Author name: oisinkelly

The Department of Education is considering ‘revisions’ received from health officials around the wearing of face coverings in schools. A Department spokesperson says it is engaging with key stakeholders in the school sector before publishing the recommendations. The Government’s roadmap to reopening schools does not make face masks mandatory. Earlier this week, for Director General […]

  Bus Éireann has confirmed that it will run an additional Expressway 32 service from Sunday. The service between Letterkenny and Dublin, serving Lifford and Monaghan has been experiencing high demand in recent weeks. Expressway services were reduced by 14 per cent through the Covid19 crisis. Numerous complaints were also made this week by people

Police have charged a 14 year old male with a number of offences including riotous behaviour and throwing petrol bomb. A 15 year old male has been charged with attempted criminal damage and riotous behaviour. Both are due to appear at Derry Youth Court today, Friday, 8 August. As is normal procedure all charges will

Youth projects and organisations in Donegal are to share just over €26,000 in funding. Green Party Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, Roderic O’Gorman TD announced the details last evening. Donegal Youth Service will receive almost €23,300 while Involve Letterkenny will receive just over €2,800. The funding allocation is part of a nationwide package

  Eleven people were arrested for drink and drug driving in Donegal over the August Bank Holiday. Figures released by An Garda Siochana show that five people were arrested for drink driving while six were arrested for drug driving offences across the Donegal Division. Other notable statistics from the county include a speed detection and

  The IFA says a plan to address the backlog of forestry licences actively discriminates against farm forests and could signal the end of farmer planting. Donegal IFA Farm Forestry Representative Charlie Doherty says the costs and bureaucracy associated with getting a licence under the current system means that the vast majority of forests on

Localised Covid-19 restrictions could be imposed in Kildare, Laois and Offaly later today. Over 70s and the medically vulnerable in the three counties have been advised against using public transport. 226 cases have been confirmed there over the past two weeks, while 80 workers at one food plant in Kildare have tested positive for the

  The UK government’s going to spend more than 350-million pounds helping businesses in Northern Ireland deal with Brexit bureaucracy. The new Trader Support Service will assist firms importing goods, once the transition period with the EU runs out. Opposition parties in the UK have accused the government there of leaving it to the “last

5 further deaths and 69 extra Covid-19 cases have been confirmed this evening. At least one of the new cases is in Donegal. It means there have been 1,768 deaths and 26,372 confirmed cases. ******************* Statement from the National Public Health Emergency Team The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been informed that 5 patients

Police in Derry investigating incidents in the Galliagh area of the city earlier this week have made two arrests. Two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15 years old, were arrested in the city this afternoon on suspicion of riotous behaviour and attempted criminal damage. The 14-year-old boy was also arrested on suspicion of possessing petrol

  A new wind farm has been given the green light for the outskirts of Letterkenny. The farm is joint venture by SSE renewables and Coillte renewable Energy. The proposed Lenalea Wind Farm is in the rural upland setting of central Donegal, approximately 8km south west of Letterkenny. The provisional results of the first round

  Pubs could have to wait more than two months before a financial support package is announced. The Irish Independent reports ministers may wait until the Budget on October 13th before deciding on bailouts for particular sectors. Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has told the paper pubs could still re-open in September. His comments follow those of

Police have come under attack with petrol bombs in Derry overnight. It comes following a day of violence on Tuesday when several vehicles were hijacked. Officers were responding to a security alert on Skeoge Road in the city yesterday evening when they came under attack with both petrol and paint bombs. Police confirmed that a

  Two men are being questioned in the North in relation to activities of the New IRA. They were taken into custody following four searches in county Tyrone by the North’s Terrorism Investigation Unit as part of ongoing investigations into criminality. Cash was taken in one of the searches which was found in a recycling

50 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic this evening, but no new deaths have been reported. Five of the new cases are in Donegal, but that won’t be reflected in the National Dashboard figures until Friday, as the published county by county breakdown is two days behind. Nationally, the total number

The current Covid-19 testing and tracing system is facing ‘severe stress tests’ in the coming months. This is according to An Oireachtas Committee, which is calling for changes to be made to the system to make it more efficient. As part of 22 recommendations in its Interim Testing and Tracing Report, the committee says that

The funeral of former SDLP leader and Nobel Laureate John Hume is underway at St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry. The politician was widely regarded as the most influential figure in the peace process. President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Northern Ireland’s first and deputy first ministers Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill are among

Two men who were arrested in Strabane in recent days have been released following questioning. The two aged 26 and 34 were arrested by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Terrorism Investigation Unit on Monday following several searches in the town. Enquiries are continuing.

  The Government hasn’t ruled out reopening pubs on a regional basis. Pubs that don’t serve food will not be able to open until August 31st at the earliest, after Phase 4 was pushed back for a second time. The Health Minister says the decision was made as reopening pubs or increasing the numbers allowed

  The funeral mass of one of the giants of Irish politics John Hume will take place in his native Derry this morning. The Nobel Peace Laureate died on Monday at a nursing home at the age of 83. The former SDLP leader is considered the prime architect of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The

  Police in Derry are appealing for witnesses after a spate of hijacking incidents yesterday. A van was taken and set alight at about four o’clock in the afternoon. About 45 minutes later a delivery driver had his van taken in the Glenowen Park Area. Then a bus was hijacked in Ballymagroarty, it was set