News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

What's going on around Ireland

A new Pedestrian User Friendly Intelligent (PUFFIN) crossing is currently being installed at Church Street, Cookstown by Roads Service's traffic management section.

The completed crossing – the first of this particular type in the Cookstown district – will provide a safer crossing facility for all pedestrians crossing at this busy location, particularly vulnerable road users (i.e. schoolchildren, the elderly and people with a disability).
[Source: Tyrone Courier]

WATERFORD

Face-to-face assistance for customers with queries about matters such as account balances and other day-to-day issues is set to disappear from Bank of Ireland at the Quay, in the city.

The “new way of banking” has already been introduced in Kilkenny, Wexford, Dundrum and in a small number of other areas as part of what the bank says is designed so that its customers will spend less time banking and more time enjoying life.

No specific date has yet been given for the closure but customers are being warned of the change through a leafleting campaign currently underway in the bank.
[Source: Waterford News & Star]

WESTMEATH

Two Athlone brothers are currently serving 11 years in a hellhole South American jail – despite one still proclaiming his innocence.

Dermot (20) and Leigh O'Neill (24), from Athlone, were sentenced two weeks ago for drugs offenses.

One of their brothers last week explained how the pair was handed 11-year terms in one of the most dangerous jails in the world.

Conditions at San Juan de Los Morros jail in Venezuelan capital Caracas are regularly criticized in reports by human rights groups.

Gangs routinely bribe guards to smuggle in arms, with a video posted online by a former inmate even showing members firing automatic weapons into the air.
[Source: Westmeath Independent]

WEXFORD

Gardaí (police) searching for the missing 18-year-old James Sheehan has recovered a body from the Avoca River, Arklow last Thursday evening.

The body has not been identified and Gardaí wish to thank Boyne Fishermen River Rescue who located the remains as well as the help of the Garda Water Unit, Civil Defense and local volunteers.

The 18-year-old from Arklow hasn't been seen in person since he left a nightclub in the town in the early hours of August 19. It was not known at time of print if the body found was the missing man.
[Source: Wexford Echo]

WICKLOW

A Co. Wicklow language school was struck off a register of recognized language colleges because of extreme concern about safety and other matters, the High Court has been told.

Barrister Mark O’Mahony, counsel for the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI) said Jacqueline Sababou’s Language and Business College in Bray had two weeks ago been granted an interim injunction restraining her school being struck off.

He told Mr. Justice Kevin Feeney that the injunction was of no effect because Ms. Sababou’s college had already been struck off before she obtained the injunction.

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Nster.com