Author name: oisinkelly

Letterkenny Town Council is urging officials to complete the register of derelict sites in the town as quickly as possible. The issue was raised by Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh, who says the council and the community will benefit if action is taken on derelict sites. However, that can only be done if there is a proper […]

Donegal County Council will this week launch a reporting scheme which allow victims or witnesses of racist or sectarian incidents in the county to report them via text, phone or online. The Independent and confidential reporting scheme will be officially launched by the County’s Mayor Cora Harvey tomorrow. The information gathered will be used to

Tanaiste and Education Minister Mary Coughlan is being urged to intervene in what’s being described as another grants crisis in County Donegal. Figures obtained by Senator Pearse Doherty show that Donegal County Council has yet to process the majority of new grant applications it has recived, and he wants the Tanaiste to take action. Most

Gardai are appealing for information following an overnight attack on the Carrigart Garda Station. It is understood that sometime between 11.30pm and 8am a device, which contained an accelerant was thrown at the building. The station was unmanned at the time, but the building did suffer some minor damage. It is understood that gardai in

Staff at Letterkenny General Hospital are to be asked their views on whether unpaid leave should be introduced as an alternative to jobs cuts. General manager Sean Murphy is denying a difference of opinion between management and trade unions over whether or not such a proposal was formally put to unions by the HSE. The

Figures released showed that the HSE has spent 8.4 million euro in Donegal over the last four years on conditions associated with Diabetes which the Diabetes’s Action says are preventable. The group says there were 282 hospital admissions for diabetic foot disease in Donegal between 2005-2009, which Diabetes Actions says, would be 70% less with

It’s emerged 44 million euro was spent on 12 sites which are now lying idle because decentralisation has been put on hold. A report from the says that six of the sites were also found to have been bought at prices above the benchmark set by consultants engaged by the Office of Public Works. One

The HSE has confirmed it’s examining the possibility that in the long term, services at the Shiel and Rock hospitals in Ballyshannon will be centralised at a single site. Preliminary discussions with the Shiel Hospital Trust which owns the facility have been opened, but as of yet there is no timeframe for change. Any guarantees

Junior Certificate students will get their results today. Over 56 thousand students sat the exams across the country, almost 2,200 of them in Donegal. Results are similar to previous years, but there was a slight drop in the number of students who achieved A grades in higher maths. Tanaiste Mary Coughlan says students should be

Letterkenny Town Council has asked officials to investigate how works on the Kirkstown Road at Ballymacool can be completed. Cllr Ciaran Brogan says while important work was done last year, it’s not been completed, and the road is now in a dangerous state because of an increase in traffic in the area. He says finishing

A public meeting has been called in Ballyshannonn Tuesday evening to discuss the unemployment crisis in the town. The town has been hit by a string of job loss announcement most recently the news that BWG Foods is closing next month with 21 jobs set to go. The theme of the meeting is ‘what went

Plans to bring a jobs fair to  Strabane have had to be shelved because there are not enough vacancies in the area to justify the event. Strabane has the highest unemployment rate in the north and last year a total of 800 people applied for 400 posts at the jobs fair. But Strabane Councillor, Eugene

Derry Chamber of Commerce is warned that vital investment in the City of Culture 2013 project could be lost if Planning Services in the city are not improved. While the chamber has welcomed Derry City Council’s decision to employ additional planning officers, it says more must be done to speed up the process. The Chamber

Gardai in Letterkenny are appealing for information following an alleged sexual assault in the townc early yesterday. A woman in her late teens has told gardai she was approached by a number of men at an area opf open ground at Ashlawn at around 1 o’clock yesterday morning. She says one of the men then

Letterkenny’s Mayor Cllr Tadhg Culbert is calling on people not to use the car park attached to the Bernard Mc Glinchey Town Park when going to Letterkenny General Hospital for appointments. Cllr Culbert says he’s received a number of complaints, including one from the Irish Wheelchair Association, pointing out that people who wish top get

A Fianna Fail Councillor in Letterkenny has said he has no confidence in Environment Minister John Gormley. Cllr Dessie Larkin made his comments as he successfully proposed that Letterkenny Town Council make a strong submission to the consultation on local government document. The discussion followed last week’s AMAI conference in Buncrana, which roundly rejected the

Donegal businesses who have been unsuccessful in getting access to credit in banks are being urged to take their case to the Credit Review Office. Many small businesses who need very small amounts of money to fulfil contracts or expand are said to be failing to get any more money from the banks. But, according

Letterkenny. Glenties, Carrigart and Malin have won awards in the National Tidy Towns competion for 2010, the results of which were announced in Dublin this afternoon. Letterkenny collected the regional prize when the Tidy Town’s results were unveiled in Dublin this afternoon. It received 304 points, four behind the overall winner Tallanstown, but hust one

The 2010 National Tidy Towns award winners will be announced this afternoon, with a number of delegations from Donegal in Dublin for the announcement. Last year, Letterkenny was awarded a gold medal, winning both the Donegal and North West awards with 300 points, five behind the national winner, Emly in County Tipperary. Glenties, a five

The North’s Deputy First Minister Martin Mc Guinness has said he was told in 1972 that the IRA was not involved in the Claudy bombing. Mr Mc Guinness, who has admitted being a senior IRA officer in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday, says at the time of the Claudy bombing, security in Derry

Jobs, continued backbench questioning of the leadership of Brian Cowen, and a deteriorating relationship with the Greens look set to be centre stage in Fianna Fáil today and tomorrow. The Parliamentary Party is gathering for its annual think-tank before the return of the Dáil at the end of the month. The timing of the By-Elections

The family of a Falcarragh woman is to sue the HSE over her death in the local community hospital two years ago. Derry based solicitor Desmond Doherty says he has been instructed to initiate legal proceedings against the HSE in relation to Sile Coyle’s death. Ms Coyle, who was 86, died in Falcarragh Community Hospital

A campaign against plans to abolish up to 60 town councils and strip others of powers relating to rates, housing and planning, was launched yesterday by the Association of Municipal Authorities in Buncrana. Plans to reduce the powers of town councils or abolish large numbers of them altogether have been made by the Local Government

Fianna Fail Deputy Willie O’Dea has called on Brian Cowen to immediately issue writs for three by-elections to the Dail. Such a move could precipitate the fall of the Government.Mr O’Dea told the Sunday Independent it “should be possible” to “move ahead now” with the by-elections, adding that “sufficient time has elapsed” since the seats

Martin McGuinness has defended his meeting with Father Chesney, the priest at the centre of the Cloudy bombing controversy. A British government- led inquiry revealed last month that authorites in the North knew that the priest was responsible for the bombings, but did not make an arrest for fear of deepening tensions within the Catholic

Co-operating for Cancer Care NorthWest, is urging women in Donegal to avail of free smear tests under the Cervical Check programme. The programme was rolled out in 2008, but from last year, women were only tested after receiving letters of invitation. However, CCC-NW say this led to some confusion, and fears that some women who

Plans to bring a jobs fair to recession-hit Strabane have had to be shelved because there are not enough vacancies in the area to hold the event. Strabane is the Northern Ireland town with the highest unemployment rate. Over 1,000 people applied for 400 posts at the same event in 2009.

The HSE has been called on to immediately give an update on the future of the Lifford Community Hospital following reports the executive has confirmed the Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon is to be retained. Councillor Barry O’Neill says he has been assured by HSE management that the current staff levels and services at the Rock

The future of Town Council’s has been the focus of the last for day of the Association of Municipal Authorities Ireland conference which is being held in Buncrana. Yesterday Fine Gael and Labour spokespersons committed to the 300 delegates at the conference that if elected to government they would retain town councils. The government is

Donegal Creameries plc  Interim results for the six months of this year show the company show it made an after tax profit of 3.6 million euro. The company welcomed the results saying its diversified business portfolio has again demonstrated its effectiveness in delivering solid results. Total revenue for the company in the first half of

Health Minister Mary Harney is to open a conference at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin this morning to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. The conference comes in the week when new figures show that the number of suicides in Donegal doubled last year. Up to 500 delegates are expected to attend today’s conference which

The examiner to Aer Arann, Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton, has said there have been over 14 expressions of interest in the airline. Mr McAteer said he is confident they will have an investment party coming to the fore very soon. He said Irish airlines are not interested in the company but there is interest

Farmers with fragmented farms are being advised to ignore letters from the Department of Agriculture telling them that they need separate herd numbers if cattle are being kept on fields more than 20 miles apart. Letters enforcing the “20 mile rule” began arriving on farms last week, with all the farm organisations swamped with complaints

Environment Minister John Gormley has pulled out of a visit to Donegal. Mr Gormley was to have addressed the Annual Conference of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland which is taking place in Buncrana, but has not done so. Labour’s Local Government Spokesperson claims that Mr Gormley had accepted an invitation from the AMAI,

An Oireachtas committee has been told that the families of the victims of Bloody Sunday are divided on whether or not prosecutions against soldiers involved in the killings of 13 people should happen. Relatives of four of the victims appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement this afternoon following

inn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has said he forgot a deathbed conversation he had with the priest suspected of being involved in the 1972 Claudy bombing. Mr McGuinness told the BBC in 2002 he had never met Fr James Chesney, but yesterday he revealed they had met. The Deputy First Minister said there was no suspicion

A man on his way to work in Strabane removed a pipe-bomb from beside a car and placed it in a nearby field this morning. The PSNI recieved a report this morning that a pipe bomb had been left in a field behind LIDL supermarket on Bradley Way. It’s understood that a pipe bomb was

It’s 22 times more likely that a fatal collision on Donegals roads will happen betweem 3 and 4 am on a weekend night than between 9am and 6pm on any other day of the week. These were the findings of a road safety draft at yesterdays Buncrana Town Council meeting. The Council has now called

Two Derry women are recovering after being attacked and robbed in Portugal. 35-year-old Donna Powell, and her friend Deirdre Cowley, who is in her 20s, were attacked in Albufeira on the Algarve early on Saturday. Mrs Powell was stabbed in the leg and Ms Cowley suffered broken ribs in the attack. Speaking to The Shaun

A Derry priest has said that he has “no regrets” about meeting families who claim they are the victims of police harrassment in the city. Ballymagroarty parish priest Fr Paddy O’Kane said that he had heard “harrowing stories” from people he said were “angry and afraid”. However, he admitted that he had not “heard the

The news that Carndonagh Courthouse is to reopen in October after being closed for 2 years has been described by Inishowen Councillor Padraig MacLoughlin as ‘farcial’. He says that Carndonagh has recieved “the short straw again” after the promised major refurbishment of the building and parking facilities hasn’t happened. And the Deputy Mayor of Donegal

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is being urged to include Donegal in a major conference on the Northern Ireland economy taking place next month in Washington. Donegal North East Deputy Joe Mc Hugh, who serves as Fine Gael Spokesperson on North-South Cooperation has written to Ms Clinton’s Northern Ireland envoy Declan Kelly requesting that

Finally, a Buncrana man will present a cheque of five thousand three hundred euro to the Irish Wheelchair Association today. Paul Gill, who is a wheelchair user as a result of an accident, cycled just under 35 kilometres in one hour, using a spin bike. All funds raised from Pauls bike challenge will be used

The priest suspected of the Claudy bombing in 1972 met Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness shortly before he died, it has been revealed. Police believed Fr James Chesney was the IRA’s director of operations in south Derry and was a prime suspect in the Claudy attack and other terrorist incidents. Deputy First Minister