Author name: oisinkelly

Members of the Irish Central Border Area Network met with the Stormont Environment Minister Mark H Durkan last evening to discuss windfarms and windfarm development in the border region. These include the proposed controversial Carrickaduff windfarm in the Finn Valley. The meeting was requested by Donegal County Councillor Gary Doherty who now hopes that the

The inaugural Lughnasa International Friel Festival gets underway today and will celebrate the works of playwright Brian Friel. The festival will feature an extensive multi-arts and multi-disciplinary programme of talks, music and dance in both Donegal and Belfast over the next 10 days. A brand new production of Dancing at Lughnasa which is the centrepiece

A meeting takes place today in Dublin to discuss the status of breast cancer services in Letterkenny General Hospital, and how the service can best be progressed. It is a follow up to a meeting which took place earlier this year and will be attended by a number of local canpaign groups, health officials and

Despite it being widely expected that Charlie McConalogue and Pat the Cope Gallagher will stand for Fianna Fail in Donegal in the next election, the party’s PRO here says it is certainly not a fait accompli. Fianna Fáil Donegal will select its candidates to contest the next General Election in October – nominations must be

Fáilte Ireland says its commitment to Donegal is absolute, and the Wild Atlantic Way, is a game changer for tourism in the county. Yesterday, Failte Ireland was criticised by Cllr Martin Mc Dermott for not providing funding for basic facilities at Malin Head. Today Failte Ireland says it is committed to enhancing the visitor experience,

It’s hoped that a mosaic marking the Cathedral Quarter in Letterkenny can be unveiled on Culture Night, Friday September 25th, but for that to happen, the Cathedral Quarter committee says it needs more money to pay for the project. In recent months, new tourist maps of Letterkenny have the Cathedral Quarter marked on them, and

Eircom has now been given the go-ahead to carry out works to make fibre broadband readily available. Protracted negotiations between the telecom providers and COMREG has stalled the roll out of the service high speed broadband to customers in Donegal’s town centres. But now an agreement has been reached allowing Eircom make fibre broadband more

As students continue to consider their options after the first round of CAO offers this week, Letterkenny Institute of Technology is holding an Open Day on both of its campuses today, with an emphasis on helping people who may not have received an offer. One option for people is the list of Available Places on

Lawyers for a bricklayer accused of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing have been given a month to decide whether to seek the cross-examination of witnesses in a preliminary hearing. 44 year old Seamus Daly is on remand in Maghabbery Prison in Northern Ireland charged with the 1998 Real IRA attack. Daly, with an

Road Safety Group PARC says it would strongly oppose the introduction of driver training courses instead of penalty points for those caught speeding for the first time. Under proposals being developed by the Road Safety Authority, drivers caught breaking speed limits for the first time may be ordered to undertake intensive training instead of receiving

Fianna Fail’s selection convention will be held in the Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny on Sunday 4th October at 3pm. Nomination papers will be sent out to all voting members on Tuesday 25th August and the process will close on Friday 4th September. Over 1,000 members of the party in Donegal will select candidates using the One

Donegal drivers are being reminded that they must stop for School Traffic Wardens when school starts at the end of the month. The warning comes after wardens expressed concerns that they are often on the receiving end of motorists’ frustrations. Drivers who do not stop for lollipop men and women could face four penalty points

“We have lost a dear friend who touched so many lives and has left a great legacy” The Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) has paid tribute to its former chairman, Martin Howley whose untimely passing has left the fishing industry in mourning. Martin has been a Board member of the KFO since it was formed in

The Registrar at Letterkenny Institute of Technology says there is no question of the college artificially boosting points requirements for courses by imposing specialist criteria. On the contrary, Billy Bennett says the philosophy at LYIT is to maximise the number of students, with 2000 first round CAO offers issued yesterday. Speaking to John Breslin on

A Donegal Councillor is calling for a review of staffing at the call centre in Milford which handles all calls to the council. Cllr Michael Colm Mac Giolla Easbuig says people are left waiting long periods for their call to be answered, and in many cases, people are hanging up rather than waiting for a

Failte Ireland is being accused of failing to support basic improvements at Malin Head, to the extent that one local councillor is now expressing fear that the area’s status as a prime tourism focus could be lost. Cllr Martin Mc Dermott says permission has been granted for basic facilities and improvements by Donegal County Council,

There is good news for Community Sports Club in County Donegal as they can now apply to have areas of their premises exempt from rates. Under the new partial exemption, Community Sports Clubs registered under the Registration of Clubs Act 1904 will not be liable for commercial rates on some buildings, or parts of buildings.

A new survey shows a continued improvement in the fortunes of the Irish hotel sector in the Northwest and across the country. Hotels in the Western Seaboard area which includes hotels from Donegal enjoyed occupancy rates of 65.2% in 2014, up from 63.9% on the previous year. The average room rate in 2014 was €67.50

A 22-year-old man has appeared in court accused of pointing an imitation firearm at his ex-girlfriend’s head. Dylan Glen Smith, whose address was given as Methodist Mission, is charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The charge relates to an alleged incident in the Creggan area of the city

Experts are issuing a warning about the number of rental properties available, as students prepare to face the new college year. According to the latest report from Daft.ie, 4 thousand 6 hundred properties were available nationwide on the first of this month, compared to 6 thousand 8 hundred on the same date last year. It’s

Applicants in rural Ireland have more success in getting a college grant than their Dublin counterparts. According to figures from Susi, published in today’s Irish Times, Longford has the highest success rate at 71.5%, followed by Carlow, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, where the figure was 68%. By contrast, just 45. 6% per cent of students

The Garda Representative Association says the number of assaults on officers is an “unacceptable occupational hazard”. Over 14 hundred incidents of assaults or obstructing Gardaí have been recorded in the last 5 years – 84 incidents were reported between January and March of this year – if that trend continues, new high of 336 incidents

A Derry councillor has hit out at a gang who set fire to plastic safety barriers and traffic cones being used for roadworks on the Madams Bank Road. Building materials were also taken from a nearby building site and set alight. The Fire Service and the PSNI were both called out to attend the scene

As students consider their CAO offers today the President of LYIT Paul Hannigan says there’s been a notable increase in the numbers of graduates securing employment. He says in terms of the offers being made this year, the number of higher level 8 places has increased…………..  

  The UNITE Trade Union has written to the new owners of Maydown Precision Engineering in Derry, threatening industrial action and possible legal proceedings. The Union’s Regional Officer Philip Oakes says MPE’s new owner Schivo NI have failed to honour existing agreements with workers, and are refusing to engage with the union. He says initially,

The number of CAO courses requiring 500 or more points has jumped by more than a quarter. Around 50 thousand offers have just been made available online in this year’s first round, following last week’s Leaving Cert results. Growth in demand for places has been mirrored in areas of the economy that have been on

Lawyers acting for the Omagh families who successfully took a civil action against four men they believe to be liable for the 1998 bomb in the town will this year begin efforts to gain access to the men’s assets in the republic. The Sunday Business Post reported this weekend that a three pronged approach is

The “live test” of a proposal to end NoWDOC’s red eye service from midnight to 8am in Derrybeg and Carndonagh ends tonight, with an analysis of call activity and response time data to continue until the end of August. The proposal to close the two centres in favour of one extra doctor and driver in

A Killybegs councillor says this weekend has been a highly significant one for the cruise industry in the town. For the first time ever, passengers boarded a cruise ship in Killybegs Harbour. 11 people boarded Fred Olsen’s ‘Black Watch’ ahead of a two week voyage to Canada. It’s been a very good year for Killybegs’

Fianna Fáil is calling on the Government to crate more student accommodation. The party says students will face a battle to find a place to live this term and CAO offers to be released tomorrow morning will increase demand. The party’s also urging the Education Minister to publish a report on the issue carried out

A search has ended in County Derry after the occupant of a crashed car was found safe and well. The empty Toyota was discovered near Portstewart at Strand Road just before two o’clock this morning. Several search teams including the Portrush RNLI and the Irish Coastguard Helicopter from Sligo have been dispatched to search the