News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

What's going on around Ireland

Three fire engines from Newry Fire Station tackled the fire, which broke out around 10 p.m., eventually bringing it under control by the early hours of Saturday.

S.D.L.P. Newry and Armagh M.L.A. Dominic Bradley commended the Fire and Rescue Service for their effort
[Source: Examiner Newspaper]

DUBLIN

A grandmother was tied up and held at knife point as she returned home from the school run. Two raiders lay in wait for the woman, in her 50s, as she dropped a child off.

When she returned to her home in Sutton, Dublin at 8:20 a.m., the raiders pounced and told her they “had” her grandchildren.

Her ordeal ended when the thieves – believed to be in their 20s – found up to $65,000 in cash and fled in a gray BMW 5 series.
[Source: Evening Herald]

FERMANAGH

Rachael Martin sobbed in the dock at Dungannon Crown Court and said the murder of her 15-month-old daughter has wrecked her whole life and she will never hear the word “mummy” from her again.

The 27-year-old mother accused of allowing Barry McCarney to abuse and murder her daughter, described her former lover as a “monster.”

Martin, from Kesh, was living with her daughter in Glebe Park in Enniskillen when 33-year-old McCarney, from Trillick, moved into their home in September 2009. He is accused of murdering Baby Millie a few months later on December 11. He is alleged to have carried out a campaign of abuse on the toddler before killing her with a blow to the back of the head.
[Source: Fermanagh Herald]

GALWAY

Former Galway billionaire brothers Luke and Brian Comer have gone on a multi-million dollar spending spree in the city, buying up to 100 properties at knock-down prices, the Galway City Tribune understands.

It’s believed the brothers have been using their Leixlip-based property investment vehicle Grundy Property Company to make the purchases in Knocknacarra and on the east side of the city.

They have already purchased Kingston Hall in Knocknacarra, a development of more than 30 luxury apartments, and a number of commercial units opposite Joyce’s Supermarket.
[Source: Galway Bay FM]

KERRY

Kerry Group is to make significant acquisitions in emerging economies in 2013, and predicts a stronger milk price in global markets.

Challenged by farmers attending Teagasc’s national dairy conference in the Brandon Hotel in Tralee last Tuesday, Kerry Group C.E.O. Stan McCarthy also defended the company’s decision to locate its global technology innovation center in County Kildare.

Responding to Kerry I.F.A. Dairy Chairman Ken Jones’s view that milk suppliers felt "let down" by the group’s low milk price in 2012, he defended the group’s milk supplier agreement, which delivers an end-of-year bonus rather than competing on a monthly basis with changing markets.
[Source: Irish Examiner]

KILDARE

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