News from around the 32 Irish counties

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)

​
Nster.com