News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

Tyrone

Tyrone GAA secretary Dominic McCaughey has revealed that funding has been secured to complete the county's new gaelic games headquarters in Garvaghey.

The Tyrone board have been waging a campaign to secure government funding for the £6.7m project but those efforts have so far proved unsuccessful.

In his annual report, McCaughey says this is "unfair and unreasonable".

However, he adds that the county has all the "necessary finances in place" to complete the Garvaghey project.

"A large percentage of this funding is a significant loan, that has been made available from the (GAA's) National Finance Committee in Croke Park at a favourable interest rate, which followed an earlier grant award of €2.15M via the Association's National Infrastructure & Safety Committee (NISC)," said McCaughey in his annual report.

"We are sincerely grateful to Peter McKenna and Seamus McCloy of the NISC and to Tom Ryan and Kathy Slattery of (the GAA) Finance Committee for the work done in securing the delivery of both these monies."
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)

Waterford

Families in the community have been left utterly bereft following the deaths of two talented sports stars and a 40-year-old woman in three tragic incidents over the weekend.

The sporting community has been especially hard hit following the death of two young men, Brian Walsh of Collin’s Avenue, Dunmore Road, who died in a single vehicle car accident on Friday last and Johnny Joy of Kilmac, who died in a freak accident, at his Kilmacthomas home, on Saturday. An investigation into the death is ongoing amid speculation that he may have been electrocuted in the shower.

Meanwhile, last Sunday, the body of 42-year-old Susan Myler, from Carn Glas Way, Gracedieu, was recovered from the Passage East side of Woodstown beach after a walker spotted her remains. Her death is not being treated by Gardaí as suspicious.

Tributes have been paid to both Brian, aged 28 and Johnny aged 20, following their untimely deaths, which have rocked their communities to the core.
(Source: Waterford News & Star)

Westmeath

There is growing concern over the future status of Custume Barracks following the announcement by Minister for Defense Alan Shatter last week that the Defense Forces is to lose one of its brigades, moving from a three brigade structure to two brigades.

The 4th Western Brigade is headquartered in Athlone and while Minister Shatter has given assurances that the restructuring will not include any further closures of army barracks, the loss of brigade headquarter status could bring with it the loss of certain specialist units in Athlone.
It's believed the Minister plans to move people from 'administrative and support functions' to frontline service.

Speculation has been mounting that it will be the 4th Western Brigade that loses out as the other two brigades are headquartered in Dublin and Cork and it is unlikely that either of these locations would lose a brigade headquarters.

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Nster.com