A small protest was held during the Presidential visit to Glaslough yesterday.
President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina were in the picturesque Monaghan village to unveil a plaque marking the town as the overall winner of the Supervalu Tidy Towns competition in 2019. The President of Ireland was unable to travel to the area at the time of winning due to the pandemic. A group from the Special Needs Active Parents (SNAP) group staged a peaceful but visible protest at the event to highlight the lack of respite care, day centre and special needs school in County Monaghan. When asked about the protest, Minister for Rural Affairs, Heather Humphreys, who has been working with SNAP over the provision of special needs services said "today was about Glaslough and the President's visit". The local TD added that she would provide an update on special needs services to Northern Sound on Monday. Kathleen Maguire from SNAP says their group cannot be ignored:
"We just want to let the politicians know that we, as families, are here; we're not going anywhere. We're not invisible," Kate told Northern Sound,
"We've had meetings: public meetings, private meetings. We've had Minister Rabbitte saying that we're going top get a respite centre but, there's nothing in writing. It's all verbal. We asked them where's the respite centre in Castleblayney going to be but it's all very vague, there's nothing in writing. None of the politicians have followed through."
