After the heavy rain storms of recent days Monaghan County Council spent its time, on Monday, at the first monthly meeting since the August recess debating who is to blame for the annual flooding of the lower end of the town whenever heavy rains return. However the situation was not resolved and the Councillors, like the rest of the County town to find the entrance to the towns main shopping center again totally flooded whit pedestrians and cars stranded with up to 3 feet of water.

At Mondays meeting neither the Office of Public works or the County Council could, after a heated debate, decide who was responsibility for a small river know as the “Shambles Tributary” which runs along what was the old Ulster Canal which runs into the Blackwater River. However elderly locals in the border town say they have known for years that when the Council filled in the Ulster Canal in the early 1960’s without piping the water away the area always flooded since.

The Mayor of County Monaghan Jackie Crowe says “ Clarification of who has responsibility for the Black Water river should be available from the O.P.W. in the next week and we should have clear knowledge of who is responsible for what”.