ANTRIM
Vandals are continuing to cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage at an Antrim church, with the Mayor blaming youths and calling for parents to 'take responsibility' for their children's actions. Greystone Presbyterian Church on the Greystone Road has been the target of vandalism in the past.
(Source: The Antrim Guardian)   

ARMAGH
Reports into alleged security force “shoot to kill” deaths in Northern Ireland should be released to the victims’ families, the High Court in Belfast ruled last Friday.
Police chief constable Matt Baggott was ordered to disclose the whole of the Stalker and Sampson reports with sensitive areas being potentially omitted. The judgment was delivered by Justice John Gillen.
The chief constable had taken a legal challenge to prevent the disclosure of secret reports into alleged shoot-to-kill cases in Northern Ireland.
(Source: The Irish Times)

CARLOW
Carlow town is preparing itself for major upheaval as construction work finally begins on the long-awaited flood relief and water supply improvement scheme.


The €20 million project is expected to last over two years, with road closures and water shut-offs expected to be the main causes of interruption.


However, in the next three months alone, Carlovians will have to prepare themselves for severe disruption as town centre streets are dug up to allow vital works take place.
Up to four crews of men will be working on different sites across the town.
(Source: The Carlow Nationalist)

CAVAN
There was good news for Gowna last week with the announcement that a grant of €105,000 has been approved for the Local Housing Association to construct communal facilities for senior citizens in the village.
Following ongoing representations by the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith and Cllr. Danny Brady to the Minister for Housing and Local Services, Michael Finneran, the necessary funding to allow work to begin on the new facilities adjacent to the community hall has now been approved.
(Source: The Anglo Celt)

CLARE
A new high-powered US-based business group is promoting the Shannon Region as a tourism destination or a location for business investment.
It comes at a time when worries have been voiced about the poor record of the IDA in attracting foreign direct investment projects into the region.
It recently emerged that just three new IDA-supported projects were established in the Mid-West in a five-year period up to last December.
 While the inaugural meeting took place in the US in December, members of the new North American Advisory Council, (NAAC) established by Shannon Development, held their first Irish meeting in Adare last week and pledged to “act as business ambassadors for Ireland and the Shannon Region”.

The council is a network of Irish people, with business or family ties to the Shannon Region, who are in positions of influence in various fields of endeavor in the US.

Among the NAAC members are The Irish Voice newspaper owner, Niall O’Dowd; John Fitzpatrick of Fitzpatrick Hotels; Declan Kelly, senior vice-president of sales/marketing at GECAS and Michael Brewster, managing director of private banking (US Division) of Credit Suisse.
(Source: The Clare Champion)

CORK
Lack of support from Mallow shoppers combined with crippling rents and rates forced a major electrical store to close last week, according to a its manager.
(Source: The Corkman)

DERRY
The heartbroken mum and dad of a 10 years-old girl who died after choking on a balloon, have urged parents to ensure their children are closely supervised at birthday parties.
Gerald and Dreena Harron were speaking following an inquest into the tragic death of their daughter Clarice who died after attending a party in Castlederg on November 7, last year, two days before her 11th birthday.
(Source: The Derry Journal)

DONEGAL
The formerly named Department of Social Welfare is seeking an 88,000 euro refund demand from the family of a Donegal woman who went missing from a Bray nursing home four years ago and was eventually found dead.
78 year old Maura Reynolds, originally from Stranorlar, disappeared from the Tara Care Centre on Putland Road, Bray in County Wicklow on Christmas Day 2005. He body was found at Bray Head two years later on February 19th, 2008.
(Source: Donegal Democrat)

DOWN
A man was shot dead on Belfast's Shankill Road last Friday. Bobby Moffat was gunned down at point blank range in the staunchly loyalist area shortly before 1pm.
Moffat, 44, is understood to have been a member of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) terrorist group.
The busy road was packed with lunchtime shoppers when the attack took place. Stunned eyewitnesses said masked gunmen shot him in the face.
(Source: The Belfast Telegraph)

DUBLIN
Ronan Keating and his wife Yvonne are planning make-or-break talks out of the media spotlight.
The former model (36) is said to have softened slightly toward her cheating husband in recent days, with Ronan back staying at their Abington mansion in Malahide.
The singer has been pictured taking his children to school each morning since returning from the K Club last week, and is said to be working hard on rebuilding his relationship with Yvonne.
It is believed that the couple may be planning to jet out of the country for a while in a bid to escape the continuous media attention surrounding news of their split.
They are likely to head for their holiday home at Vale de Lobo in Portugal.
Pop mogul Simon Cowell is also understood to have offered the couple a holiday at his Barbados home to allow them to get away from Ireland and talk everything over.
(Source: The Evening Herald)

FERMANAGH
Training exercises at the cave that trapped a Polish man 250ft underground for 12 hours at the weekend, helped save the man's life, rescuers have said.
Details of the terrifying ordeal in Fermanagh released last week, revealed that rescuers worked through the night, before successfully hauling the man from the cave, known as a 'pothole' last Monday.
Explosives and drills were used by police and the Irish Cave Rescue Organization (ICRO] as they struggled to widen the tunnel, which had trapped the stricken caver.
(Source: The Fermanagh Herald)

GALWAY
As many as 91 retail units in the city centre are currently vacant – the number does not include empty office space or the vast amount of vacant properties in industrial estates on the edge of the city, and has risen from 64 since last summer.
And the bad news for the owners of the empty properties is that the shops may soon be liable for commercial rates.
(Source: Galway News)

KERRY
Killarney Chamber of Tourism & Commerce President Tom Randles has said that the ‘Third World’ condition of parts of the N22 Killarney to Cork City route is hindering inward investment in the town.
(Source: The Kerryman)

KILDARE
After months of concern in Newbridge about the future of the Pfizer plant in the town, last week’s announcement that just 275 jobs are to go, and most of them not until 2013, was greeted with some relief in an area which is already an unemployment blackspot.


The Pfizer statement on what it calls its “global headcount reduction” or 6,000 job losses worldwide, included news that three Irish plants were up for sale, two in Cork and one in Dublin.
(Source: The Kildare Nationalist)
   
KILKENNY
Onlookers watched on in terror as two men alighted from a car in the centre of the city last weekend and stabbed another man, leaving him for dead.
He is in a stable condition at St Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, after receiving a number of knife wounds in the attack, which is understood to be linked to a drug-related feud in Kilkenny city.
(Source: The Kilkenny People)

LAOIS
Senator Kieran Phelan, who was 60, was taken ill at his hotel in Dublin last Wednesday shortly before the Seanad met.
He is survived by his wife, Mary, five children and extended family.
The Donaghmore based politician was first elected to the Seanad in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007 and sat on the Industrial and Commercial Panel.
A former member of Laois County Council, he was elected chairman of the Council in 1998.
(Source: The Leinster Express)

LEITRIM
Environment Minister John Gormley strongly believes that a solution to the EPA planning guidelines currently strangling one off rural housing in Leitrim will be found.
Minister Gormley was questioned on the subject during his visit to Carrigallen Vocational School to raise the school's first Green Flag.
(Source: The Leitrim Observer)

LIMERICK
An abandoned greyhound has gone from begging for food on the streets of Limerick to living in the lap of luxury in Atlanta, Georgia, after a retired dentist paid over €2,000 to fly it to America.
The dog has been named Aldi, after the store it was found outside on the Childers Road in the city.
Marion Fitzgibbon, of Limerick Animal Welfare, said Aldi was in terrible condition when they brought him to their sanctuary in Kilfinane last August.
(Source: The Limerick Leader)

LONGFORD
A Ballymahon filmmaker has been nominated for a prestigious BAFTA award.
Karen McGann, the daughter of Frank and Kathleen McGann from Terlicken, is the Director and Producer of 'The Art of Russia', a BBC4 Documentary that has been nominated for the BAFTA in the Specialist Factual category of the television awards.
The big event will take place on June 6 next and Karen, who now lives in London, said that she is amazed to have been nominated for the accolade.
(Source: The Longford Leader)

LOUTH
'If you carry a knife, you risk your life' and ' knives don't resolve anything, words do'.
These are the words of young Drogheda students who took part in a recent garda initiative educating them on the dangers of knife crimes, following the recent knife attacks in the town.
(Source: The Drogheda Independent)

MAYO
‘An out and out gentleman’ was the description afforded to Mulranny musician, Martin Mulloy who died tragically last Saturday morning at Mulranny pier.
The news of Martin Mulloy’s death at the age of 58 was met with shock and sadness in Mulranny and beyond as he was well known as a member of the legendary ballad group, ‘The Mulloy Brothers’. He died in a drowning accident at Mulranny pier on Saturday morning last in what was described as a once in a million freak accident.
The youngest of the famed Mulloy Brothers - which also consisted of Tom, Mick and Pat, Martin was a talented musician and played all over Ireland and also toured the UK, Europe and the US.
(Source: Mayo News)

MEATH
A number of searches in the greater Ashbourne area were conduced in the early hours of last Tuesday morning, as part of a major international investigation into organized crime.
One man was arrested in Dublin and 15 men, several of them Irish, were arrested in Spain while a further 10 were arrested in the UK. Members of An Garda Síochána carried out an extensive search operation in the wider Dublin area and in Meath on Tuesday morning last.
Working closely with law enforcement colleagues in Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Gardaí have been targeting the activities of an Irish organized crime gang for a considerable period of time.
(Source: The Meath Chronicle)

MONAGHAN
A 19-Year-Old Co Meath man accused of driving his car directly at the door of a crowded Co Monaghan nightclub was remanded on bail at Carrickmacross District Court last week.
James Smith, of Moate View, Nobber, who had been thrown out of the club earlier in the night, appeared on a charge of causing public endangerment.
Garda Inspector Fintan McTiernan, who is prosecuting the case, told Judge Seán MacBride that Smith had been ejected from Fiddlers nightclub in Carrickmacross after a scuffle earlier in the night.
Smith then got into a car and did several hand-brake turns on the street before facing the car towards the nightclub and driving towards a bouncer who had ejected him.
Insp McTiernan said the vehicle ended up on the footpath but did not actually make contact with the building. However, the doorman had to jump out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.
(Source: The Irish Times)

OFFALY
The Taoiseach, Mr Brian Cowen TD has expressed his deep regret over the loss of 160 permanent and 39 temporary jobs at the Covidien plant in the Sragh Industrial Estate, Tullamore and sympathized with the workforce and their families on this difficult announcement.
Speaking last Thursday, Cowen said that he had asked Batt O'Keeffe TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to coordinate the activities of the State's job creation and training agencies.
(Source The Offaly Express)

ROSCOMMON
Firefighters battled against one of the worst forest fires in the county this year when over 60 acres of woodland were destroyed, wind turbines damaged and flights to Knock airport were delayed for a number of hours last Sunday.
A major blaze broke out in the Islandmore area of Ballaghaderreen on Sunday afternoon last, causing extensive damage to three to four square miles of forestry.
Nine units of the Fire Brigade from Ballaghaderreen, Castlerea, Tubbercurry, Charlestown and Boyle were drafted in to deal with the raging flames and over 40 firefighters battled for more than four hours to bring the blaze under control.
(Source: The Roscommon Champion)

SLIGO
Three capital projects worth an estimated €10 million and creating over one hundred jobs during construction are underway at IT Sligo. The scheme includes an entire new floor being added to the library, which will become a three storey building and learning resource centre, an extension to the technology centre and brand new sports facilities.
The library space will almost double in size. The development will also provide thirteen new seminar rooms, incorporating display screens for the use by students.
(Source: The Sligo Champion)

TIPPERARY
The town of Roscrea has provided the springboard for the nationwide launch of a series of Fine Gael meetings aimed at tackling the spiraling jobs crisis and kick-starting Ireland's economy.
Over 200 people packed into the Damer Court Hotel on Tuesday night last to listen to party leader, Enda Kenny, Cork based TD and party spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Simon Coveney and North Tipperary TD, Noel Coonan reveal an €18.2 billion economic stimulus plan which the party believes can generate 105,000 new jobs over the next four years.
(Source: The Tipperary Star)

TYRONE
A Coalisland motorist suffering from shock after a serious road accident had to wait more than three hours after a series of ambulance delays prevented him from accessing vital medical treatment.
Incredibly, the ambulance drivers had to make a detour to a filing station with the patient on board after the vehicle ran out of diesel.
(Source: Tyrone Today)

WATERFORD
The devastated parents of a 17-year-old Waterpark College student, who died tragically the weekend before last, spoke of how their beloved son dreamt of playing rugby for Ireland and wanted to go to university when he finished school.
The family, friends, teammates and school pals of Kevin Conway, who died suddenly at his home on Saturday last, have been united in grief as they try to come to terms with their horrific loss.
Kevin, a fifth year student, played under age rugby for both his school and Waterpark RFC and had a promising future in the sport.
(Source: Waterford News & Star)

WESTMEATH
Most businesses in Westmeath are not being forced to pay water charges to the local authority, a national media report has claimed.
Citing figures from the Local Government Auditor, the report stated that Westmeath County Council had one of the country's lowest collection rates for water charges.
It stated that just 31% of water charges have been collected by the council from non-domestic customers.
Only Meath, Wicklow and Wexford councils collected a smaller proportion of the water charges they were due.
The long-planned introduction of water metering began in Westmeath in 2008.
(Source: The Westmeath Independent)

WEXFORD
Wexford has lost out on a potential €10 million windfall as a major Irish language festival cannot be staged in the town due to a clash of dates with the Opera Festival.
(Source: The Wexford People)

WICKLOW
The future of Rathdrum Tourist Office has been cast into doubt, as the lack of funding made available to the Rathdrum Development Association means it may be difficult to keep open.
(Source: The Wicklow People)