Author name: oisinkelly

Mix of cloud and sunny spells today, with dry weather for much or all of the day but perhaps the odd heavy shower also. Highest temperatures 8 or 9 C. Becoming cold and windy tonight, with clear spells and occasional heavy showers – these could turn wintry on the mountains. Lowest temperatures 1 to 5 […]

Donegal County Councillors have expressed there growing frustration at the local authorities lack of action in clamping down on contractors who do not fully complete private housing estates. At this weeks council meeting representatives took it in turn to highlight estates in their areas that were still incomplete despite numerous representations Raising the issue Councillor

A Derry MLA says work is expected to begin on a new cancer care centre at Altnagelvin by 2012. While formal announcements have yet to be made, Martina Anderson says a time line for the project was agreed by the North South Ministerial Council last week. Ms Anderson says the provision of cross border cancer

North West MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher says the replacement of Joe Borg as EU Fisheries Commissioner is a sad day for Ireland. Mr Gallagher led a Federation of Irish Fishermen deputation to meet with the commissioner ahead of this month’s crucial quota discussions in Brussels. He says they had a frank discussion, and Mr

Union leaders have announced that the public sector strike action planned for this Thursday has been deferred. It comes as marathon talks on cutbacks in the sector continue at government buildings. No final deal on cuts is expected today – and talks are due to continue at least into tomorrow.

The Gateway to Protestant Participation project was prompted by the belief that while catholic and nationalist groups have been quick to avail of opportunities such as the International Fund for Ireland and the EU Peace programme, traditionally, protestant groups have not done so. Willie Lamrock, from the YMCA in Derry, the lead partner in the

Gardai have renewed their appeal for information about what happened a man who was found seriously injured on the outskirts of Letterkenny six weeks ago. The man was found outside his home at Calhame, Mountaintop in the early hours of Wednesday October 21st with serious head injuries. Sergeant Philip Gillespie is leading the investigation, he

The Revenue Commissioners recouped nearly 18 million euro from tax defaulters in the three months to the end of September. A total of 76 settlements have been published – four of them in Donegal. The biggest settlement in Donegal was made by car dealer and guest house owner Anthony Mulhern of Ardlenagh, Donegal Town, who

The National Cancer Registry has published its first ‘atlas of cancer’ in Ireland  this morning which shows that Donegal has some of the highest rates of certain cancers in the country. The atlas provides detailed geographical information on the distribution of common cancers over a ten year period. Donegal has some of the highests rates

A Donegal County Council report has raised a number of question over the grounds used  An Bord Pleanala to refuse planning permission for the Stranorlar / Ballybofey bypass. The review presented to Councillors yesterday took issue with almost all of the reasons the planning board gave for refusing the project and included options on how

A Donegal County Councillor has claimed that it is unreasonable to expect people to pay for water when the council can’t account for almost half of what it provides. A report last month showed that 43% of potable council water cannot be accounted for, although a drop on previous figures, the council has one of

Plans have been announced for a major extension to Foyleside Shopping Centre in Derry, with 500 construction jobs and 300 full time jobs envisaged. It is estimated that the total cost of the Foyleside expansion would be in the region of £100 million, and that it would take over 2 years to build. The expansion

There has been widespread condemnation of those repsonsible for placing an explosive device outside a police station in Strabane. Residents of the Courtrai Park area were evacuated after the discovery last night, there were allowed to return home once the device was removed by army bomb disposal experts. Ulster Unionist Strabane District Councillor Derek Hussey

A 41-year-old Derry was today  told that it was ‘almost inevitable’ that he was gong to prison after he admitted eight charges of making indecent images of children at Derry Crown Court. Adrian Mark Goligher of Stevenson Park, Tullyally was charged with making the images which the court heard were in the form of films

Fianna Fail TD Niall Blaney is seeking a meeting with Dr James Mc Daid to discuss the ongoing rift between them which has today seen Dr Mc Daid withdraw his support from the government. In a letter to Chief Whip Pat Carey, Dr Mc Daid blames what he terms the “farcical” outcome of the first

A date for the trial of a 37 year old Derry man accused of murdering a pregnant mother of four has been set for next year. Stephen Cahoon of Harvey Street in Derry has pleaded NOT guilty to the murder of Jean Quigley. His trial is due to start on July 12th next at the

Inishowen Councillors have expressed their dissatisfaction with the news that the council plans to scrap proposals for an Inishowen local area plan in favour of a county wide development plan. When the issue was raised by Councillor Padraig McLoughlainn he was told that because of funding constraints the money was not available. The county manager

Donegal County Council will adjourn its monthly meeting this afternoon for a discussion on the Stranorlar / Ballybofey by-pass. Earlier this month An Bord Pleanala refused planning permission for the development on a number of grounds. In refusing permission the board called for the scheme to be redesigned and a new EIS to be carried

Deputy Dr James Mc Daid has withdrawn his support for the Government today. It follows an acrimonious meeting of Fianna Fail members in Letterkenny last evening which saw the Deputy and a number of his supporters stage a walk-out. The party had met to appoint officers for the old Letterkenny / Milford electoral area however

A Donegal priests has described the church as now an obstacle to faith. Fr Edward Kilpatrick used his sermon yesterday, like most priests across the county, to respond to the publication of the Murphy Report into clerical child sexual abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese. Fr Kilpatrick said it was a measure of the arrogance of

A Donegal County Council has described his disgust with those responsible for attacks on homes in the Cavinhill area of Lifford. At the weekend missiles were thrown at homes in Cavinhil, many occupied by the elderly, while a car was found burnt out in the area thought to be connected to those responsible for the

Gardai are urging motorists to exercise extreme caution this morning as freezing conditions and black ice have left a number of roads in a dangerous condition. A number of minor accidents have been reported already this morning with roads in the north of the county reported as particularly dangerous. Cars have left the road in

Retail Ireland says every 150 cross-border shopping trips represent the loss of one job. The organisation is warning that 1,700 jobs will be lost during the month of November and possibly December if action isn’t taken in next month’s Budget. It says economies in the border counties of Cavan, Donegal, Louth and Monaghan are being

Donegal County Council has stopped short of offering free parking in a number of town across the county but a draw is being introduced in effort to encourage people to shop local. There have been calls for free parking in Donegal Town, Ballyshannon and the Twin Towns but instead those paying for parking will be

Letterkenny General Hospital will be part of a major new HSE initiative aimed at cracking down on alcohol abuse. From the start of next month people who attend the emergency departments at Letterkenny General will be asked about their alcohol consumption patterns. The aim of the initiative is to intervene at an early stage and

Firefighters spent five hours overnight bringing a major blaze under control at an industrial estate in Derry. The fire, at a building containing bales of shredded paper on the Pennyburn Industrial Estate, broke out shortly after 6 o’clock last evening Eight crews from across the county were called to the fire. Local Councillor Mark Durkan

Greg Hughes presents a look back at the main stories making the headlines on Friday 27th of November

The Bishop of Raphoe has said that he would welcome an audit or any intervention which would help ensure the safety of children. Dr Bishop Boyce was speaking as It emerged that one of the priests identified as a serial abuser in the Murphy Report served for a period in the Diocese of Raphoe. Patrick

It has been confirmed that the Letterkenny man accused of trying to kill a police officer in County Fermanagh was a reserve soldier in the Irish Army. Gerard James McManus, from Fern Hill in Letterkenny appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempting to murder a trainee officer. His co-accused is 32-year-old Kevin Barry Nolan,

Fine Gael is highlighting figures which show Donegal farm incomes have fallen by 28% this year. Deputy Joe McHugh says the statistics confirm what has been obvious locally for many months ; bad prices and bad weather are hammering Donegal farmers. The release of the figures coincides with the visit to Donegal today of Fine

As the fallout continues in the wake of the Murphy report, it’s emerged there are currently 17 priests facing allegations of abuse in the Derry diocese. The figures are published in todays’s Derry Journal, with Bishop Seamus Hegarty saying all allegations have been reported to the either the PSNI or the gardai. It’s understood that

Donegal County Council is being urged to call as special meeting between councillors and job creation agencies to tackle the worsening jobs crises in the Stranorlar Electoral area. Councillor Cora Harvey wants local representatives from the area to meet with the Donegal Enterprise Board, IDA and Enterprise Ireland to develop a strategy to increase investment

Figures published today show that just under 85% of secondary school students who completed the Leaving Cert in Donegal this year went on to college. Feeder school figures published in today’s papers include figures for 24 schools in Donegal at which almost 1,900 students sat the exam. Two schools in Donegal, Milford Community School and

A County Councillor has claimed that many people on council housing estates are having delays in their problems being resolved because they are being passed from one department to another. Councillor Thomas Pringle is to raise the issue at the council’s next monthly meeting claiming there is confusion as to which section of the council

A 20-year-old Derry man has been sent for trial on a charge of endangering an aircraft with a lazer pen Patrick White of 7 Old School Lane Derry appeared at a preliminary Enquiry today at Derry Magistrate’s Court charged with endangering an aircraft on April 29. It was accepted that there was a case to

People in Donegal seeking the Swine Flu vaccination rare being advised that the jab is only being offered now by appointment at HSE run clinics. The HSE says that while they could accommodating walk-in visits in the past, that is no longer the case. Meanwhile there’s been another death connected to swine flu. The man

The Bishop of Raphoe has said that he would welcome an audit or any intervention which would help ensure the safety of children. Dr Bishop Boyce was speaking as It emerged that one of the priests identified as a serial abuser in the Murphy Report served for a period in the Diocese of Raphoe. Patrick

Gardaí in Ballyshannon have renewed their appeal for information about a fatal two car collision shortly before 5.30pm on Tuesday evening. The crash happened at Cavangarden, three miles outside Ballyshannon. James Kerrigan from Rossknowlagh lost his lifwe in the tragedy, his wife Mary was injured, as was the driver of the other car. Anyone who

A solicitor and South Donegal Coroner Dr Diarmuid Hegarty have clashed during an inquest into a death of a pedestrian who was struck by a car last year. 43 year-old Grahame Manoe, who was home in Bridgetown, Laghey, from the Caribbean island of St Maarten to visit his mother in hospital, died when he was

West Tyrone MP and MLA Pat Doherty is calling on the Planning Appeals Commission to rezone the Adria site in Strabane to allow for mix use development. Up to now, the Beechmount Avenue site has been designated for “industrial use only”, which Mr Doherty says Sinn Fein had supported in the past, but he says

jun3pmDonegal’s eight Oireachta’s members have been called on to unite and pressure the government to help the county’s struggling businesses. Councillor Frank McBrearty made the call after being approached by a business man who pays 145 thousand euro per year in commercial and water rates while a second pays in excess of 100 thousand euro.

The SDLP leader and Foyle MLA Mark Durkan has claimed that North-South co-operation was ‘staying low and going slow.’ He was in Dublin today to address the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr Durkan gave the example of the North West Gateway Initiative claiming that it had delivered little to

A former RUC reservist and Orangeman is to become Sinn Fein’s latest member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Billy Leonard, a Coleraine councillor, will replace Francie Brolly who has announced his retirement. Cllr Leonard, a former member of the SDLP, has been heavily involved in cross border projects in the North West, working closely with

Fine Gael Deputy Joe McHugh has said the news that services are to be curtailed and 18 jobs be lost at Letterkenny General Hospital highlights the flaws in how the health service is run. He has critisised the system which sees the hospital allocated a yearly budget and says that instead funding should follow the

Údarás na Gaeltachta has said that it maintained its job levels last year despite the the deteriorating economic climate in the latter half of that year. However in its economic report the chair of Uduras said it had experienced the most difficult and challenging period in the history of the organisation. The Uduras 2008 Annual

The National Cancer Services Director has confirmed that patients requiring palliative radiation treatment can be considered on an individual basis for treatment in Belfast. Up to now, only Donegal patients receiving radiotherapy designed to cure cancer have been admitted to Belfast, while those requiring radiotherapy to stabilise them and give pain relief haven’t been given

Three Derry men will face trial in January in connection with an assault on a man from Donegal who was in the city for a night out. Neil James Coyle, Gary Gerard McDernott and Patrick Joseph Ward all with addresses in Derry pleaded not guilty when they appeared at Derry Crown Court today They are