finally set to move in, in January, to the redeveloped Hallidays Mill apartment complex in Dundalk.

January 25th 2022

Local publicans were delighted to have their punters back for business as usual and back on stools at the bar, following the announcement by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Friday 21 January, that pubs and restaurants would be able to return to their normal working hours while nightclubs would once again be allowed to re-open fully, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

A sense of “relief” was the overriding emotion felt by Spirit Store owner Mark Dearey when he learned of the lifting of most Covid restrictions, while Cormac O’Carroll, owner of Tata’s in Seatown, said it was great to be back to normal.

Brown water coming from the taps remains an issue in parts of Dundalk, despite confirmation that Irish Water has completed its flushing programme in the town.

Dundalk councillor Kevin Meenan told the Dundalk Democrat that the issue is springing up “sporadically in different parts of the town for maybe a few days at a time. In these cases it is not just a tinge of colour in the water, it is like mud.”

Cllr Meenan, as well as Cllr Maria Doyle raised the issue at the Louth County Council January meeting.