Ireland’s Eye - a round of top Irish news stories

A sampling of news from around Ireland

He alleges he was sexually abused by other children in the orphanage.

The Health Service Executive (HSE), the minister for health and the religious order deny his claim and want the case struck out on grounds of delay. The case began 12 years ago. Suzanne Boylan, counsel for the man, said he initiated the High Court proceedings before a redress board claim.

While the board recently sanctioned an interim payment of €10,000 for him, it had reserved its position on compensation for his period of "boarding out" as a farm boy.

The man is unwell and not in a position to give immediate instructions, counsel added.

Boylan said she wanted an adjournment to take instructions but hoped the matter could be resolved through the redress board.

Gerard Clarke SC, for the minister, Ireland and the attorney general, said the man's claim related to a period from 1971 to 1981 when he was boarded out to a brother and sister in the west of Ireland.

He had attended a respected secondary school in Sligo and University College Galway and went on to obtain a professional qualification.

The brother and sister to whom he was boarded out had since died and there was no one else to give evidence as to his treatment, counsel said.

The state's ability to defend the case was therefore completely and totally prejudiced.

Justice Hogan noted the man's claim appeared to be that he was held in a position of quasi-servitude while boarded out.

If the redress board resolved the matter in his favor, legal costs would be the only outstanding matter, the judge said.

He "earnestly hoped" a decision could be made by the board before the case returned before him in five weeks, he added.

-Sligo Champion

Missing Body Mystery

Human remains found in a car discovered on the bed of the River Blackwater in Fermoy are to be tested to ascertain if they are those of a local man who has been missing for 22 years.

A Garda spokesman confirmed that the car found by members of the Blackwater Sub Aqua Search and Rescue was a Daihatsu Charade, the same make and model as that driven by local businessman and former Labor county councilor William Fennessy.

Fennessy, 54, who owned a pub, undertaker and auctioneers in Fermoy, mysteriously disappeared in March 1990 and his car was never found.

His wife Noreen and brother James waited by the riverside as dive teams made a number of trips out to the submerged car on the river bed.

Clutching a piece of paper with the registration number of his brother's car on it, James said he hoped the discovery would finally bring closure to the family.

"It would be an end. For the past 22-years we have been unable to say what happened," he said.

Garda superintendent Mick Comyns confirmed that human remains and other items were removed from the car.

"First indications would seem to suggest that this car was a Daihatsu similar to the one owned by Mr. Fennessy. However, it may take some time before we are able to make a positive ID on the recovered remains through either dental records or DNA," say Comyns.

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Nster.com