News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

What's going on around Ireland

SLIGO

The parents of a five-year-old girl who died in an arson attack said the inquest into her death two weeks ago was harrowing. In an exclusive interview with The Sligo Champion, mother Teresa Keane, said: "I knew Mari was burned but I never realized how bad it was until the pathologist read out his report."

The inquest heard how the innocent little girl died in a house fire in Boyle in the early hours of October 3, 2011. Speaking after hearing the details in the inquest, Teresa said: "I felt like getting sick. I couldn't describe it. It was just unnatural the way she died. Her body was charred. There was nothing left of her."

Heartbroken Teresa, a native of Culfadda, said the inquest has not brought closure because she will never get over what happened.
[Source: Sligo Champion]

TIPPERARY

The Central Statistics Office last Thursday released the final publication in its series of Census 2011 profile reports, showing that a total of 41,073 persons, representing 77.5 percent of commuters travelled to work by car in April 2011.

The publication, “Profile 10 Door to Door – Commuting in Ireland”, presents a profile of the commuting patterns of the Irish population and covers modes of travel, journey times, and time of departure for both workers and students.

Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician at the C.S.O. said: “This report provides further analysis of an extremely important theme from the Census 2011 results. It examines commuter numbers, looking at means of transport, departure times and time spent travelling for both workers and students.”
[Source: Tipperary Star]

TYRONE

Castlecaulfield Road Racer Trevor Ferguson died as a result of misadventure in a crash at the Manx Grand Prix in August, an inquest has found.

The 47-year-old father-of-three suffered "massive internal injuries" after colliding with a bank during the tragic accident, which occurred at The Nook section of the 37.73 mile Mountain course in Onchan on the Isle of Man.

Mr. Ferguson, an uncle of Dungannon road racing star Ryan Farquhar, was competing in the Supertwin event on Farquhar's own K.M.R. Kawasaki 650 machine when the crash happened on the second lap in dry and sunny conditions.
[Source: Tyrone Courier]

WATERFORD

A new interactive service whereby the general public can report non-emergency council issues that need attention such as litter, water leaks and graffiti, was unveiled two weeks ago.

Details of fixyourstreet.ie were given to members of city council by John Hawkins, who explained the service was being made available through a national initiative which the local authority signed up for.

“We have been running a similar program internally for the last four years where we can log info on our iPhones and it goes straight into the relevant department. It’s called mobile incident capture. So if any council employee is out and about they and they see graffiti or a road defect, etc., they can just log it in,” explains Mr. Hawkins.
[Source: Waterford News & Star]

WESTMEATH

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