Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
HEADPHONE GIANT BOSE is to cease operations at its plant in Carrickmacross — with the loss of 140 jobs.
The company has been manufacturing audio systems in Monaghan since 1978 but will wind down and cease operations in April.
The firm says it will be “consolidating its wholly-owned manufacturing operations, closing its facilities in Columbia, South Carolina, and Carrickmacross, Ireland, to streamline the company’s global supply chain”.
Bose employs around 10,500 people and has sales of $3.3 billion.
Carrickmacross provides final assembly for select home theatre systems and radios for the European market, as well as some remanufacturing for the region. Operations will transfer to Bose facilities in Malaysia and Mexico.
Bryan Fontaine, Bose executive vice president of global operations and corporate development engineering, said the move came to keep pace with demand from customers and resellers.
“But these are still difficult decisions because they impact our very capable teams in South Carolina and Ireland. We thank all of them for their dedication, and we thank the communities of Columbia and Carrickmacross for their years of support.”
Siptu representatives will meet with management to discuss its plans, the union said in a statement this evening, following the announcement.
Advertisement
Organiser Jim McVeigh said the “devastating” news came “as a complete bolt out of the blue”.
Workers have been given tomorrow off but the meeting has been arranged for Monday. Siptu hopes it can salvage the jobs. Politicians from the area are also rallying to help the workforce, the majority of whom live in the locality.
‘Shock’
Local Fine Gael TD Sean Conlan said the announcement came as “a shock to everybody” in the area with no prior notification that it was happening.
“I’ve been in touch with the Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton, and have asked him to put together a coordinated effort with the IDA to immediately address this situation,” he told TheJournal.ie this evening.
“We now need an alternative employer in the south Monaghan area. Bose was here for nearly 40 years in the county.”
Midlands North West Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy, who is from the town, said he is “devastated” at the news.
“I know many of the 140 full time Bose staff personally and I am absolutely devastated to hear of the planned closure of this manufacturing plant in Carrickmacross. The plant is a well established local employer and the announcement today will cause widespread disbelief.
“Today’s announcement is not just a harsh blow to the staff and their families but to the wider community and local economy, which will be severely impacted by the closure of the plant.
“Unfortunately, this area has been ignored by too long by successive Governments. Monaghan has only has two visits by the IDA in the past 5 years and many will remember that Bose was the last significant employer attracted to this region by the IDA in the late 70s.”
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
I would rather spend a week in the RUC ‘torture’ station than one hour in the IRA interregation centre. At least you would leave the RUC station alive, if you left the IRA interregation you would probably end up in an unmarked grave in a shallow bog or beach aka the ‘disappeared’ aka murdered and dumped.
Yes the RUC did that, but hey the IRA blew some kids up and made others orphans..but that’s in the past, lets move on etc etc (If i were a murdering s(um bag I’d want to leave all that in the past too).
The RUC and BA and loyalist death squads killed youngsters deliberately, by pointing their the weapons at them and pulling the trigger. When did the IRA ever do that?
R u for real u thick ignoramus u r an uneducated ill informed numpty just look at some of the declassified documents released by the British government about false flag missions carried out by the British secret services in northern Ireland killing people with the intention of blaming the nationalist so the rest of the world would sympathise with england while they British army ran riot over the people of ireland just like Israel is doing to palistine
Antrim, the RUC & BA never interrogated someone & then killed them. They had their proxies to do that for them, the UVF, UFF, RHC, PAF etc. That way they could look all squeaky clean but still do their dirty business. I am sick of the pious BS on this subject. Read Brigadier Frank Kitson’s book Low Intensity Operations(1971) or better again Gangs & Counter Gangs 1960 you will see when it come to terrorism the British wrote the book. Literally in this case. There’s none so blind as they say.
The IRA were still worse, my mind won’t be changed on that. I’ll tell you something else too and you can choose to believe it or not. If the troubles hadn’t happened I’d happily live in a peaceful United Ireland, the existence of the IRA has made me want to reject it until my dying breath. Counter productive violence for 30 years is all it was.
As James Connelly said, partition will create a carnival of reaction. Let’s face it, reactionary is Unionisms middle name. You are not the first and won’t be the last unionist whose mind won’t be changed. I respect your point of view but I have a question. Do you think that the young Catholic men between 68-72 who went from placard to stone to gun were not reacting to counter productive violence too? A carnival of reaction and it continues.
I think they stirred up a hornets nest during that time and we never recovered for 30 years. When the conflict was civil unrest it could have been resolved and was being resolved, republicans upped the ante unfortunately and made it into a shooting war. It was all for a United Ireland too and not civil rights.
Cool heads? The place was ready to explode with anger and that is what happened. It was the authorities who were the irresponsible agent then. The genie was out and instead of reason we had such irresponsible ‘moderate’ politicians who acted like Smith in Rhodesia howling ‘no surrender’ at every opportunity. Whitehall was no different bringing events like the Falls Rd curfew that radicalised the few left in doubt. The aim of a united Ireland was to secure civil rights indefinitely not another agenda. Very bad things happened but to lay it all at the door of a small group of inexperienced angry men is to miss the point entirely. As I have said before, kick a dog often enough and it will eventually it will bite back.
I don’t wish to ignore you reply if any but it’s bed time so no offence meant. Good night.
Well I’m just telling you how the actions of republicans have shaped my political thinking. Counter productive as they tried to bomb and shoot people into accepting a United Ireland. It’s a grave shame too because I love this island as a whole and it’s people.
If a United Ireland had been won by force we would have been marching for civil rights ourselves, can you imagine a state run by the IRA with a republican police force and judiciary etc, it doesn’t bear thinking about. At least if a United Ireland happens in future it’ll be by a democratic vote and not by the barrel of a gun.
At least Antrim and Ten Major are discussing and giving some perspective on their points of view which is fair enough. I think, if we are fair to both sides, that both communities suffered terribly during the troubles and it was bad people on both sides that afflicted pain and misery on what they perceived to be their own people and “the enemy” when in reality this conflict was designed and created by people who were never hurt by it. It’s time to turn a corner. Ireland is great. It could be greater if both communities worked together and left the people with little minds in the past. Lets celebrate and share our achievements together. We should use one of our many small islands to banish the nostalgists so they can fight among themselves.
You really are ignorant aren’t you you really believe what you say which is very frightening your that gullible the ruc british army and secert service along with loyalists killed thousand under the banner of war just like the serbians did and Israel is doing now wake up if the ira killed every loyalists in northern Ireland it still wouldn’t equal r get near the amount of innocent men women and children murdered and raped and torture done in the name of the crown in ireland
Read your own comment again and put British army and queen in instead of ira and Republican and you have how england ruled every country they took over you know your ancestors were murdering rapists and hated everywhere they went!
Sure you boys believe that the IRA were completely justified and killed or hurt no civilians and that every action they carried out was on a legitimate target. You are completely brainwashed, im just happy that the majority of this island aren’t sucked in by SF propaganda.
Yes Thomas it’ll never change and the reason it’ll never change is republican aggression. Surely you don’t expect us just to roll over in the face of violence and intimidation!! What kind of future would that give us?
“Sure you boys believe that the IRA were completely justified and killed or hurt no civilians and that every action they carried out was on a legitimate target. ”
No we don’t – But bearing in mind, this is one of your previous comments: “RUC did shoot and kill innocent people but given the madness it was unavoidable.”
You’re excusing the RUC of their actions, because of the political and social climate. It wasn’t unavoidable. The RUC’s attacks on civilians and collusion with loyalist paramilitaries was very much avoidable. If they had of remained a neutral policing service, things would have been a lot different.
I was referring to incidents when they were being pelted with stones and petrol bombs, they fired in self defence and somebody gets struck down, whether they were rioting or not they were still listed as a civilian. A rioter in my opinion is a combatant regardless if they are affiliated with a group or not, throwing petrol bombs etc is attempted murder.
If it was the RUC’s intention to murder innocent people why was their final figure of people they killed only 53? A small figure for 30 years of activity.
In the same time the IRA killed 1800 people. Over 30 times as many people.
As a Dublin child I vividly remember being escorted out of Belfast by the RUC in July 69 as the policeman said to my father “I’m sorry , but we can’t protect you. ” a couple of days later images of Burntallot Bridge (hope I spelt it right) were in every news paper & on every TV …Ordinary people protesting while getting baton charged & beaten to the ground by the RUC,,,,, Some Protection .
The Provo fight back against British injustice will in time become to the majority of people a just and worthwhile fight. The north was used as a military playground for the British security forces. It’s people were expendable, no matter what their religion or persuasion. Some are still too blind to see it.
If that were true we would have a united Ireland would be not? No, the British tactic of putting it on the long finger until the Irish people became apathetic to the cause has worked a treat.
Who do you think the brits are Ray- let them remove all their barracks here first -[ most of them are down ]-and sort out other problems that came from their hundreds of years of occupation-then they can go in Peace-
Barracks are only down because the paramilitaries have left the stage, there’s no need for them now. The security apparatus always matched the threat. Republicans think they won a victory because the barracks are gone, they took them down as a result of the conflict ending. Same way the IRA handed in their weapons. Would be silly to be paying for 1970′s style security when there’s no sizeable threat.
It was wrote in the GFA Antrim in 1998-
- the same as we were told by the media that articles 2&3 were removed-but they are still in the Irish constitution-
the media is still telling us about the big bad dissident threat to try to stop the last brit barracks being pulled down-but i am glad that you -[ Antrim ]- take the Sinn Fein position that we are in a Peace Process and all such barracks should be removed-
Yes all barracks should be removed apart from the ones housing soldiers who are based in NI. Those units aren’t on operational deployment, they live in the barracks. If the IRA ever start up again then all past apparatus should be rebuilt to match the threat against the country.
Well it’s the truth isn’t it. The RUC behaved impeccably compared to the paramilitaries. The IRA were criticised by amnesty international for human rights abuses.
The RUC were murdering the people they were supposed to be protecting. Oh sorry it was a Protestant state for a Protestant people. Croppies lie down. Well guess what? The croppy boy decided to fight back.
Not at all. The sectarian police aren’t murdering the croppy’s kids anymore. They have equal rights now. They are thriving, generally. Our victory is the laughter of our children. And the Orangeman isn’t allowed march where he likes anymore, another plus.
Oh yeah Antrim, cause the good old RUC are better than that, just like the British army!! Bunch of corrupt thugs, torture was the least of it! Every day they betrayed they community because even though they were sworn to protect the community fairly, we all know the truth! Orange Thugs in uniform is what they are!
The RUC, they wore a uniform by day & a balaclava by night? under instructions from thatcher to not give Catholics equal rights in case the Asians rebelled
There were plenty of Catholics who signed up as nothing other than Catholics. Even the special branch has Catholic members. Don’t try and rewrite history here mate.
History! Written for Brits by Brits with a biased view on how things happened such as the saying Gos history is wrote by the victor so your speaking in ignorance
Yer security forces were paramilitarys , you definitely live in a bubble, what about the countless slaves sent off as indentured servants , ye have been murdering my race for nearly a thousand years ! If you want to start with statistics
@Antrim. I also know what I lived through. British snipers pointing guns at us as we walked to school, stepping over soldiers at the bottom of garden path, dragged from bed in the middle of night so that house could be trashed by army. Not being able to tell people my name. Living in fear every time parents left the house – our only crime being nominally Catholic. But I understand it’s a circular argument. Brits behaved in such a way because of IRA, IRA reformed because of behaviour of brits.
Anne Marie every hardship you experienced was visited upon us too by those you deem freedom fighters, a bunch of terrorists is all they were but sure you go on ahead and be an apologist for them.
My only direct experience of the troubles was watching 3 ruc officers getting shot to death in Newry on my 10th birthday. The ra lads threw a grenade in that didn’t go off and all hell broke loose. Horrible memory.
Charles what incident was that? The only mass killing of RUC officers in Newry during the conflict that I’m aware of was in 1985, when a mortar attack on the station killed nine and injured 32.
Do more research then. July 26th 1986. It was a Saturday. I was taken to toymaster by my dad. It happened in a pedestrian zone. Three ra heads dressed as butchers.
And the non-combatants(civilians) killed as a percentages by the various groupings?
Civilian Deaths as Percentage of Deaths by this Agency:
Security Forces : 54.4 per cent
Republicans: 35.6 per cent
Loyalists: 87.2 per cent
When it came to civilian deaths the British and their undercover death squads seemed to make a point of targeting them.
Bias… “OVER TWO DECADES, thousands of paramilitaries were held and questioned at Castlereagh RUC barracks in Belfast.” No not just paramilitaries but innocent Catholics as back then any Catholic would do and many who were working as in the police and army were very friendly with Unionist paramilitaries as Chief Inspector Stalker proved.
You think all this talk about U.S. torture was new but the U.S. military learned it from the British army and they were doing the same stuff in the North as well as in other countries in the world. What is new?
Crazy but not 1 eill be brought to justice as usual they murdered irish people for generations and were told it was ok thats just how it was imagine if it was happening to the jews we would never hear the end of it!
The RUC shot dead 53 people in 24 yrs . 22 of them where civilians. The IRA murder 320 RUC officers and injure 9000 . The RUC and the security forces had soo many restrictions put upon them that the weapon they carry was to be use for nothing more then self defence of themselfs and the public . The figures speak for themselfs . 22 civilians in 24 yrs . It’s not even 1 civilian a yr .
8 children murdered by the RUC in non riot circumstances? Is that what you call restrictions? All but one victim of rubber and plastic bullets were catholic Tommy. Most victims were shot at close range with bullets to the head and upper body. If that’s restrictions, I’d wonder how they’d have behaved with the gloves off.
The RUC were nothing but an orange police force to protect the facist orange state. Thank god they were disbanded and at least now we have a more impartial police force.
I wonder if we will see the closure of the places where innocent people were tortured and beaten to death by paramilitaries, (and then dumped ), at least most of them are alive (after being inside that place) and some prospering very well unlike victims of some of the paramilitaries victims.
@ Jamie…..it would be a a start, throw in the places where the kangaroo courts were held, before being taken on that long lonely terrifying one way trip! As well as the places where the “lovely” Lynn Murphy held court!
People continually try and make it out that it was the IRA that only killed people and that it was the bad old IRA who started everything. Loyalist paramilitaries murdered over 800 innocent civilians during the troubles and that’s not including those killed by the RUC and British Army. The majority of the people killed by the IRA where security forces. Maybe we should start focusing on the truth for those 800 plus innocent people killed by Loyalists or maybe grow a set and call the British Government out on the collusion involved in The Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
Taoiseach and Tánaiste to attend Munich Security Conference where Ukraine is key focus
Christina Finn
3 mins ago
6
Ukraine War
Zelenskyy wants to agree plan with US to 'stop Putin' before holding talks with Russia
Updated
58 mins ago
8.4k
War in Ukraine
EU and UK demand to be part of Ukraine peace talks as Trump shocks world with Putin phone call
16 hrs ago
32.8k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 143 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 98 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 128 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 98 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 73 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 72 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 36 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 32 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 119 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 59 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 70 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 77 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 42 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 24 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 79 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 89 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 65 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 47 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 77 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 57 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say