Author name: oisinkelly

Thousands of members of the Orange Order are in Donegal today for their annual pre-12 July gathering at Rossnowlagh. Lodges from counties Donegal, Cavan, Leitrim and Monaghan, as well as Orangemen from Northern Ireland, will be taking part in the event. Orangemen have  held an annual march in Rossnowlagh every Saturday before 12 July since

The 23rd Earagail Arts Festival gets underway on Saturday with events across the county including a carnival parade through the streets of Letterkenny. Last year’s festival hosted 160 events and installations in 40 venues, spread over 20 towns and villages, with over 36,500 attending events during the 16 days of the festival. This year, a

A Derry councillor is expressing concern at the number of people crossing the Foyle Expressway in busy traffic to get to the new Peace Bridge. Councillor Colly Kelly says since the Peace Bridge opened two weeks ago the area in around the entrance at the Foyle Expressway  has been extremely busy with thousands of people

A Prize Bond holder from County Donegal has won the weekly Prize Bond Star Prize of €20,000 with a bond bought 38 years ago.. The winning Bond number was N 725621, and it was purchased in 1973. Over 7,400 prizes were awarded in this week’s Prize Bonds draw, amounting to over €550,000.

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for an Irish dancing teacher, found to have sexually abused a former pupil, to be named. 68 year old Michael Quigley of Barnhill Park, Letterkenny has been ordered to pay 400 thousand euro damages by the High Court for abusing a then young girl in the 1980s. Quigley

Medisize Ireland in Letterkenny has a new owner after the Medisize Corporation was sold today by its parent company. The new owner is the Phillips Plastics Corporation, which services the medical  and automotive industries. Medisize says the deal should be complete by the end of next month, subject to approval from relevant competition authorities. In

Over 50 people attended a public meeting in Dungloe last night, as fears grow over cutbacks in services at the community hospital. Locals are angry about current bed shortages at the hospital. There was 44 beds originally in the hospital, but that has been cut to 30 beds. When the new wing of the hospital

A criminal investigation is ongoing into an alleged assault at a Tyrone ladies GAA match last month. Two men have been banned for life from attending Tyrone GAA ladies games and the Carrickmore club fined following a fracas at the Tyrone senior final. One of the pair handed a lifetime ban was a member of

The number of daily trains between Derry and Coleraine is to be reduced from nine to five – despite the numbers of people using the line increasing by 140% and the route operating at 90% capacity. The move will leave Derry with just five trains a day during the City of Culture year in 2013,

A High Court judge has ruled that a farmer has established negligence against the Electricity Supply Board over serious leg and other injuries suffered after his van was hit by an ESB pick-up truck. The amount of damages will be decided later. Mr Justice John Quirke yesterday accepted the account of 64-year-old Patrick Campbell from

The principal of Glenswilly National School is warning that new school transport restrictions will increase the number of cars coming to and from the school to such an extent that he fears a fatal accident is inevitable. Liam Mc Gowan was speaking after a parents’ meeting at the school last night. During the meeting, parents

The government has confirmed that the IDA’s Letterkenny office is to close. The issue was raised in the Dail last night; with Deputy Charlie Mc Conalogue saying the Regional Manager based in Letterkenny has been promoted to a national position, with no word of a replacement. He urged the government not to allow the Letterkenny

It’s been confirmed that proposals for the reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy will be published next week. Fisheries Maria Damanaki will launch her proposals next week after several months of consultation, which saw a substantial input from the North West region. North West MEP Pat The Cope Gallagher has argued throughout the process

The Dail has been told that the budgetary shortfall at Letterkenny General Hospital could be partly addressed by a redesignation of the facility from a General to a Regional Hospital. Speaking during a debate on an amendment to the Medical Practioners Bill designed to ease the expected shortage of Junior Doctors, Deputy Joe Mc Hugh

The appeals court in Belfast has upheld a civil ruling in 2009 which held Michael McKevitt and Liam Campbell liable for the 1998 Omagh bombing. However, a new hearing has ordered in respect of claims made against Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly. In 2009, a judge found the men liable, awarding £1.6m damages. Lawyers for

The Enterprise Minister will be asked tonight to give a guarantee that the IDA will continue to focus on the need to create jobs in Donegal and the North West. Fianna Fail Deputy Charlie Mc Conalogue says the current Regional Manager based in Letterkenny has been promoted, and the fear is that post will not

An Bord Pleanála has rejected a planning application for a major retail development on the former fruit of the loom site in Buncrana. The application, which had been approved by the local planning authority, had been broadly welcomed by Buncrana Town Council as being a positive development for the area. The proposals involved the redevelopment

A rally will take place in Dublin next week, to highlight opposition to the cuts in special needs assistants. The Technical Group of TDs, which includes Donegal South West Deputy Thomas Pringle, is organising the event outside Leinster House next Wednesday. 200 SNA positions are to be cut from September, to comply with the cap

An investigation is ongoing into an overnight house fire in Downing which claimed the life of a man in his 90’s. He has been named locally as Neil  McClafferty A passerby spotting smoke and flames coming from the building at 1.40 am and called the emergency services. Fire units from Milford, Falcarragh and the voluntary

Two youths have been questioned after a garda search in Letterkenny uncovered thousands of euro worth of stolen electrical equipment and other items including a fitted kitchen The operation involved armed gardai from the Regional Support Unit, local detectives and uniformed gardaí. Gardai say the recovered items included 16 mobile phones, PlayStation consoles,  DVD players,

Former Tanaiste and Fianna Fail Deputy for Donegal South West’s Mary Coughlan’s  brief tenure as Health Minister has proven to be not that memorable. Mary Coughlan was appointed to the Ministery at the start of this year following the resignation of Mary Harney. However when the issue of health was discussed last night on TV3’s

A Donegal County Councillor claims the latest armed robbery in Donegal underlines the lack of garda manpower and how that manpower is being used on the ground. Yesterday afternoon at around 3 o’clock an man armed  a sawn-off shotgun held up the post office in Manorcunnungham, the postmistress was badly shook up by the ordeal

Judgement in the Omagh bombing civil appeal is due to be delivered later. It was brought by Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, after they were found liable two years ago for the bombing. The families of some of those killed in the atrocity won the landmark civil case and were awarded

Letterkenny General Hospital is facing a budget deficit this year once again, with General Manager Sean Murphy saying it seems that the hospital is being punished for being efficient. Traditionally. Letterkenny General has been one of the best performing hospitals in the country in terms of case mix, but now, as funding is cut, there

The saga of the Moville Greencastle Sewerage Scheme has taken another twist following the withdrawal of a consultant hired to investigate the location of a controversial waste water treatment plant. Last November, the local Electoral Area Committee agreed to have an investigation into the site and how it was identified. Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn says

A 21 year old  Irish soldier from Strabane died after eating three grams of cocaine, an inquest has heard. Michael Leitch of Lisnafin Park collapsed after eating a three gram lump of cocaine during a St Stephen’s Day party in 2009. He passed away at the Causeway Hospital three days later. Two friends who were

Two men have been arrested following a cannabis find in Letterkenny. One of the men is 42 and from Dublin, the other is 46 and from Letterkenny. Both are being held under drug traffiking legislation.

The post office in Manorcunningham has been targeted in an armed Robbery. A lone raider wielding a sawn off shotgun entered the premises at around 3 o’clock this afternoon. He escaped in a Green coloured Vauxhall Cavalier which was later found burned out in Derry. No one was physically injured in the robbery, but a

Senator Jimmy Harte has described an attempted High Court Challenge to the co-option of his replacement on Donegal County Council as a bitter and personalised attack. Letterkenny solicitor Dessie Sheils is seeking to bring a High Court challenge to the co-option of Councillor Michael McBride who replaced Jimmy Harte on his election to the Seanad.

Letterkenny General Hospital’s manager says the hospital will not have a problem staffing its Emergency Department unit next week, but may run in to problems in two or three months time. This year there’s a serious national shortage of non-consultant doctors, with fears that A&E services in particular may be threatened after the six month

A 28 year-old man has been arrested in Gweedore as part of an under cover garda operation. As part of the investigation, a search yesterday morning uncovered  guns and a quantity of ammunition at a house near Lunniagh The arrest follows local reports of significant Garda Armed Support Unit activity in area in the past

An oil laundering plant has been uncovered by customs officers in Castlefin in Co Donegal. It had the capacity to launder around three million litres of fuel per year with a potential loss to the exchequer of 1.3 million euro a year. Customs seized 12,000 litres of laundered fuel, a lorry, a van and a

Some Donegal dairy farmers are faced with the threat of incurring very serious superlevy fines if their milk production exceeds their quotas. Some milk processors are 15% up on milk supplies compared to this time last year, in 2010 Ireland only narrowly escaped incurring superlevy fines. Farmers are being warned that going ‘over-quota’ could lead

Donegal Road Safety Group PARC says thousands of drivers are still not receiving penalty points due to them because the current government is foot dragging in enforcing new legislation. In simple terms, It is claimed that many drivers convicted of motoring offences are escaping their penalties by either not producing their license in court or

Five Donegal and Derry groups are to share in funding of 5.5 milion euro announced today by the International Fund for Ireland today. The funding is to support a wide variety of peace building projects throughout Northern Ireland and the southern border counties. The projects set to benefit are: All Saints Caring Association: Community Empowerment

A Letterkenny solicitor is seeking to bring a High Court challenge to the co-option of a councillor to Donegal County Council. He claims the post should have been filled by a non-party candidate, Labour insist that Councillor McBride was not a member of the party at the time of his co-option. Desmond Sheils, an unsuccessful

The uptake of the latest Rural Broadband Scheme in Donegal has been disappointing so far, and calls into question the government’s commitment to it. That’s according to Donegal North East Deputy Charlie Mc Conalogue, who says the government has done very little to publicise the scheme, the closing date for which is the end of

The government is to review the case for, and the cost of, undergrounding, a North / South electricity interconnector. An international expert commission will be established, with a view to reporting back, within 6 months. Last October, Eirgrid had to withdraw a planning application for pylons along the route from Meath to the border with

The Dail has been told that even when the new extension at Letterkenny General Hospital is finally complete, no extra capacity will be created, because resources will not be available to employ more staff and treat more people. Speaking on a Sinn Fein motion on health, Donegal North East Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn said that

The Sail West project has launched a new brand under which marine tourism will be marketted in the North West of Ireland and the West of Scotland. The MalinWaters brand reflects the Malin sea area which is well known to sailors and other watersports enthusiasts. It was launched during Seafest in Rathmullan at the weekend,

Donegal’s Special Olympians are on their way back to the county this evening, with all eight of them bringing home silver medals. The eight are footballers Oliver Boyle,  Hugh Sweeney, Adrian Clarke,  Stephen Nesbitt,  Gareth Egan, Luke Egan and Mario McShane, as well as Letterkenny kayaker Shaun Bradley. The team, who arrived at Dublin Airport

A woman who was sexually abused over seven years by her Irish dancing teacher has been awarded €400,000 by the High Court. The woman, who is now 41, had taken a civil action against the man over the abuse, which happened between 1982 and 1989. A ruling on whether the man’s name can be published

The High Court has made an order formally winding up ETIC Solutions, a Co Donegal-based company under investigation for alleged fraud on both sides of the Border. The order was made yesterday by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, who agreed to appoint Declan McDonald, of Price WaterhouseCooper, and Paul Rooney, PWC Belfast, as joint liquidators to

Sean Gallagher says he’ll engage in a ‘listening exercise’ with the people of Ireland. The Independent nominee for the role of President last night exceeded the quota needed to formally enter the race, when he succeeded in winning Leitrim County Council’s support. Mr. Gallagher has previously won the support of Longford, Clare, Roscommon and Donegal

The government must focus on education to pull people in the West out of long-term unemployment. That’s according to The Western Development Commission, which is calling on the government to focus on the ‘3 Es’ – education, enterprise and employment. The group says that’s the only way to tackle long-term unemployment in the region. Pauline

The first phase of a groundbreaking geological project which will provide vitally important data to help sustain and manage Ireland’s natural resources has been launched by Minister Pat Rabbitte. The Tellus Border Project  is being carried out in Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. This Tellus Border surveys will include airborne data collection along

The Youth Information Centre in Letterkenny is hosting a series of Student Grant Information seminars for parents and young people this week. The first seminar takes place at the Youth Information Centre in Letterkenny tonight, with another at the Buncrana Youth Drop-In centre tomorrow. The seminar will offer prospective students and their parents guidance on

A 40-year-old Derry man who is awaiting sentence after being convicted of indecent assault was back in court last evening charged with threatening the woman in the case. The man who cannot be named for legal reasons was charged with making threats against the woman and threatening to damage her property on Saturday night last.

A new survey shows that house prices for the second three months of this year fell in Donegal fell by almost 9%. Nationally, the average house price in Ireland has dropped below 200 thousand euro. According to property website Daft.ie, the average asking price for a residential property stood at  196-thousand euro in June –