News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

Labour councillor Brian McDowell welcomed the decision, saying the residents were always concerned that the developer who built the apartments was also doing the fire safety repairs.

"There is a long way to go in reaching a final resolution to all the problems with Priory Hall but I think (it was) was a good day for the residents," Mr McDowell said.
(Source: The Evening Hearld)

Fermanagh

The Irish gaelic footballer assaulted and seriously injured in a match just days after he arrived in San Francisco has re-lived the horror attack.

Now home in Fermanagh, Mark McGovern spoke to Irish radio presenter Des Cahill about his harrowing ordeal last June.

The 23-year-old arrived back in the village of Belcoo last week after a 14 day trip by sea and land from the West Coast of America.

As his family come to terms with the $1.2 million cost of his medical care, police are investigating the assault involving opponent Patrick Power of the San Francisco Celts club.

Power has received a 96-week ban from all GAA activities and is under investigation by local police after the fracas with McGovern, playing his first game for the Ulster club just days after landing in America.

McGovern’s family were told to prepare for the worst when they first visited their son in a California hospital, such was the horrific nature of his head and brain injuries.

But the Fermanagh county player has defied medical opinion, first by regaining consciousness and then with his recovery to the extent that doctors in the U.S. were delighted to give him permission last month to return home.

“The long journey home was accompanied by a sense of relief,” McGovern told Cahill on RTE radio.
“I don’t really remember much about what happened. The lad hit me a couple of times. I gave him a box just to let him know I was there, but he kept hitting me.

“Later on, when I ran forward to help take a ball, he pretty much came up and whacked me. I can’t really remember what happened afterwards.”

Now under medical care in his home village, McGovern conceded that it will be some time before he is completely recovered from his ordeal.

“My speech still has to be worked on; my balance, too, has a lot to be said for it,” he told Cahill.
“I’ll have rehab running for the next six months, probably longer. I can’t work, can’t drive and can’t drink, either. It’ll be a quiet year for me.”

A fund has been set-up to help the McGovern family cope with the mounting cost of Mark’s treatment.
(Source: Irish Central)

Galway

A man in charge of a Golden Retriever when it attacked a three years old child who approached the restrained animal outside a city supermarket, was fined €500 when he appeared before Galway District Court on Wednesday.

Gerard Hennelly (31), with an address at 112 Fana Burca, Western Distributor Road, had pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog that was not under effectual control, contrary to the Control of Dogs Act 1986.

​
Nster.com