News from the 32 counties of Ireland

KILDARE
Workers at a Newbridge service station were subjected to a terrifying ordeal on Friday last when an armed raider entered the shop and pointed a gun at counter staff while demanding money. Sergeant Mary Keane of Newbridge garda station said the raider entered the Topaz shop on Moorefield Road at 5.10pm on Friday last. Described as very tall and wearing black track suit bottoms and a black top, he also wore a balaclava and spoke with an Irish accent. “He was carrying what appeared to be a gun and he pointed it at the staff and asked them the money in a bag,” said Sgt Keane, adding that the raider then made away with a relatively small amount of cash, making his escape on a black mountain bike.
(Source: The Kildare Nationalist)

KILKENNY
This is a time when every penny counts, especially for people who have been made redundant from their jobs. Yet a group of former workers from the Ormonde Brick factory in Castlecomer have taken the unselfish decision to donate the remainder of two staff funds to charity rather than dividing it amongst themselves. The former staff presented a check worth $11,000 to the Friends of Castlecomer District Hospital last Thursday morning, and are giving the same amount to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.
 (Source: The Kilkenny People)

LAOIS
It is not every day that a Laois athlete returns home with eight medals from a world championship, but that is exactly what young Nicole Turner from Garryhinch did the week before last. Nicole swept the boards at the World Dwarf Games in Belfast winning five gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Nicole won three gold medals for swimming, two gold and a silver in athletics, and her bronze medals in football and hockey, playing with the Irish team.
(Source: The Laois Nationalist)

LEITRIM
The economic down turn is really starting to bite in Co Leitrim with the latest figures showing that, not only have redundancies doubled on figures for the same period in 2008 but unemployment has also dramatically increased. The latest redundancy figures for Co Leitrim show a massive increase on figures for the same period last year. The figures, released by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment last week, show that between January 1 and July 31 this year, 162 people in Co Leitrim were made redundant, up substantially from the same period last year where only 77 were faced with a similar fate. (Source: The Leitrim Observer)

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