Author name: oisinkelly

There are concerns that Derry will not be able to accommodate large crowds expected to converge on the city this Summer. Radio 1’s Big Weekend will be held in the city on the last weekend of May, while a three-day international peace forum is also to be held in the city that weekend. And the […]

With work on the Derry campus of the North West Regional Science Park due to start very shortly, plans are also progressing in Donegal for the local element of the plan. The new North West Regional Science Park will be a joint venture with Letterkenny Institute of Technology. Construction work on the Letterkenny campus of

It’s emerged that the North’s finance minister had concerns about a decision to relocate the agriculture department to a former army base in County Derry. An estimated 800 jobs will move from Belfast to the former Shackleton Army barracks in Ballykelly, despite a study showing Strabane to be the more economically deserving location. Last night,

The detective leading the Garda battle against crime in south Donegal told a court today that he believed a Chinese man resident for many years in Ireland was heavily involved in cannabis cultivation throughout the country. Det Sgt Barry Doyle was giving evidence following the discovery of €220,000 cannabis plants in early stages of cultivation

The Government says it delivered on 92 percent of the measures promised in the action plan for jobs 2012, but admits that plans to attract more foreign direct investment into the regions have not been realised. The target is the creation of 100,000 jobs by 2016, and a review published by the coalition today says

Gardaí are trying to establish if a property developer who was found wandering on the side of the road in Co Leitrim earlier this week was kidnapped and held north of the border. Kevin Michael McGeever was reported missing in Gort in Co. Galway last June. When found on Tuesday, the 68 year old was

Work on a new science park at Fort George on Derry’s riverfront is expected to get underway within weeks. The new North West Regional Science Park will be a joint venture with Letterkenny Institute of Technology. It’s understood that if the multi-million pound development achieves maximum occupancy by 2019, the project has the potential to

A Donegal South-West Deputy has called on the Environment Minister to extend the registration deadline for septic tanks. The deadline for registration is today and comes at a cost of 50 euro. But Sinn Fein Deputy Pearse Doherty says the deadline should be extended until the 31st March. He says he hasn’t registered, and won’t

The latest independently compiled listenership figures show that Highland Radio remains the most listened to local radio station in the country. The figures for 2012 show that of those that listen to any radio station during the week in this franchise area, 65% choose Highland Radio with the station enjoying a market share of 64.6%.

BBC Radio 1’s One Big Weekend will return to Derry on 24 to 26 May. The annual free music event was held there in 2004, but will visit the city again as it celebrates its status as UK City Of Culture for 2013. It will be located in the city centre at the Ebrington site

A Derry man has been spared from going to prison because he has a ‘promising career’ as a footballer. 21-year-old Sean McCarron has just signed a contract with League of Ireland side Finn Harps. Sean McCarron of 8, Moore Street was sentenced to 180 hours community service in March last year for assaulting a man

More homes have been affected by power cuts as strong winds continue to affect Donegal. 2,155 customers are now without power in Donegal Town, 52 in Derrybeg, 34 in Carndonagh, 19 in Fanad and 10 close to Leitermacaward. Another 12 customers are affected in Glenties by a planned outage for maintainance purposes. Fanad supplies should

More homes have been affected by power cuts as strong winds continue to affect Donegal. 2,155 customers are now without power in Donegal Town after problems were reported within the past half hour. Meanwhile, 19 customers are without power in Fanad and 10 customers have lost supplies close to Leitermacaward, while another 12 customers are

The fire service is still at  Rosses Community School in Dungloe after a chemical spill in a laboratory. The move was taken as a precaution after what the fire service described as small quantities of lithium and potassium were spilled. On this morning’s Shaun Doherty Show, Acting Chief Fire Officer Joe Mc Taggart told Greg

The Social Protection Minister says modern policing methods are being used to tackle the issue of robberies in rural Ireland. Joan Burton was quizzed in the Dáil this morning as 95 garda stations across the country close their doors for the final time today. Five of them are in Donegal – Annagry, Brockagh, Churchill, Glencolmcille

110 homes and businesses are without power in the Stranorlar area this morning due to a fault. Power was lost shortly after 5am this morning. ESB says crews are working to resolve the problem. And 113 customers are without power in the Malin area – the fault was reported just after 7am. The ESB says

Students have been evacuated from the Rosses Community School in Dungloe. The move was taken as a precaution due to what has been described locally as a chemical spill. The fire service is at the scene. The school has 400 students, many of which were sitting their mock exams this morning.

Motorists in the region are being urged to be careful this morning, with debris on many roads following overnight winds. A pole which came down near Redcastle has been cleared, a fallen tree is still causing problems at Leck, Letterkenny.   The Harry Blaney Bridge is closed, but the Foyle Bridge in Derry is now

Donegal North East Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn has been elected Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, one of the new committees established by the [resent government. He replaces his Sinn Fein colleague Peadar Tobin. Speaking after his election, Deputy Mac Lochlainn said he expects the Committee will continue working

A new investigation has been launched into allegations that PSNI officers may have contributed to the death of republican informer Denis Donaldson. The Police Ombudsman has overturned a previous decision by his office to close the investigation and declare there was no misconduct by officers. The former senior Sinn Fein official was shot dead almost

A 21-year-old man has appeared in court in Dungannon charged with the manslaughter of County Monaghan teenager Jason McGovern. 19-year-old Mr McGovern was attacked twice in Omagh. He was found dead hours later at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve. A police officer said he believed he could connect Mark Donnelly, of Greencastle Road,

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has mounted a robust defence of the government’s economic policy in the Dail, saying that in the two years since taking office, the government has had to address the legacy of thousands of job losses in previous years, many of them in Donegal. He was responding to Donegal South West Deputy Pearse

Figures published by the Road Safety Authority show the Donegal is one of the best performing counties in the country when it comes to reducing road deaths, with a 70% fall between 2007 and 2012. Over the five years, Leitrim, Laois, Kildare, Monaghan and Clare showed the biggest reduction in road deaths. Cavan was the

A man who was found with serious injuries at the bottom of stairs at an apartment in Dungloe in the early hours of Monday morning has died. The man, understood to be in his late sixties, was found around 1.30am on Monday morning at an apartment at the rear of a building on Dungloe’s Main

A Finn Valley Councillor says he is going to go above Donegal County Council in an effort to get more of Donegal’s regional and local road funding spent in his area. As it stands, Donegal’s allocation is spent upgrading and repairing local and regional roads based on mileage. Councillor Patrick McGowan claims this means that

Donegal County Council is seeking to form a committee with Monaghan County Council as part of plans to increase pressure on the Government to progress the A5 upgrade. Other affected councils on the route will also be invited to join with the cross party support from Senators, TDs and politicians in the north also being

Donegal County Council has admitted it breached the Official Languages Act when it sent reminder letters to residents of the Gaeltacht in English. The controversy was sparked last year when a number of Gaeltacht residents received reminders for the Household Charge, but not in Irish. The Council says it will not be challenging the findings

Police have said they are treating an incident in County Tyrone on Friday night as the attempted murder of a police officer. A pipe bomb was found close to the officer’s home in the Coolnagard area of Omagh on Saturday afternoon. It followed an incident on Friday night when an off-duty police officer fired a

Schools will be required to keep a record of incidents of bullying under a new anti-bullying plan being launched by the Education Minister today. The plan aims to stamp out cyber and homophobic bullying with a 12 step programme which includes the establishment of an anti bullying website, and special training for teachers and parents.

Donegal Councillor John Campbell claims the government and the council are underestimating the number of houses in the county which should be registering their septic tanks. Two weeks ago, the Department of the Environment published figures showing just over just over 10,471 tanks were registered in Donegal, just over 30% of the total. Based on

The Sinn Fein Justice Spokesperson is accusing his Fianna Fail counterpart of displaying “breathtaking hypocrisy”. Donegal North East Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn was speaking ahead of a Fianna Fail motion calling on the Minister for Justice to reverse the decision to shut down almost 100 garda stations this week, five of them in Donegal. Fianna

The threat of legal action remains against Donegal County Council over a decision to purchase a house in a rural area of Ballyshannon for a Traveller family. At this week’s monthly meeting of the council, councillor Barry O’Neill said the decision goes against national policy and the Donegal County Development Plan. That was a claim

Two more men have been arrested in Omagh as investigations continue into the death of Monaghan teenager Jason Mc Govern on December 30th last. The 19 year old was found dead in a friend’s house on New Years Eve, having been attacked twice in Omagh the previous night. Five people have already been charged with

Donegal County Council has backed calls for the tourism minister to better support Knock airport. While Knock Airport will cease to receive state funding from next year, the government has announced a significant package for Shannon Airport. Knock Airport management say this is unfair and are considering a legal challenge. Councillor Sean McEniff says Knock

The Dáil will today debate a Fianna Fail motion calling on the Minister for Justice to reverse the decision to shut down almost 100 garda stations this week. Five stations are closing in Donegal – Annagry, Brockagh, Churchhill, Glencolmcille and Malin. Fianna Fail is also putting pressure on Minister Alan Shatter to re-open the Garda

Donegal county council has committed to not increasing rents in 2013. The 2013 budget meeting was dominated by a council executive proposal to increase rents by 2 euro per month. While that proposal was eventually withdrawn it doesn’t mean a rent increase of some level could be introduced. Councillor Cora Harvey has now been assured

A Government Deputy has said that a special case should be made for Donegal in relation to a recent spate of burglaries. Fine Gael Deputy Joe McHugh met with Chief Superintendent Terry Mc Ginn to discuss the issue of burglaries yesterday. Recently on Highland Radio the Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that Donegal was not

The Chairperson of the Joint Policing Committee in Donegal says the practice of political parties meeting with senior gardai is undermining the committee’s work. In recent months Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail have met with senior officers, and this afternoon, Fine Gael has been meeting with Chief Superintendent Terry Mc Ginn. However, Fianna Fail Cllr

The North’s Police Ombudsman’s office has reopened its investigation into the shooting dead of Donegal Councillor Eddie Fullerton in 1991, but his family say they still have no faith in the garda investigation in the republic. Cllr Fullerton was killed in his Buncrana home by the UDA, with allegations of RUC collusion. Eddie Fullerton’s daughter

Three vans belonging to a Derry maintainance company have been burned out in what’s being linked to a threat against workers involved in removing grafitti from the City Walls. Two of the vans were attacked on Saturday, the other last night. In a statement, Derry chamber condemns what it terms attacks on a highly respected

April 21st has been set as the date when Derry Diocesan Administrator Monsignor Eamon Martin will be ordained as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh. The ceremony will take place in St Patrick’s Cathedral at 3 o’clock. Mons. Martin will replace Cardinal Sean Brady when he retires within the next two years.

Fine Gael will meet with Chief Superintendent Terry Mc Ginn today to discuss policing in Donegal, and in particular how the force locally is being resourced. The deputation is being led by Donegal North East Deputy Joe Mc Hugh, who says he wants to being back a comprehensive and accurate picture to the Justice Minister.

A North West MEP says the EU should invest extra structural funds of 345 million euro in the BMW region to reflect the extent to which the region has been hit by the economic downturn. Pat The Cope Gallagher says unless there is a change in the way funds are administered, the region will see

Two parades have been taking place in Derry today. On the Waterside, around 800 people took part in a loyalist parade in support of the Belfast Flag Campaign which ended in a rally addressed by a number of people including Willie Frazer. There were no incidents. Meanwhile the annual Bloody Sunday Commemoration has been taking

Donegal County Council is to discuss a Sinn Fein motion calling on the government to scrap plans for water charges, and concentrate instead on improving conservation and upgrading the water supply system. At today’s council meeting in Lifford, Cllr Mick Quinn will argue that the Water Services Bill published this month will charge people for