Author name: oisinkelly

  Sinn Fein has increased its lead over Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and has reached a record level of support, according to a new poll. The latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI survey has the party up three points to 35 percent. Fine Gael are down two points to 20 percent, Fianna Fail are on 20

  Passengers from Britain are being advised to take daily antigen tests for five days after arrival. The new advice was issued late last night. This new advice from government comes after it received an updated public health assessment on the Omicron variant. There are now six cases here, after a further five were confirmed

  An investigation has been launched after a number of holiday caravans were broken into in North Inishowen.  The break’-ins happened at some stage between Wednesday and Thursday of this week in the Malin Head area. It’s not yet known if anything was stolen. Gardaí are appealing to anyone who has any information that might

  A total of six cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been detected in Ireland. The Department of Health has also confirmed 4,022 new coronavirus cases this evening. As of 8am today, 530 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 115 are in ICU. Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said:

  Lifford/Stranorlar now has the highest rate of Covid -19 in Donegal. There have been both slight increases and decreases in the rate across the county. The figures cover the 14 days up to last Monday. North Inishowen recorded 217 cases and a rate of 1279 in the latest data, reflecting a fall. A rise

  Listen back to the main evening news, sport, farming news & obituaries for Thursday December 9th:

Over one thousand customers are currently without power in the Raphoe area.  A total of 1094 customers are affected. The estimated restoration time is 8pm this evening.

  The first walk-in vaccination clinics for booster doses for people aged 50 to 59 will take place this weekend in the Letterkenny Vaccination Centre The centre has relocated to the Letterkenny Business Park, Ballyraine. The clinics will take place on Saturday and Sunday from 9am – 5pm. On Saturday it will be available for

  Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha CTR, an Údarás na Gaeltachta client in the Donegal Gaeltacht, will form part of a €3.1m research project to diversify plant-protein production across the island of Ireland. The Protein-I project, which will be part-based in Falcarragh, aims to co-design pathways to support sustainable value chains that also benefit rural communities. Funding

1,819 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the latest 24-hour period. Another four people have also died from the virus. 338 Covid patients are in hospital, with 38 in intensive care. From today, everyone over 40 in the North is able to get a Covid booster vaccine.

  The Government has announced the extension of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme until the end of January and a restoration of November’s higher rates. Minister Paschal Donohoe said they couldn’t design a targeted scheme for the hospitality sector in time for Christmas. Ministers and officials had been working since Friday to put together a

A motorist has been caught drug driving in Letterkenny.  On Tuesday night, Letterkenny Roads Policing Unit arrested the driver at a Mandatory Intoxicant Testing checkpoint in the town. The driver failed a roadside oral fluid preliminary drug test, testing positive for cannabis and cocaine. Gardai say that weather conditions were extremely poor at the time.

The PSNI say detectives from the Terrorism Investigation Unit backed by local police conducted searches of two residential properties in the Cityside area of Derry today, as part of an ongoing investigation into violent dissident republican activity. A number of items were seized and have been taken away for further examination. No arrests have been

Letterkenny University Hospital had the country’s highest number of admitted patients awaiting beds this morning, with 52 in total, 13 of them on Emergency Department trolleys. Sligo University Hospital had 30 patients awaiting beds, 16 of them in the EU, a North West total of 82, which represents 21% of the national total of 391.

Gardai say the death of a man in a house fire in Glendowan, Churchill last night is being treated as a tragic accident. A man in his 90s was located deceased inside the property, he’s been named locally as John Harley. Gardai say a file will now be prepared for the Coroner.  

People over 50 can get a booster Covid-19 vaccine from today. Third jabs will be offered by appointment, but people can also attend GPs, pharmacies and walk-in clinics, once it has been five months after a second dose. Up to now, boosters had only been available to over 60s and people with underlying conditions.

ESB Networks are reporting no power outages in Donegal this morning in the wake of Storm Barra. There were over 20,000 homes and businesses without power in the county at various points over the past two days, but all have had their power restored. Nationally, there are still 13,000 outages being dealt with. A number

  A further 4,152 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed this evening.  543 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 118 are in ICU. There has been a total of 5,788 deaths related to COVID-19 notified in Ireland.

  All Donegal routes are to be gritted from 9pm this evening. Donegal gritting route index as follows: 06: Inishowen West 04: Inishowen South 01: National Primary North 02: National Primary Central 03: National Primary South 07: Milford South 08: Milford North 09: Cill Ulta East 10: Cill Ulta West 11: Na Rosa 12: Binswilly

Listen back to the main evening news, sport and obituaries for Wednesday 8th December:

  Spraoi agus Spórt has been awarded €20,000 in funding to address educational disadvantage in Inishowen. The money has been allocated by Donegal Education & Training Board through SOLAS as part of the Irish government’s Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund (MAEDF). The Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund aims to address educational disadvantage experienced by vulnerable

New listenership figures have cemented Highland Radio position as Donegal’s most listened to radio station. The latest JNLR figures show that 79% of the population choose Highland Radio on a weekly basis with 53% of the adult population tuning in everyday. The station’s market reach, a key indicator for advertisers, remains the highest in the

  The Department of Education is advising that schools across the country open tomorrow as usual. The Department has thanked school communities, staff, students and parents, as well as the emergency services for their support during Storm Barra. Schools in red and orange alert counties have been closed for the past two days.  

  30 thousand homes and businesses are still without power due to Storm Barra. In Donegal, areas in Letterkenny, Carndonagh, Derrybeg, Killybegs, Ballyshannon and Bundoran are currently experiencing outages. The storm is gradually clearing towards the UK but there are strong winds in many areas. Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim are under a status yellow alert

  1,933 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in the North in the last 24 hours. There have been five additional covid related deaths. There are 329 patients with the disease in hospital in Northern Ireland, with 38 in ICU.

HIQA has published reports on two Community Nursing Units in Donegal – Ramelton and Dungloe. There were a number of non-compliances identified in Ramelton. The centre in Dungloe recorded no non-compliances. In the case of unit in Ramelton, which had 22 residents at the time of the inspection in July, a number of issues were

There were 50 admitted patients awaiting beds at Letterkenny University Hospital this morning, seven of them on Emergency Department trolleys. The figure is down nine on yesterday. At Sligo University Hospital, there were 35 people awaiting beds, 21 of them in the ED. The combined North West total of 85 is again higher than Limerick,

There are almost 400 homes and businesses without power in Donegal at the moment, according to ESB networks. There are 68 in Ballyraine, Letterkenny and 180 in Derrybeg, with an estimated restoration time of early tomorrow morning. Several hundred customers in Bundoran have had their power restored after outages this morning, with 49 now without,