Antrim

An Antrim man has hit back at those responsible for planting a hoax pipe bomb outside his home on Thursday, March 15.

Terry Robb, a well-known barber in the town, defiantly insisted he was 'not afraid' of those who felt it was 'okay to disrupt people's lives like this'.

Robb explained how he found it. "I came out in the morning and the bit of pipe was lying outside but we've become used this past while to things being thrown at the house so I didn't think much of it and just threw it to the side," he said.

“After that I was starting to cut the grass and the dog was sniffing round it so I picked it up and saw the wire coming out but it still took me a minute to realize what it might be."
He immediately called the police.
(Source: Antrim Guardian)

Armagh

A community exhibition detailing a proposed windfarm to be located near Newtownhamilton is to be unveiled in the town’s community center this week.

Gaelectric, a renewable energy and energy storage group, will host the exhibition for the proposed 13.8MW Windfarm.

The group behind the £19million ($34.5m) investment project predicts that the windfarm could produce enough electricity annually to supply power to almost 8,000 homes and has the potential to create more than 30 full and part time construction jobs.
(Source: Crossexmainer.co.uk)

Carlow

A large group of protestors gathered outside St Dympna’s Hospital last week to highlight the continuing cuts to local mental health services.

Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), mental health advocacy groups, service users, family members and local representatives came out in force to oppose what they see as the “slow dismantling” of the local services.
(Source: The Carlow Nationalist)

Cavan

The lay religious group behind the imminent purchase of Kilnacrott Abbey for their new headquarters have lost the support of two celebrated clergy members - neither of whom will explain their motives.

The Irish-American group, called Direction For Our Times (DFOT), whose figurehead - only known as 'Anne' - claims to receive monthly messages from heaven. The group is also the subject of an official Church inquiry, commissioned by Kilmore diocese Bishop Leo O'Reilly.

Internationally-known Florida-based nun Sr Briege McKenna and retreat leader, and brother-in-law of Dana, Fr Kevin Scallon both have not elaborated on why they have withdrawn their support for the group.

A statement on the website www.sisterbriege.com reads: "It is with regret that I have discerned the need to withdraw my endorsement and support of Direction For Our Times. I am praying that God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
(Source: The Anglo Celt)

Clare

Three people have appeared before a sitting of Ennis District Court charged in connection with an incident outside the Holy Family Infant School last Tuesday afternoon.

Conor Mahon, 21, from Ennis is charged with having a slash hook in his possession, which had a blade or that was sharply pointed, at the Holy Family School on Tuesday, March 20.

Mahon’s wife, Rose, 22, of the same  is also charged with using threatening abusive or insulting behavior with intent. She is further charged with causing criminal damage to windows of a vehicle to the value of €1,500.
(Source: The Clare Champion)

Cork

Residents in Newcestown, just outside Bandon in Co Cork are kicking up a stink over plans to set up a human waste sludge recycling plant in the area. Cork County Council granted planning for this facility late last year and the application is now with An Bórd Pleanála.

The planning application, lodged by Fiona Shorten, was for 'a change of use from agricultural sheds to storage sheds for storage of machinery, fertilizers, farmyard manure and soil conditioners.' Despite several objections from concerned residents in the area to the plans, the planning for the change in use of the land was granted in December.
Source: (Cork Independent)

Derry

Van Morrison will lead the line up for this year’s City of Derry Jazz Festival, it has been announced.

The legendary Belfast star will play two shows at the Millennium Forum, organizers of the annual City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival confirmed at the launch last week. The festival will run from May 3-7.
(Source: Derry Journal)

Donegal

A woman has claimed the man who allegedly raped her warned that she would be called a liar if she told anyone.

She also claimed the man would never allow her to speak to her siblings and warned them to keep walking when they passed each other in the home or on the street.

The woman claimed the alleged offences occurred in two different Donegal houses and a shed behind one of the houses prior to her mother’s death. She said they continued when she moved in with her guardian.

The accused (62) has pleaded not guilty to 46 counts of indecent assault and rape of the woman, who is eight years younger than him. The alleged abuse took place between January 1965 and June 1975.
(Source: Donegal Democrat)

Down

A Co Down woman branded a “guardian angel” by the parents of a toddler whose life she saved is to receive an Australian bravery award.

In September 2010 personal trainer Maeve McLoughlin (26), from Carryduff, was working as a nanny at a 30,000-acre cattle station in Springsure, Queensland, when two-year-old Bridie Woolcock fell into a flooded creek and nearly drowned.

Maeve told the Belfast Telegraph she had been hanging laundry in the yard while three of the Woolcock children — Bridie, Bella and Hastings — were playing with a litter of new puppies when the nightmare unfolded.

Heavy rainfall had caused the creek to swell from ankle depth to 5ft of fast-flowing, debris-filled floodwater.

Little Bridie had slipped, fallen in and been carried away by the current.

Bridie had been swept over half-a-mile down the creek when Maeve spotted her, face down, floating in the water.

Maeve got into the water, reached out and grabbed the tot’s ankle to pull her to safety.
Maeve returned home to Northern Ireland and two weeks ago opened her new business, Pre Core Fitness in Royal Avenue, Belfast.
(Source: Evening Herald)

Dublin

A young airport worker has told a court he was defending himself when he "touched" the testicles of a colleague who, he alleged, was strangling him during a work break.

Radek Huska (29) told the Circuit Civil Court he was on a break with his colleagues when he had been attacked by workmate Machiej Kijve.

It happened at Dublin Airport in the loading bay area of Gate Gourmet Ireland Ltd, a provider of airline catering.

Mr Huska told the court there had been some horseplay between colleagues. One had been throwing ice-cubes at him and Mr Huska had threatened to throw an apple he was eating if he continued annoying him.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard that Mr Kijve ran towards Mr Huska, wrapping his arms around his neck and dragging him to the ground.

Mr Huska, of Parklands, Northwood, Santry, Dublin, said that while he was trying to defend himself he had touched Mr Kijve's testicles and denied that he had grabbed him in his groin area.
(Source: The Evening Herald)

Fermanagh

A large cannabis factory discovered by the police in County Fermanagh had an estimated value of £350,000 ($630,000).

Eight hundred plants were discovered in a rural property near Coa, about five miles from Enniskillen.
One man was arrested.

The house was being rented.
(Source: BBC News)

Galway

A Romanian mother of three, who came to Ireland for the purposes of operating a brothel in a city apartment, was charging €80 ($105) for half an hour and €160 ($210) for an hour of sexual services, Galway District Court heard last week.

In sentencing her to three months in prison, Judge Conal Gibbons said that Monica Ciuciu (34) had lied to him under oath and would have to face the consequences of that.
(Source: GalwayBay Fm)

Kerry

Two men charged with murdering a Brazilian man in Co Kerry were remanded in continuing custody.
The body of Bruno Lemes De Sousa, (28), who had been missing from his home in Gort, Co Galway, was found in a bog in Listowel two weeks ago.

John Paul Cawley, (19), and Wenio Rodrigues Da Silva (28), appeared before Kilmallock District Court last week charged with murdering Mr De Sousa.
(Source: Irish Times)

Kildare

Kildare’s new refuge for women and children who are victims of domestic violence is standing empty because the State will not provide adequate funding to run it.

The center, in Kildare town, cost almost €1m ($127m) to provide and it could accommodate up to four families at any one time but since the local Teach Tearmainn organization took ownership of the premises in mid January it has not been able to open it as it cannot afford to employ staff .
(Source: The Kildare Nationalist)

Kilkenny

An official enquiry is to be launched as to who flung a ham sandwich from a float during the St Patrick’s Day parade in the city.

The sandwich, reportedly made from brown bread and accompanied by some brown sauce is being forensically examined as to its contents and further examined as to the evidence of its origin.
The sandwich came flying from a float as it passed the viewing stand.
(Source: Kilkenny People)

Laois

A Roscrea man has been acquitted of the manslaughter of Offaly publican Matt Farrell during a burglary of a pub nearly three years ago.

Eddie Wing (31), had pleaded not guilty to the unlawful killing of 64-year-old Mr Farrell and to burglary at the Gaelic Bar, Daingean, Co Offaly on April 1, 2009.

During the burglary Mr Farrell suffered heart failure after he was beaten, bound with a dog lead and left to die.
(Source: Leinster Express)

Leitrim

€15,000 ($19,500) is being allocated to Leitrim County Council to provide flood defences on the Glenfarne river.

The grant which will facilitate the removal of blockages in the river and will allow for the clearance of trees and debris has been approved by Minister of State Brian Hayes.
(Source: Leitrim Observer)

Limerick

A Slovakian man was almost three times over the drink driving limit when he crashed into a parked car on a busy Newcastle West street, just meters away from hundreds of people who had just left a nearby nightclub, a court has heard.

Peter Stellar, of Templegreen, Newcastle West pleaded guilty before the local court to drunk driving at Church Street in the early hours of April 17, 2011. He was also charged with dangerous driving, but this was reduced to careless driving following a request from his defence solicitor.

Supt Dan Flavin told the court last Friday week that at 2.10am on the date in question Mr Stellar was driving a vehicle when he crashed into a car parked on the side of the road at the top of Church Street, close to where “450 people” were out on the street following the closure of a nearby nightclub.

Mr Stellar was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and taken to Newcastle West Garda Station, where he was later found to have a reading of 107 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, almost three times the legal limit at the time.
(Source: Limerick Leader)

Longford

Barely 300 homes across Co Longford have paid the Government’s controversial €100 ($127) household charge, just over a week before the March 31 deadline lapses.

New figures obtained by the Leader last week, reveal just three per cent out of a projected 12,000 homes liable for the charge have signed up, generating around €3,000 out of an expected €1.2m income.
(Source: Longford Leader)

Louth

A woman who was left in a phone box as a baby in Dundalk in 1968 has been reunited with the man who found her.

Helen Ward has said that she has been delighted to be reunited with a truck driver who happened upon her in the phone booth on a cold March evening in the late 60s.

Helen had made an appeal for information at the start of this month in a bid to find her birth mother. Yet following her appeal a truck driver from Cork made contact to say that he was the man who discovery her all those years ago.
(Source: Dundalk Democrat)

Mayo

A man who ran barefoot through Knock village claiming he was the ‘second coming’ appeared before last week’s sitting of Belmullet District Court.

John Malone of 19 Dristernan, Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, was arrested on May 1, 2010, by gardaí in Knock, home of the famous Catholic pilgrimage site Knock Shrine. He had been staying in St Mary’s Hostel in Knock when gardaí were called at 8 am, after he damaged windows in the premises.

When Garda Monaghan approached Mr Malone, he heard him say that he was Jesus and he was the second coming.
(Source: The Mayo News)

Meath

Police are close to making arrests in the tragic case of a 22-year-old man who died three days after being kicked a number of times in the head at a St Patrick's Day house party.

Sources say officers have identified and interviewed the two young men who they believe brutally attacked Ciaran O'Connell at a house near Mullagh, Co Cavan.

The suspects are from Kells, Co Meath, and the Mullagh area. Both men were known to Mr O'Connell.
(Source: The Meath Chronicle)

Monaghan

Police in Co Monaghan are seeking the public's assistance in tracing the whereabouts of a 37-year-old man who has been missing since last weekend.

Padraig Campbell was last seen in the Culloville area of Castleblaney at approximately 5 pm on 18 March.
(Source: RTE News)

Offaly

Offaly’s Garda force has been depleted with ten retirements in the last fifteen months as a result of the Government’s failure to replace retired Gardaí under its recruitment embargo.

A Garda spokesperson confirmed that the local force has seen six Gardaí and four sergeants retire and they haven’t been replaced.

It’s also expected that the force will lose patrol cars that will not be replaced in the coming months.
(Source: Offaly Express)

Roscommon

A Roscommon company founded during the last recession has gone from strength to strength and is now one of the biggest employers in the county.

Like many of the best business ideas, P&G cards had its genesis in a recession. Run by the Naughton family, and now one of the biggest employers in Co Roscommon, it was founded in the 1980s.

P&G cards was set up in 1988, from a small warehouse on the family farm in Athleague, with the help of a £2,000 loan from AIB. The company began importing cards from Britain and bought a van for distribution. One of its first contracts was with the local supermarket and the company was soon supplying 100 small shops along the western seaboard.
(Source: Irish Times)

Sligo

Ballymote solicitor Keenan Johnson has been appointed a Circuit Court judge, following in the footsteps of his father, who had a long and distinguished career on the bench.

Mr. Johnson (54) was among seven new judges nominated for appointment to the Circuit Court by the Government last week. He is the managing partner of Johnson & Johnson one the longest established law firms in the North West having been founded in 1943 by his father, Patrick Keenan Johnson.
(Source: The Sligo Champion)

Tyrone

A Co Tyrone church has pulled off something of an international coup by attracting an integral part of the global celebrations for the Eurcharist.

With the International Eucharist Congress taking place in Ireland this summer, St Patrick’s Church in Clonoe is staging a Vatican assembled exhibition called ‘The Eucharist Miracles of the World”.

The Holy Roman Catholic capital collected the exhibition in 2004 to mark the year of the Eucharist and after being shown across Italy and the word, its visit to Clonoe will mark its first time in Ireland.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)

Waterford

Joggers and walkers who are hitting the streets for their exercise have been left annoyed with the amount of dog fouling on the roads according to Cllr Gary Wyse, who said the footpaths have become like an obstacle course.

Cllr Wyse has called for action and said people must be named and shamed if they fail to scoop up that poop, leaving the public open to health risks.
(Source: Waterford News & Star)

Westmeath

The memorial to Private Paddy Kelly in Moate, Co Westmeath, was daubed with paint.

The soldier (35) was shot dead along with recruit Garda Gary Sheehan (23) in Derrada Woods, Co Leitrim, during the rescue of millionaire kidnap victim Don Tidey.

Gardai in Co Westmeath are investigating the vandalism, which was condemned today by an Irish Army spokesman.
(Source: Evening Herald)

Wexford

BBC NI Environment Correspondent Mike McKimm looks at a proposal to start outdoor trials of genetically modified potatoes in Ireland.

Teagasc, the Irish State Agriculture and Food Development Agency, has asked the Irish Environmental Protection Agency for permission to start outdoor trials of genetically modified (GM) potatoes.

The plants have been made blight resistant.

The request to move a GM experiment out-of-doors to test its fungal resistance could also move agriculture, north and south of the border, in a new direction.

And it is not a direction every farmer, consumer or environmentalist would welcome.

A previous attempt to grow GM sugar beet in the open ended with the plants being destroyed by protesters in County Wexford.
(Source: BBC News)

Wicklow

A Shillelagh man charged with handling stolen property has had his case adjourned to September 24 for a progress probation report.

Russell Hickey of Deerpark, Shillelagh pleaded guilty to possession of a vintage hearse which was stolen from its owner's yard. The court heard that the owner reported the vehicle stolen.

 Gardaí tracked the vehicle down and spoke with Hickey who explained that he was given the hearse by a stranger in exchange for a €50 dog box.
(Source: The Wicklow People)