Antrim

There have been demands for a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to violence against medical staff after a paramedic was attacked as he tried to save a man’s life. The paramedic is still recovering from a wound to his leg inflicted as he tried to assist a patient. The medic was first on the scene after the Ambulance Service received a call just before midnight last Wednesday to attend a man with breathing difficulties in south Belfast. As the paramedic approached the young man he lashed out, cutting him with a piece of glass. The paramedic received hospital treatment for the injury to his thigh. He is said to be “very anxious about the whole episode”.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)

Armagh

The funeral of Gerry Evan, one of the so-called 'Disappeared', was held in Co Armagh last Saturday. His body was found seven weeks ago in Co Louth. He had been missing for 31 years.
He was last seen in Castleblayney in Co Monaghan in March 1979 at the age of 24. It is believed he was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA. His funeral will took place last weekend in St Patrick's Church in Crossmaglen.
(Source: Breakingnews.ie)

Carlow

A Carlow surgeon completed Ireland’s first transplant operation using keyhole surgery at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital last week. Borris native Dilly Little led the keyhole surgery team, which allowed Kate Mooney (28) from Dublin to donate a kidney to her only sibling Cathal (31), without undergoing major abdomenal surgery. Cathal was diagnosed with kidney failure over a year ago. Ms Little is head of Beaumont’s Living Related Donor Programme and specifically trained in the technique for this transplant in Oslo.
(Source: The Carlow Nationalist)

Cavan

A terrified Kilnaleck newsagent was locked in her bedroom by a gang of raiders who broke into her shop at 3.30am last Friday week. A garda spokesman told The Anglo-Celt that Celia O’Reilly was asleep above her shop when the gang struck. She heard them trying to break the shutters open and it is understood that Mrs. Reilly awoke, and the intruders had entered her premises. The garda spokesman also revealed that the three members of the gang locked Mrs. O’Reilly in her bedroom before going to a large silver colour getaway car where another accomplice was waiting with the doors open.
(Source: The Angle Celt)

Clare

A book detailing the triumphs and tragedies of a Clare hurling club over a momentous year was named the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year recently in Dublin.  Written by Sunday Times journalist Christy O’Connor, “The Club” is based around the 2009 season at St. Joseph’s Doora-Barefield GAA club and it won the award ahead of John Giles’ “A Football Man” and Declan Lynch’s “Days of Heaven” who took second and third place respectively.
(Source: The Clare People)

Cork

Around 3,000 students took to Cork city last Wednesday to protest against a €500 increase in student fees and a cut in the student maintenance grant. Speaking to the Cork Independent after the march, UCC student president Keith O’Brien condemned the government, saying: “We will remember that this failed government has sold into serfdom and servitude the hopes and futures of this and the next generation of young people and children to foreign masters, and chained them to hardship.”
Source: (Cork Independent)

Derry

A ruthless dentist who murdered his wife and ex-lover's policeman husband as they slept and then covered it up as a double suicide has been jailed for a minimum of 21 years.
Colin Howell, 51, from Glebe Road, Castlerock, Co Londonderry, was told by Mr Justice Anthony Hart at Belfast Crown Court that he had committed truly heinous crimes and showed no mercy to two defenceless victims. Last month he was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to poisoning his wife Lesley, 31, the mother of their four children, and Pc Trevor Buchanan, 32, husband of the woman with whom he had been having an affair at the time in May 1991
(Source: Lononderry Sentinel)

Donegal

Donegal County Council is to do what it can to help groups that support Irish emigrant groups in the U.S. and Britain. With the number of people leaving the county to live and work abroad on the rise, councillors are keen to provide whatever support the council can to help Donegal's diaspora. The move follows a motion by Councillor Dessie Larkin (FF) who witnessed at first hand the work of one such group on the County Development Board's recent trade visit to Boston. While there Cllr. Larkin saw the work of the Donegal Boston GAA club, which recently won the New England championship.
(Source: Donegal Democrat)

Down

The smoking ban in Northern Ireland is comparable to a prohibition imposed by the Third Reich in Hitler's Germany, senior judges have heard. A north Down man seeking to quash his conviction for lighting up at council offices also claimed smokers' rights to freedom from torture were being infringed. Opening his case in the Court of Appeal, Chris Carter (56) produced a photograph of a cancer patient he claimed was made to go outside Belfast City Hospital for a cigarette. The former security consultant, who represented himself as a personal litigant, is seeking leave to apply for a judicial review of the legislation which led to him being fined.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)

Dublin

Dublin's two sheriffs have slammed the barrier-free tolling system on the M50 -- describing the massive fines motorists incur as a "disaster". More than 500 people who ran up fines on the M50 toll charges were pursued by the Dublin City Sheriff in the last month alone. But a spokesperson for the City Sheriff's office said the vast majority of these debts cannot be collected because the debtors either have no money or they cannot be traced.
(Source: The Herald)

Fermanagh

Millie Martin's mother's former partner, who is charged with the Enniskillen baby's murder, has been refused bail. The High Court heard that Millie had suffered 11 rib fractures, apparently sustained weeks before her death last December. It was claimed she had been sexually assaulted. Barry McCarney, 31, who had been living at the infant's home at Glebe Park in the town with Rachel Martin, 25, denies a charge of murder.
(Source: BBC News)

Galway

A damning report has accused the taxi industry in Galway City of racism – suggesting that the companies have a policy of not employing Africans. The controversial report, which will be published this week, says that no taxi company in Galway employs black drivers and accuses the companies of being “private clubs”. A number of local TDs are also slammed in the report for making statements to the media in relation to “foreign national” taxi drivers operating in the city.
(Source: GalwayBay Fm)

Kildare

The clean up of Naas/Kerdiffstown dump could cost €30 million but it is urgently needed.
Kildare county councillors are in possession of a report from an environmental consultancy firm saying that the pollution coming from the Naas/Kerdiffstown dump is a danger to the water supply and that gas emissions from the site are at explosive levels. It also says that the leachate contains four or five times the maximum amount of ammonia allowed by the EU, which the report says will cause a “progressive deterioration.
(Source: The Kildare Nationalist)

Kilkenny
A pioneering priest may have started the fight back against the scourge of drugs that has swept like a virus across Kilkenny. Fr Mark Condon took on the drug dealers responsible for the death, very recently, of one of his parishioners . The young man from a good family, took his own life as he felt he had "no way out" because he was hooked on heroin in what is becoming a very common story. And he asked fellow addicts present in the congregation to seek help.
(Source: Kilkenny People)

Kerry
A 24-year-old man died today when his motorbike collided with a car in Co Kerry last Thursday. The motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to Tralee General Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.The driver of the 4x4 was uninjured, a Garda spokesman said. A total of 200 people have been killed on the State's roads to date this year, according to the latest Garda statistics.
(Source: Irish Times)

Laois

A big security operation has netted a huge haul of mobile phones and other equipment that are understood to have been fished into one of Portlaoise's prison.The operation at the Midlands Prison centred on a small number of cells. During last Thursday’s search, prison officers are understood to have seized 26 mobiles, 30 phone chargers, 22 batteries and 20 sim cards. The haul included 17 blue tooth earpieces.
(Source: Leinster Express)

Leitrim

Gardai in the Manorhamilton area report that there has been a rise in the number of of heating oil thefts in the area while other districts say similar incidents have been occurring across the county in recent weeks.
(Source: Leitrim Observer)

Limerick

Kemp Technologies, a US based information technology company providing server load balancing solutions for small to medium enterprises and internet service providers, is to locate its European Sales and Marketing Headquarters in Limerick. Minister for Science, Technology, Innovation and Natural Resources Conor Lenihan described the investment as "an important high-tech boost for Limerick"
(Source: Limerick Leader)

Longford

A crowd of around 80 protestors intent on directing their anger at under fire Taoiseach Brian Cowen recently were left as bitter as the freezing temperatures outside following a last minute decision to replace the Fianna Fail leader with one of his ministers. Mr Cowen had been expected to take his place as the Longford Chamber of Commerce's keynote speaker, an invitation which attracted a sizable crowd of protesters to assemble outside the Longford Arms Hotel.
(Source: Longford Leader)

Louth

Minister for Justice Mr Dermot Ahern has announced that he will not contest his seat as a TD in the General Election. In a shock move, the Blackrock native has decided to step down when the next General Election is held. "Following the 2007 general election I came to a decision with my family that that election would be my last. In October, 2009, I informed the Taoiseach of my intention. I confirmed that decision with him last weekend,” he said in a statement.
(Source: Dundalk Democrat)

Mayo

The owners of some of the most luxurious houses in Ballina are under investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) after a dawn raid last week by Gardaí uncovered ‘massive displays of wealth’. Over €100,000 in cash was found after a dawn raid last Thursday in Ballina which involved more than 70 officers, including CAB, the Regional Support Unit and a large contingent of Gardai.
(Source: The Mayo News)

Meath

Gardaí in Navan are seeking the public's assistance to help trace the whereabouts of Garvan (Robert) Milligan (35), who has been missing since Monday, 15th November. Mr Milligan is originally from Carrigans, Co Donegal but has resided in Wilkinstown for the past four years. He is described as 6ft in height, of heavy build, with short dark hair going grey.
(Source: The Meath Chronicle)

Monaghan

The family of a mother of six killed in a traffic accident which claimed two other lives has settled a High Court action for €600,000. Angela Goodman died after the car she was travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with another car at Tullyvaragh, Co Monaghan, on the Carrickmacross to Castleblayney Road, in the early hours of February 7, 2004.
(Source: Irish Independent)

Offaly

An Edenderry woman was pinned against a wall recently as part of a robbery. The woman in her fifties was walking along Father Paul Murphy Street in Edenderry around 12.45am last Sunday  week when she was pinned in up against a wall by a car. One of the occupants took her handbag which it's believed contained €3,000. He then jumped into the car which sped off in the direction of Carbury.
(Source: Offaly Express)

Roscommon

It appears unlikely that a cinema in Roscommon town will be opened before Christmas, with further setbacks hampering the previously proposed opening date of December. In March it was announced that a €6m entertainment complex at the Centre Point Retail Park would be up and running by the end of the summer with the creation of between 40 and 60 jobs.
(Source: The Roscommon Hearld)

Sligo

Two “rebel” Fianna Fail TD’s in Sligo-Leitrim could be back in the party fold within a fortnight, the Sligo Weekender has learned. This newspaper has learned that Ballymote-based Eamon Scanlon and Sligo-based Dr Jimmy Devins are both anxious to run in the looming General Election-despite the party’s recent Donegal meltdown.
(Source: The Sligo Weekender)

Tipperary

Within the last twelve months Gardai have recorded sixty three drug offences in the Roscrea/Templemore area. The figure was revealed by Detective Sergeant Seamus Maher, Head of the Divisional Drugs Unit when he addressed a meeting of the Templemore Joint Policing Committee in the Garda College recently. Detective Sergeant Maher who reported “steady progress” by the unit in the area of drug detection said that the majority of offences recorded involved people between the ages of sixteen and thirty-four
-(Source: Tipperary Star)

Tyrone

Green energy developer Gaelectric has been the given the go- ahead for a €26 million wind farm in Co Tyrone, its second such project in the area in as many months. The company said  planners had given it permission to build a 15 megawatt (MW) wind farm at Inishative, near Pomeroy, Co Tyrone. It will consist of six wind turbines and, at full capacity, will generate enough electricity for about 8,000 households.
(Source: BBC News)

Waterford

Local TD Brendan Kenneally requested the temporary release of a man awaiting sentencing for a sexual assault charge, so that the man could attend his daughter’s wedding. The man was in custody awaiting sentence for the sexual assault of his niece and his family asked Mr Kenneally to make representations on behalf of the man so that he could attend the event. The Fianna Fail TD has defended the move and said he acted on humanitarian grounds
(Source: Waterford News $ Star)

Westmeath

A ten-year sentence was handed down to a “very articulate and clever criminal” whose local knowledge was “central” to a raid on the home of a well known Westmeath businessman.
Brian McGinley(38), Blackberry Lane, Athlone, was convicted of being part of an armed four man gang who tied up the Kilmartin family at Ladyswell, Glasson in Athlone on February 13, 2005. He was sentenced last Wednesday at a sitting of Mullingar Circuit Court sitting in Tullamore for a charge of aggravated burglary.
(Source: Westmeath Independent)

Wexford

A Wexford mum, originally from Dublin, who went into labour six weeks early made a 25-mile trek through snow and ice to deliver three baby boys. Christmas came early for Tallaght native Mandy Hayden Freeman (37), who now lives in Wexford with her husband John (32), when she made the journey to the nearest hospital to give birth to Aaron, Finn and Ryan.
(Source: The Herald)

Wicklow

SUV owners were warned against having too much confidence in their vehicles in snow after five men were rescued from the Wicklow mountains last week. Two 4x4 vehicles became trapped in snow on a road in the Wicklow mountains which resulted in two mountain rescue teams launching a mission in freezing temperatures to bring the occupants to safety.
(Source: RTE News)