President Connolly Drops in for Lunch at RockSalt in Carrickmacross
President Catherine Connolly stopped for lunch at RockSalt café in Carrickmacross during her visit to County Monaghan on Monday, which owner Daniel McLoughlin called a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
By the Monaghan Brief staff·Edited by Seamus McKenna·Published · 2 min read
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Main Street, Carrickmacross, looking north. Archive location photograph; not a photo of the events in this story. Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized and colour-graded; cropped in layout.
President Catherine Connolly stopped for lunch at RockSalt café in Carrickmacross on Monday 2 November, during her visit to County Monaghan.
Northern Sound reports that Daniel McLoughlin of RockSalt welcomed the President, her husband and her security team. He told the station it was a "once in a lifetime moment" and said that when the call came from Áras an Uachtaráin, he first thought someone was playing a prank.
The President spent the day visiting Teach na nDaoine in Monaghan town, which was marking 50 years of the Mullaghmatt estate, and Hub 21 in Carrickmacross (our earlier report).
About RockSalt
The Anglo-Celt reports that RockSalt was started in Blackrock, Co Louth, in 2018. It now has cafés in Dundalk and Carrickmacross, a bakery and a production kitchen that supplies shops and sports teams, including Monaghan GAA. Mr McLoughlin told Northern Sound the business had grown from a small café in Blackrock.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
Monaghan County Council has granted conditional planning permission for a change of use of a retail unit at 4 Parnell Street, Carrickmacross, to a café, as the Irish Independent reports that the south Monaghan town is set for a new coffee shop.
The Irish Red Cross and Monaghan Social Prescribing have opened a free-to-join community café at Carrickmacross Family Resource Centre, running on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
President Catherine Connolly visited Teach na nDaoine Family Resource Centre in Monaghan town on Monday to mark 50 years of the Mullaghmatt estate. She also met staff, volunteers and service users at Hub 21 in Carrickmacross.
