Author name: oisinkelly

A Sinn Fein initiative to consult with businesses across the country has reached Donegal, with the party holding a series of meetings with local businesses and Chambers of Commerce today. The partys’s Enterprise and Innovation Spokesperson Peadar Toibin says he’s anxious to hear at first hand the challenges local businesses and the unemployed are facing, […]

Donegal Senator Jimmy Harte has hit out at Fingal County Council. accusing it of double standards. The senator was fined 150 euro for a sign he had erected on a bridge over the M1 motorway into Dublin, bearing the message Jimmy Winning Matches, Good luck Donegal. However he says while his sign was removed and

A cross border search for a missing Galway woman who was last seen in Clady County Tyrone, close to the Donegal border has ended. The woman has been found safe and well.

The RNLI has issued a warning about bogus collectors in Donegal. Gardai in Bundoran are investigating reports that a man in a Santa suit attempted to collect money in a pub in the town last night. Shane Smyth is press officer with Bundoran Lifeboat ; he says this was not an official collection, and they

Details have emerged of a lucky escape for a 40 year old Letterkenny man who is recovering in hospital after being hit by a train in the Netherlands. The accident happened almost a fortnight ago as Kevin Rooney was out jogging. The Donegal News reports that Mr Rooney, who works with the European Patents Office,

Ilex, in partnership with the University of Ulster and Social Capital North West, will survey residents in the Derry City Council from next week to get their views on what they want for the future of the city. Over 500 households will be surveyed from 19 November until 7 December The aim of the survey

Donegal Road safety group PARC has officially launched a new guide designed to help people who have lost loved ones in a Road Traffic collision. The book, which is the first of its kind in Ireland, lays out practical advice on the garda investigation, post mortem, inquest and any civil or criminal cases which may

A vigil for Savita Halappanavar has been orgainsed for Letterkenny tomorrow. The 31 year old woman died at University College Hospital in Galway last month, after contracting septicaemia during a miscarriage. It’s reported she was repeatedly refused a medical termination. A protest took place in Derry City today – organisers said it was in keeping

Figures from the INMO show 31 people on trolleys at the north west two hospitals According to the figures provided this morning, 12 people are being treated or awaiting treatment at Letterkenny General Hospital. This despite the recent opening of the new multi million euro medical block. There are 19 people on trollyes at Sligo

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association is calling for a complete re-think on proposed new rules for commonages. The ICSA says there are over 1,300 commanages in Donegal, almost a quarter of all the commanages in the country. ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin has welcomed the news that the Minister for Agriculture has delayed sending

Buncrana Town Council is to call a meeting of interest groups in a bid to progress the setting up of a CCTV system in the town. The move was proposed this week by Cllr Michael Grant, who says while Buncrana is a very safe place in which to live and do business, there are occasional

Donegal Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill has said the significant increase in farm inspections year is causing hardship for many farmers in Donegal and across the North West. Senator O’Domhnaill, the Fianna Fail Agriculture Spokesperson in the Seanad says while this has been one of the toughest years for farmers due to increasing costs and poor

Gardai are continuing their investigations into the seizure of an estimated 8,000 euro worth of drugs in Sligo yesterday in a joint operation with the Revenue Customs Team. A quantity of Methylethcathinone with an estimated street value of just over eight thousand euro was seized by officers as part of an investigation by the Garda

The sister of a Derry youth shot dead by the British army in 1972 has said she is ‘disgusted’ at the decision by coroner John Lecky to suspend new inquests into 14 deaths that were ordered by Attorney General John Larkin. Mr. Lecky suspended the hearings and referred the matters back to the Secretary of

An 8.3 million euro regeneration project on the Donegal Fermanagh border has moved to construction phase from today. The ‘Termon Project’  will see a major revitalisation and the provision of cross-community facilities in the border villages of Pettigo and Tullyhommon. It was formally launched this afternoon by Junior Minister Dinny Mc Ginley and Stormont Minister

A Co Donegal woman who was raped and abused by her godfather has been awarded damages of 2.8 million euros. 31 year Marcella Breslin of Emerald Drive, Killybegs sued Patrick Gillespie of Carrrickmagrath, Ballbofey, Co Donegal for the sexual abuse she suffered when she was 12 to 16 years of age. The 54 year old

Workers who lost their jobs with the closure of Assetco Managed services in Buncrana are to lobby the London Mayor and Prime Minister in their efforts for a fair deal. 30 people lost their jobs when The London Fire Brigade terminated their contract with Assetco’s parent company. A meeting between workers, the National Employment Rights

It’s been claimed today that a decision to sell 1,100 of state owned forestry land outside Ballybofey is in direct contravention of promises made by the Taoiseach and the Agriculture MInister during the MacGill Summer School in Glenties last July. Donegal Forestery spokesperson John Jackson says he secured the promises from both Enda Kenny and

The President of the Union of Students in Ireland was last night arrested in the Dáil. John Logue, who is from Letterkenny, and around one hundred students were in the visitor gallery, watching as TDs voted on a motion put down by Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail. It callied on the Education Minister to freeze

Don’t feel obliged to appear hospitable to strangers. That’s the advice from the Crime Victims Helpline – it’s warning that recent public awareness campaigns, like the digital switchover, have helped conmen gain entry to vulnerable people’s homes. A number of such cases have been reported across Donegal in recent months. Victims have had money and

Workers at the Buncrana call-centre which closed yesterday have been given a glimmer of hope that they may get wages owed to them for November. Workers were given until yesterday afternoon to agree to terms of exit with the administrators, but the terms that had been offered were pulled at the last minute. But Deputy

A Killybegs woman who was raped and sexually abused as a child by her godfather has launched an action for damages in the High Court. 31 year-old Marcella Breslin from Emerald Drive has sued her 54 year-old godfather Patrick Gillespie of Carrrickmagrath, Ballbofey, as a result of the sexual abuse when she was aged 12

Labour Senator Jimmy Harte has asked Junior Minister Alex White to clarify the situation after the HSE wrote to thousands of medical card holders over 70 telling them their cards are being reviewed. Last week, Sinn Fein Deputy Pearse Doherty raised the issue of medical card holders being warned of reviews, even though their cards

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