Author name: oisinkelly

Police in Strabane are appealing for information following the report of a burglary in the Melmount Road area in the early hours of Monday 12th November. It was reported shortly after midnight that premises in the Melmount Centre had been entered by unknown persons. A security light was smashed and considerable damage was caused to […]

The Apprentice Boys are reviewing security at their headquarters in Derry after three attacks in as many days. The loyal order has blamed young nationalists for throwing paint at their historic memorial hall in Society Street. They said the attacks started over the Remembrance weekend. The Governor of the Apprentice Boys, Jim Brownlee, said the

A Cork property developer has told the High Court that Junior Minister Lucinda Creighton refused to issue an open public apology after he complained about comments she made about him while discussing poor standards in public life. Michael O’Flynn is suing the Fine Gael TD for damages arising from a speech she gave to the

The PSNI in Strabane have confirmed that they have carried out a number of searches in relation to dissident republican activity. Detectives from Serious Crime Branch conducted a number of searches in the early hours of this morning. A licenced premises in the town and a number of houses in the Head of the Town

29 workers at a Buncrana Call Centre, who were told yesterday that they were losing their jobs, have been told this afternoon that they will not receive any wages for November. Workers were given until this afternoon to agree to terms of exit with the administrators, but the terms that been offered were pulled by the administrators

Donegal Deputy Joe McHugh has called on the Government to consider paying social welfare payments into people’s Credit Union accounts instead of insisting it is paid into a bank. Deputy McHugh says it would be one way of punishing some of the larger banks responsible for the economic crisis who still pay out large salaries

It’s emerged that the ongoing discussion over the employment of Polling Clerks in Donegal may have ramifications for Labour in Letterkenny. Peter Cutliffe, the Chairperson of the party’s Letterkenny branch has announced he will contest the next local election following the emergence of anecdotal evidence that a number of people working in the UK took

There are calls for Donegal County Council to ensure that road works be carried out in the evening or night time to lessen the negative impact on businesses. Stranorlar Electoral Area Cllr Cora Harvey says that a business in her local area was forced to cease trading with most of the blame being attributed to

There are reports of a road traffic collision in the Newtowncunningham  area. There  is serious traffic disruption in the area. Gardai are declining to give any details of the incident or any traffic diversions which are in place. It is understood at least two vehicles may have been involved.

There are concerns that 30 staff, who lsot their jobs with the closure of the Assetco Managed Services call-centre in Buncrana, will not get a redundancy payment from the company Initially workers were given until 5.30pm yesterday evening to agree to terms of exit with the administrators; this has now been extended until today. Minister

A Donegal call-centre has gone into administration with the loss of 30 jobs. Workers at the Buncrana-based Assetco Manage Services ROI were told the news yesterday evening. Workers at the company, based at the IDA Business Park in Lisfannon since 2006 were told  that the company only had enough money left to pay their wages

A Royal Navy submariner is due to appear in court accused of passing secret coding programmes to an enemy of the UK. 30-year-old Edward Devenney,  from Strabane, is charged with collecting information about encryption computer programmes that might be useful to an enemy, and communicating those details to another person. He contacted a foreign embassy

Fáilte Ireland is calling for local communities in Donegal to get involved in the development of a significant new driving route for the west coast. The Wild Atlantic Way, stretching from Donegal to Cork, is set to be Ireland’s first long distance driving route for tourists. Two meetings will be held in Donegal on Wednesday

Joe Brolly says he never gave a second thought to donating one of his kidneys to his friend. The former Derry footballer gave his kidney to Shane Finnegan just over a month ago, sparking an increased public interest in the living donor programme. This year will see a record high in the number of people

A recently formed republican group which claimed responsibility for the murder of a prison officer in the north is “trying to pull us back into the past”. That’s the view of Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty who says the group – which calls itself the IRA – has no place in republicanism and no support either

A 23-year-old County Derry man who was driving when his car crashed killing a 20-year-old woman passenger, has been sentenced to three years in prison. Kevin Brolly from Rannyglass in Dungiven, pleaded guilty to causing the death of Claire Kelly by careless driving when he appeared at Derry Crown Court. He also pleaded guilty to

The performance of the education minister in dealing with the controversy over the processing of grant applications has been described as “abysmal” by Fianna Fail. The party is calling for more resources to be allocated to the new centralised agency tasked with processing grants. Student Universal Support Ireland, known as SUSI has come in for

The majority of residential and business customers on the ESB network who earlier lost power have now had it returned. At around 9.30 this morning, what is being described as a major fault cut power to many areas of Letterkenny and a number of surrounded towns and villages. It was returned to the majority within

The Tainaste is to raise the future of the Malin Head Coastguard station with the Minister responsible for Coastguard Services, Leo Varadkar. That is according to East Derry MLA John Dallat who met with Eamon Gilmore at the weekend. Fears remains over the future of the Malin Head station which is recommended for closure in

50-thousand students at Third Level institutions here are still waiting for their grants, several weeks into the new academic year. Over two thousands of them are in Donegal Today, the heads of the State’s new online grant application processing body – SUSI – will come before an Oireachtas committee on education, to face questions about

A man from Donegal has been fined a total of £2000 and disqualified from driving for 6 years when he appeared at Derry Magistrate’s Court today. Michael McColgan (29) whose address was given as Glengad Malin in County Donegal appeared on two driving matters. McColgan faced charges dating from 2005 and the court was told

Vandals have trashed the toilets in the home ground of Derry City FC. Derry City Council condemned the act of vandalism in the South End stand in the Brandywell Stadium. The toilets were extensively damaged on Sunday night. The Mayor of Derry Sinn Féin councillor Kevin Campbell has condemned the vandalism:

A republican group, styling itself the new IRA, has reportedly admitted murdering prison officer David Black. In a statement to the “Irish News” it linked the killing to ongoing tensions at Maghaberry jail. But the Ulster Unionist Justice spokesman Tom Elliott said there was no justification for the murder. He said prisoners with a grievance

Two men who beat Donegal native William Mc Keeney to death in January have begun life sentences. Asif Rehman and Adel Ishaq, both aged 20 were given life sentences, and will serve at least 16 years for killing labourer William McKeeney after attacking him in the street close to his Pollockshiels home Passing sentence, Lord

A new republican paramilitary group calling itself the IRA is claiming responsibility for the murder of prison officer David Black earlier this month. In a statement released to the Irish News in Belfast – the group say the killing was in direct response to the conditions in Magaberry Prison, where Tyrone born Mr. Black worked.

Construction on a new school building for Colaiste Ailigh in Letterkenny is to begin in the coming days. The final go-ahead has been given after a a €50 million loan was cleared with the European Investment Bank for the delivery of eight new schools across the country using the Public Private Partnership model. The new

Donegal County Council has been commended for three projects that were shortlisted in the Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards. The projects shortlisted included the One Donegal Cultural Diversity Month which received a commendation under the Festival of the Year category, the Donegal Gathering which was commended under the Supporting Tourism category and Donegal

It has been confirmed this morning that The Magee Campus of the University of Ulster is in line to get hundreds of extra student places. Britain’s Minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry, said the greater share of the extra places allocated to the University of Ulster will go to the Derry campus. They will

The public is being encouraged to attend a consultation workshop on policing in Donegal to raise issues affecting their lives and communities and to give their ideas on how these issues could be addressed. The workshop, hosted by the Donegal County Joint Policing Committee, takes place next Monday in Stranorlar Training Centre between 7.30pm –

A €50 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will allow construction begin of  Coláiste Ailigh new school building in Letterkenny shortly. It is one of 8 schools across the country which will be delivered using the  Public Private Partnership model. The new 350  pupil school in Letterkenny should be complete by the end

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association is estimating that up to 2pc of the national sheep flock — 50,000 animals — has been stolen in the last few years. In some cases, flocks of up to 200 sheep at a time are being rustled and their identity tags cut off before new ones are

Donegal North East Deputy Joe Mc Hugh says future legislation must factor in the concerns expressed by the high ‘No’ vote in the county, and he’ll be ensuring that the concerns of the people are recognised. He said while there are a number of possible explanations for the Donegal, he detected a very real fear

Both Donegal constituencies have returned resounding ‘No’ votes in the Children Referendum. Donegal South West returned a ‘No’ vote of over 56%, while Donegal North East had one of the highest ‘No’ votes in the country at almost 60%. Donegal South West was the first constituency to declare this morning, with 6,523 voting ‘Yes’ and

A 37-year-old man has died after falling from the balcony of a bar in Strabane. It happened at Dicey Reillys shortly before 2 o clock this morning. Police are investigating how the accident happened. They are appealing to anyone who was in the bar and witnessed what happened to contact them  

Youth workers are going all out to inform schools, sports and teenage clubs on the dangers of cyber bullying. Since the tragic death of Erin Gallagher less than a fortnight ago, Donegal Youth Service has been inundated with requests from across the north-west to inform teens about the perils of cyber bullying and how to

The Chief Constable of the PSNI has said he is “very concerned” about the threat dissident republicans may pose to next year’s UK City of Culture in Derry. The Real IRA has already carried out a number of attacks linked to Derry’s year as UK City of Culture. Matt Baggott said the dissident threat is

Northwest MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher has slammed Donegal North East Deputy Joe McHugh over a statement he released yesterday in relation to the opening up of the lesser spotted dogfish market. Speaking yesterday, Deputy McHugh said that Minister Simon Coveney had agreed terms with the European Commission to open up the Dogfish market from

A witness who tried to withhold evidence in the murder trial of Donegal man William McKeeney has been sentenced to 15 months’ detention. 19-year-old Umar Bhatti, was called to testify at the trial of his cousin, 19-year-old Adel Ishaq, and a friend, 20-year-old Asif Rehman. The judge, Lord Uist, warned Bhatti and then held him

Donegal football manager Jim McGuinness has been appointed as a performance consultant with Celtic soccer club, however, he will also remain in charge of the All-Ireland champions. Celtic released a statement this morning stating that McGuinness had joined the Glasgow club. He will be based at Lennoxtown and will help in the development of the club’s

The SDLP is to send a peition to the Transport Minister Leo Varadker in support of Malin Head Coastguard Station. Malin Head Coastguard Station is under threat of closure following publication of the Fisher Report, which recommends a reduction in the number of coastguard stations. The issue will be discussed at the SDLP party conference

It’s being reported that Jim Mc Guinness will take a role with the Celtic academy but will also stay on as Donegal manager. The All Ireland winning manager will take over as sports performance coach with the Academy, the job which will see him work at Parkhead three days a week and miss just one

Inshore fishermen in Inishowen mayhave a new market opened to them if an agreement reached last night is given EU council and parliament approval. Minister Simon Coveney has agreed terms with the commission to open up the Lesser Spotted Dogfish market from January 1st, subject to certain conditions. Deputy Joe Mc Hugh says the species,

Sinn Féin members of Donegal County Council are urging Cllr David Alcorn to withdraw his nomination to the new board of Udaras na Gaeltachta until questions raised in an anonymous letter about expenses claims he made between 2006 and 2009 are answered. Party Whip Cllr Mick Quinn says while the claims are being investigated, they

The funerals are taking place in New York today of two year old Brendan and four year old Connor Moore, both of whom died in Superstorm Sandy on Monday of last week when they were wrenched from their mother Glenda’s arms as she tried to get them to safety. Their father Damien is a native

There are calls for Strabane Canal and Moorlough to be included in the Waterways Irelands Business Plan. Waterways Ireland was developed under the Good Friday Agreement, and it is responsible for developing Irelands canals and inland waterways. Strabane canal is a four-mile stretch of waterway linking Tyrone and Derry, and the Council has recently carried

It’s emerged that Donegal has the highest proportion of college students who receive  grants, with 90% of first time students in the county in receipt of support. That contrasts with the Dublin figure of 31%. After Donegal, students from Roscommon and Leitrim are next when it comes to grant payouts, with the trends showing a high

Gardai have seized another €70,000 of the drug 4-MEC after another premises was searched in Letterkenny. It follows the seizure of €140,000 of drugs posted to an address in Lettekenny earlier this week. A 28-year-old from Portstewart has been charged in relation to the find, he’s being remanded in custody at Letterkenny Garda Station and

Four Independent TDs are calling for emergency legislation to allow for the children’s referendum to be postponed. It comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the government had spent public money putting out one-sided information. The Tanaiste says the referendum will go ahead as normal. The current law prevents a referendum from being delayed except if a