Author name: highlandnews

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says it’s seeing “overcrowding challenges” in each part of the country. 626 people are waiting for beds in hospitals nationwide today, with RSV, COVID and influenza infections expected to peak this week and next. 39 people are waiting on a trolley at Letterkenny University Hospital. The INMO says the […]

Delays in the implementation of governance mechanisms have been identified in Tusla services in Donegal/ Sligo/Leitrim and West Cavan. A HIQA inspection was carried out in August last year, focusing on the implementation of the Child and Family Agency’s Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure which came into operation on June 27th 2022. HIQA found that overall,

The Education Minister has been accused of throwing in the towel on the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland says Norma Foley doesn’t have the “political will or wherewithal to properly tackle the problem.” It says there are hundreds of unfilled post-primary teaching posts advertised on education recruitment websites

A low temperature warning has been issued for Donegal. Cold, icy conditions are expected from 9pm tonight until 10am tomorrow morning. Travelling has been hazardous for many today with temperatures falling to -4 in parts overnight.

A Donegal Funeral Director is appealing to those responsible for the theft of lights from wake signs to return them. Sweeney Funeral Directors and Embalmers say during a recent wake in the Falcarragh area, the flares were removed from the signs. They say this is unfortunately not the first time signs have been tampered with.

A missing Donegal teenager has been found. The 16 year was missing from Burnfoot since Friday. Gardai say he has been found safe and well.

Letterkenny man Michael Harte has won a Creative Arts Emmy. He received the award for Outstanding Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program for his role in ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’. The documentary won a total of four Emmys. Accepting the awards, the team says Michael J Fox, “took Parkinson’s out of the shadows.

The Killybegs Coast Guard yesterday evening responded to the activation of a Personal Location Beacon in the Murvagh area. The Rescue 118 helicopter was also tasked at around 5pm. A thorough search was conducted and requests made by the Malin Head Coast Guard to other vessels in the Donegal Bay area to make contact regarding

Junior doctors in Northern Ireland are being balloted for strike action for the first time. They’re being asked to vote on whether to stage a 24-hour walkout in March over pay. Nurses and other public sector workers are also taking action.

There won’t be any spring cost-of-living package this year. The Finance Minister has ruled it out, and is warning measures introduced by government to help with high prices in recent years, will need to be tapered off. Michael McGrath has told the Irish Times that ‘exceptional interventions’ can’t be the norm and can’t be funded

A nationwide yellow fog warning remains in place this morning. Met Eireann has warned of dense and widespread fog which will linger until 10am, leading to hazardous travelling conditions. Gritters were deployed at 6am this morning in Donegal however, motorists are warned to assume no road is ice free.

Efforts are ongoing in Donegal to identify vacant properties and their owners in a bid to bring them back into use. Donegal County Council is continuing to work to tackle vacancy and dereliction throughout the county. Supports available include the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant Scheme which provide grants of up to €84,000 to refurbish vacant

As schools return today, Gardai in Donegal are urging motorists to be mindful on the roads. Drivers are asked to slow down in the area of bus collection/drop off points and in the vicinity of schools. Gardai are advising to always expect the unexpected and be prepared to stop suddenly and to leave extra time

Investigations are continuing into a weekend incident in Derry involving a woman and a young child. Police responded to a concern for safety in the area of the Craigavon Bridge Embankment on Foyle Road at approximately 9.15pm on Saturday night involving the pair. Detective Chief Inspector Heather Campbell, from the Public Protection Branch says they

Police are appealing for information after a row in Co Derry. The argument was between a man in his 50s and a woman in her teens or early 20s in the Dungiven area at around 8:45pm last night. The man was wearing a hat and body warmer, and the woman was wearing glasses and dressed

A number of crime prevention checkpoints have been carried out this week in the border area. Gardaí from the Buncrana Roads Policing Unit assisted local detectives during the checkpoints on Wednesday night. The aim of the checkpoints is to prevent and detect criminal activity.  

A man has been hospitalised following an early morning assault in Strabane. Shortly before 1:30am this morning, the man sustained injuries to his nose and face after being set upon by another man during an altercation in the Railway Street area of the town. He was subsequently transferred by ambulance to hospital for treatment to

Gritters are to be deployed across Donegal tonight as temperatures are set to drop to -2 degrees. Donegal Winter Maintenance designated gritting routes will be gritted from 5PM this evening. Donegal gritting route index as follows: 01: National Primary North 02: National Primary Central 03: National Primary South 04: Inishowen South 05: Inishowen East 06:

Three scrambler bikes have been seized in Derry. Police say concerns have been raised by members of the community in Galliagh that their green areas are being turned into race tracks, their homes sprayed with muck from scramblers, and their quality of life destroyed by the constant noise. Yesterday, a policing operation was put in

A status yellow fog warning has been issued for Donegal. Met Eireann is warning of hazardous travel conditions with fog forecast to become dense and widespread this evening and linger until tomorrow morning. The warning comes into effect at 6pm this evening and will remain in place until 10am tomorrow morning.

An attempted murder investigation is underway in Derry after shots were fired at a house last night. Police received a report that three shots had been fired through a window of a house in the Ardkill Road area of Ardmore last night at around 9.15pm, narrowly missing an occupant who was inside at the time.

A firefighter has been injured by a firework during a disturbance in Derry yesterday. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and Police were deployed to the scene in the Craigavon Bridge area of the city following reports a number of people had climbed up a crane and erected a flag. A crowd had gathered

The Arranmore RNLI all weather lifeboat volunteer crew have already been tasked three times this year. Since the New Year, the rescue service has responded to three calls for assistance for medical evacuations from Arranmore island. The first call out was just before 11:10am on Tuesday morning to transfer a patient to a waiting ambulance

Investigations are continuing into the death of a woman in a crash near Letterkenny yesterday evening. The woman, a pedestrian in her 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene on the N56 at Illistrin yesterday evening, having been hit by a car. The road remains closed this morning between Letterkenny and Kilmacrennan with local diversions

Donegal County Council are now accepting planning permission applications online. Yesterday the Local Government Online Planning portal was launched across all Local Authorities in Ireland. The online portal was designed to streamline the planning permission process and allows agents, developers, and members of the public to lodge their planning applications and to make third party

Donegal was among the worst hit counties for COVID, flu and RSV over Christmas week. The Irish Independent reports that it’s estimated around 10,000 people will have caught the flu from mid-December until the third week of January. It’s set to peak over the next two weeks. Meanwhile there were 345 cases of RSV reported

Main Evening News, Sport, An Nuacht and Obituaries – Friday January 5th:

Derry City & Strabane District Council have issued a public notice detailing a technical fault that has caused problems to their phone lines. They say lines are down across a number of services and venues. There are technical teams working to fix the issues as soon as possible. The council has apologised for any inconvenience

More than 13,500 people were living in emergency accommodation in November – a new record homeless figure, 177 of them in the Northwest. Of the 177 in the region, 62 were adults in Donegal, almost an 11% increase on the figure for October. November seen 15 families homeless in the Northwest including 33 children, a

A number of Donegal roads will be gritted this evening from 6pm. The County Council has reminded the public to assume that no road is ice free. The following routes will be treated: 01: National Primary North 02: National Primary Central 04: Inishowen South 05: Inishowen East 06: Inishowen West 07: Milford South 08: Milford