Author name: oisinkelly

Tyrone woman Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid from Scotland could face a six-month investigation if their guilty pleas for drug smuggling are not accepted by prosecutors in Peru. The state’s lead prosecutor in the case made the comment after the pair appeared in court last night. He didn’t give details of the private hearing but […]

Having already conquered Everest, Letterkenny man Jason Black has reached new heights by reaching the summit of  Mont Blanc ”the highest mountain in Northern Europe” Having climbed the 4810 Metres Jason Black described the achievement as ‘amazing’. Jason made the journey with three fellow county men namely Clive and Keith Davidson and Francie Gallagher. You

Liam Adams has been found guilty of sexually abusing his daughter nearly 40 years ago. The 58-year-old, from Bernagh Drive in Belfast, had denied all 10 charges – three of rape, three of gross indecency and four of indecent assault. The offences were alleged to have occurred between March 1977 and March 1983 when his

A Donegal Labour Party Senator says he’s concerned by a new opinion poll which shows support for his party has collapsed. The Ipsos MRBI poll in today’s Irish Times says Labour support has fallen to just six per cent – the lowest level in over 25 years. Fine Gael leads the poll on 26 per

The Finance Minister is under pressure from his cabinet colleagues not to scrap the special rate of VAT for tourism. The special 9 per cent rate is due to expire at the end of this year – returning to the original rate of 13.5 per cent. Minister Michael Noonan says he’d like to keep the

A Donegal Labour Party Senator says he’s concerned by a new opinion poll which shows support for his party has collapsed. The Ipsos MRBI poll in today’s Irish Times says Labour support has fallen to just six per cent – the lowest level in over 25 years. Fine Gael leads the poll on 26 per

Donegal County Cllr Frank McBrearty has said that he left the Labour Party because of the broken promises they made to the people of the county. The Raphoe politician announced yesterday that he had resigned from the Labour Party over the weekend. Speaking today Cllr McBrearty said the party can no longer represent rural communities.

Donegal Oireachtas members are to put forward a special case to the Environment Minister that Letterkenny Town Council should be saved. Members of the town council met with Deputies Joe McHugh, Charlie McConalogue and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn last night, along with Senators Brian O Domhnaill and Jimmy Harte. A number of local business representatives where also present.

A Donegal County Cllr has said the situation with house break-ins in the county is now at crisis level. In the past fortnight there has been a number of break-ins in the Letterkenny area, with an 80-year-old woman being beaten when her home was broken into over the weekend. And as well as this, over

Staff from Donegal County Councils Water and Environment Service are going to meet with the residents of a housing estate in Lifford. Residents of Hazelwood Drive have been plagued by a stream of foul smelling sewage for over four years now. There is also a stench which hangs in the air in the estate. Cllr

Gardai in Letterkenny are repeating their appeal for information about a man who beat and robbed a pensioner in her home at the weekend. The incident happened in the Glencar area at around twenty past five on Saturday morning. The 80 year old woman received minor injuries and has been discharged from Letterkenny General Hospital

The Mayor of Donegal will be part of a delegation from the county on a trip to Boston next month. Mayor Ian McGarvey will be joined by County Manager Seamus Neely, the Councils Director of Community, Culture and Planning, Michael Heany and the Chairman of the Local Development Board, Cllr Dessie Larkin on the trip.

The number of people getting married is on the decline. The CSO says 19,855 marriages were registered in 2011, down 3.6 per cent from 2010 when 20,594 couples married. There were 536 civil partnerships registered, eight of them in Donegal. Meanwhile, there were over 900 marriages in Donegal in 2011 There were a total of

The Mayor of Donegal has confirmed to members of the Council this morning that Cllr Frank McBrearty has left the Labour Party. Cllr McBrearty informed the party at the weekend that he was no longer a memberHe was elected to Donegal County Council on the Labour Party ticket in 2009. On a number of occasions

Three men have been arrested and questioned following a robbery in Carndonagh. Yesterday afternoon at around 2 o’clock, three men entered a house at The Mullins which was occupied by two young women. The men, two in their late teens and one in his early twenties, tied up the two women and threatened them. They

The North’s Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill says she will attempt to block any plans to use “fracking” on land owned by her department The Australian mining company Tambornan has been granted a licence to explore for gas in Fermanagh and Leitrim, with the licence covering substantial tracts of forestry land owned by the Department of

A Donegal County Councillor plans to quiz County Manager Seamus Neeley on what he knows about the Environment Minister’s long term plans for local government funding. Cllr Patrick Mc Gowan, a member of the National Executive of the Association of County and City Councillors says that Phil Hogan has not discussed his plans with them,

 A member of Donegal Action Against Austerity has hit out at Central Bank Governor Patrick Honahan, who said this week he would not be listening to the rest of the Anglo Tapes, and did not believe they provide any new evidence. Philip Mc Fadden was one of a number of DAAA members who made a

Residents of a Lifford housing estate, which has been plagued by overflowing sewerage, are demanding that the issue be fixed once and for all. A stream of foul smelling sewage water has plagued residents of Hazlewood Drive for over four years now. And the problem has become so bad over the past fortnight that children can no

The Mayor of Derry says he is hopeful that the new Radiotherapy Unit for the North West will be up and running at Altnagelvin Hospital in 2016. Mayor Martin Reilly visited the hospital yesterday as part of a series of engagements for the Macmillan Trust, his chosen charity for his term of office, and received

The court was shown CCTV footage of the incident which occurred outside a city centre bar. Defence counsel Mr. Stephen Chapman said that there was a degree of provocation to the incident and claimed that the injured party had been shouting at Patterson about his profession. Mr. Chapman acknowledged that it was never acceptable to

The chairman of Donegal Woodland Owners Society has voiced his concerns over the growing problems the country faces due to climate change. Speaking after the release of the IPCC report on climate change today, John Jackson stated that the countries forestry has a huge part to play in mitigating its effects. He criticised the governments

The solicitor for the family of murdered Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson has voiced disappointment that the inquest into his death has been adjourned again. The 56 year old was shot dead more than seven years ago by gunmen in a rural cottage near Glenties . The Real IRA claimed it was responsible. The former

A Donegal County Cllr has said that emergency funding must be made available by the Government, to solve the sewerage problem in a Lifford housing estate. A stream of foul smelling sewage water has plagued residents of Hazlewood Drive for over four years now. And the problem has become so bad over the past fortnight

A former estate agent who operated a 1.6 million euro “Ponzi”scheme has lost an appeal against his six year jail sentence. Eamonn Kelly of Decies Road, Ballyfermot, duped 25 investors from Dublin, Wexford and Donegal including some who were effectively left in penury after they trusted him with large redundancy payments. Described as a self

James Vincent McMorrow will be playing in Letterkenny this evening as part of the countrywide Arthurs Day celebrations. As part of the Arthur’s Day celebrations a host of Irish and international acts will be playing secret gigs around the country. The Singer/Songwriter from Dublin will play in the Cavern at 7 o clock this evening.

The North’s Environment Minister Mark H.Durkan has extended an archaeological dig on Derry’s Bishop Street for at least a further fortnight. Local Councillor John Boyle is welcoming the decision, saying the Queens University led team is now uncovering important artefacts which will prove that there was human habitation on the Hill of Derry as far

North West MEP Marian Harkin is calling for tighter national regulations to govern the development of windfarms. Ms Harkin says a national discussion is needed, along with an independent assessment of the balance of individual, community and national interests in the matter of wind farms before any planning applications are considered for large scale wind

The Finance Committee of the Stormont Assembly is today discussing a Sinn Fein proposal to seek the devolution of vehicle licensing powers from Swansea to the assembly, guaranteeing over 300 jobs in Coleraine and across Northern Ireland. It follows a debate in the assembly on Tuesday night at which all parties agreed to work together

Hopes of shorter jail term for Tyrone woman Michaela McCollum and her Scottish colleague Melissa Reid are waning. They’ve been told that prosecutors in Peru will not accept their guilty pleas on drugs charges. The 20 year olds have admitted trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country in their luggage. But prosecutors want a

The Irish Cancer Society has confirmed it is to extend its Care to Drive service in Donegal to include transporting patients to and from Galway for radiotherapy treatment. At present, the Good and New charity is the only one providing the Galway service in the county. The Irish Cancer Societies Care to Drive service will

A Letterkenny Town Councillir has questioned the latest CSO statistics which show a significant fall in crime in Donegal. According to the figures released earlier this week, burglaries, public order offences, assaults, cases of drink driving and damage to property and the environment were all down. Cllr Gerry McMonagle said it’s easy for Government politicians

Donegal will form part of the largest constituency in the county in next years European elections. The Midlands Northwest constituency will include 16 counties with four seats. It will be made up of Donegal, Cavan, Galway, Kildare, Laois, Leitrim, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Rosscommon, Sligo and Westmeath. Sitting Northwest MEP, Pat the Cope Gallagher

A man who died on Wednesday afternoon after collapsing  in the Derryveagh mountains has been named as seventy year old Pat (Hannah) Boyle. It’s thought the man may have suffered from a heart attack while gathering sheep in the mountains between Dunlewey and Falcarragh. The emergency services were called, and paramedics from the Sligo based

A Letterkenny Town Cllr has called for more Gardai to be deployed in the town after a spate of break-ins this week. Thieves broke into a number of homes in the Lisnennan Court area earlier this week. It’s understood made then made their getaway in a stolen car. The break-ins come just a week after

The body of 18-year-old Conor Boyle has finally been released to the family. The Loughanure teenager will be buried this Sunday. Conor Boyles body is due to be transferred to the family home at Loughanure this Friday, leaving Mc Glynn’s funeral home in Dungloe at noon. The house is on the link road from the

A Donegal North East Deputy has said as of yet there is no indication whether or not Greencastle Post Office will close. Deputy Joe McHugh and a number of local representatives met with An Post officials today to discuss the future of the facility. There have been fears raised locally in recent weeks that the

The founder of the Foyle Hospice in Derry has been awarded the freedom of the city. Derry City Council agreed to honour Dr Tom McGinley at a special council meeting yesterday. The last time time the honour was awarded was to the Nobel Laureate John Hume in 2000. A civic reception for Dr McGinley will

The Irish Cancer Society has confirmed it is to extend its Care to Drive service in Donegal to include transporting patients to and from Galway for radiotherapy treatment. At present, the Good and New charity is the only one providing that service in the county, while the irish Cancer Society has been concentrating on transporting

The SDLP in Strabane is again accusing Sinn Fein of not doing enough to bring 800 Department of Agriculture jobs to the town. It was announced last September that 800 civil service jobs would be moving from Belfast to Ballykelly, even though a leaked memo revealed that Strabane actually topped a table of suitable locations

The importance of the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team was highlighted last night when the team was  involved in a  search and rescue mission on Muckish, just hours after appealing for new volunteers The alarm was raised by family members after a party of three, two adult males and a fifteen year old boy failed to