Local Unemployment Figures

Despite another year of Celtic Tiger prosperity, unemployment figures recently released by the CSO show that in July, for the second successive month, the number out of work in Dundalk increased.

However the picture is slightly different when the yearly figures are examined, and the July figures for the town stands at 2962, which is actually 14 lower that at the same period in 2005, made up of 1,819 males and 1,143 females.

The Councillor's Not for Turning.

Dundalk Town Councillor Jim Ryan, although a relatively quiet spoken man, is very outspoken when it comes to the subject of anti-social behaviour.

However his strong stance on this issue has cost him dearly, and to date he has suffered no less than 13 acts of vandalism against him, the latest one on Friday night last, when a petrol bomb was thrown at his car outside his home at Fr. Murray Park, Dundalk.

In the past all other vandalism acts against him were as a direct result of having recently spoken out on radio, or in the print media, about certain acts of anti social behaviour, but this time there was no catalyst in the run-up to last Friday night's attack.

This is causing him grave concern. In the some of the past attacks local youths were identified as the perpetrators, but he now believes that a criminal element is behind the terror campaign, and that the youths are merely the front line.

However he is adamant that he won't be intimidated, and vows that he will continue to use his position on both the Town, and County Council, to hit out at the growing element of anti social behaviour in the area.

Provisional Drivers 1 in Every 6

For a Government which claims to be so dedicated to improving road safety, figures released today, should cause some red faces. That is, of course, assuming there's anyone left in the cabinet capable of becoming embarrased by any of their many failures.

It now appears that 404,600, or to put it another way, one in every six drivers, currently holds only a provisional licence. The other startling reality is the fact that with the small number of new testers being appointed, only 11, because of a union wrangle, and even though 45,000 tests are being farmed out to the NCT beginning in October, the backlog may never be cleared.

The number of new provisional licences issued each year, which currently stands at annual 24,000, coupled with the driving test failure rate of 50% of the annual 45,000 applicants for a test, who must then rejoin the ranks, would seem to indicate that it will be many years before it improves.

Of the 404,600 who currently hold a provisional licence only 135,000 are on the driving test waiting list, and the other 269,400 have either not yet applied, or have failed, and are driving on a renewed provisional licence, some for as much as the fifth time.

Cooley Lotto Win

The celebrations will continue in the Gyles Quay area for some time to come, following the good fortune of a member of the Crawley family, who scooped the jackpot of €3,561,610 in last Saturday night's Lotto.

No doubt there is celebrations in the Sheelan household at nearby Mountbagnal, in whose shop it is more than likely the winning ticket was purchased, since they receive a windfall for selling the winning ticket.

They will also benefit from the upsurge in ticket sales, in the shop, which normally follows the sale of a jackpot winner. Come on Cooley!

Bleak Future for Sheep Farmers

There is more bad news for sheep farmers as experts predict a rapidly declining sector, as the industry struggles to find it's feet again after the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001.

This event saw the culling of every sheep, lamb, and goat, from the Cooley area, and mountains, and many will remember the jokes doing the rounds, as a number of sheep farmers were later discovered engaging in astonishing 'creative accountancy' as they produced tally figures of stock they owned, when compensation was being paid.

However the numbers leaving the poorly performing, sheep industry continues to rise at an alarming rate, in a year which has seen low lamb prices early on, followed by discouraging prices for wool.(See Archives July)

Moral is said to be at an all time low, with little or no return on investment, and many are abandoning the business, despite having no alternative plan, such is the age profile of the sheep farmer. For many it's a case of looking for alternative employment, while the younger generation see no encouragement to enter the industry.

At sheep sales around the country, the lowest ram sales in years are being recorded, and since this is the barometer for the following breeding season, it is being seen as an alarming situation.

Many are critical of the Department of Agriculture for not taking heed of an industry in crisis.

Council Defends it's Position on Drinks-Drugs Houses

In response to recent criticism over vacant houses in Muirhevnamore being a haven for nightly drinks/drugs gatherings, a member of Dundalk's Town Council Housing Section attempted to play down the councils responsibility in the matter.

Denis McArdle, for the Council, said there wasn't many vacant boarded-up houses belonging to the local authority in the estate at the moment, and that one vacant house in Doolargy Avenue is privately owned.

Some of the residents there, who are suffering the strain of the nightly booze and drugs gatherings, feel that even one vacant house is one too many.

Councillor Kevin Meenan, who has raised the subject at various council meetings, is sympathetic to the effected residents, and is adamant that a number of vacant houses, at Crescent One in the estate, has created a huge anti-social behaviour problem.

He firmly believes that both the council and the Gardai should play a more active role in the problem. At the moment if the Gardai are called to area their role is confined to merely moving the gangs away from the houses, but they are back within a short space of time. The council, he also believes, should move quickly to have vacant houses refurbished for new tenants, preventing the situation from occuring in the first place.

Border Search For Immigrants

News has only emerged of a search operation carried out last week, by the Garda Immigration Control Unit, over the north Louth area, and the exact details of the incident are sketchy.

They were assisted on the south Armagh side of the border by the PSNI, in a search for a group of foreign nationals who fled from a container after it was delivered to a premises in " South Armagh", presumably the Newry/Carrickarnon area, since one of the men was later apprehended in the vicinity of the Carrickdale Hotel. The other five have not yet been found.

It has already been established that the six were given access to the container in the busy port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, by someone engaged in the activity who was presumably paid,by the men for his services.

The ship, on which the container travelled, first docked in Waterford before sailing on to Warrenpoint, where it was off-loaded and later delivered 'somewhere' in the Newry area.

Banjo Cheats Death In Himalayas

Dundalk based youth worker, and serious mountaineer, Terence " Banjo" Bannon, who hails from Newry, has vowed he won't return to K2, the world's second highest peak.

Speaking from a base camp on the side of the Himalayas, after four of his team died, he said he wouldn't be quiting climbing, but seriously doubted he would return to the region.

His nine strong international climbing group had been swept down the treacherous mountain, by an avalanche which had claimed the lives of four of the team. They had been completely buried by the avalanche, and only discovered the loss of four of the party after he, and four others, managed to dig themselves out.

The four who died were Russians, and had been higher up on the climbing line. Their rope snapped in the fall, and the four were carried further down by the snow. The climbing party had already passed, what's generally considered, the most critical section of the climb, when they were swept away by the avalanche, and were only 250 from the summit of the 8,611 metre high mountain range, which lies between Pakistan and China.

It was Banjo's third attempt on K2, having already conquered Everest.

Bomb Found at Haughey House

An unexploded bomb was found yesterday at the huge house being built at Dungooley, near Kilcurry, Dundalk, by Eddie Haughey, Lord Ballyedmund.

The discovery, coming on top of last week's spate of fire-bombings on Newry retail stores, has heightened fears of an upsurge in dissident violence in the border area.

The bomb which was found in a downstairs room of the mansion, at Dungooley where Haughey grew up, contained about 70 lbs of ground fertiliser, with an added booster, and a command wire from the bomb was discovered leading down a laneway adjoining the house.

He is believed to one of Ireland's richest men, with an estimated worth well in excess of €500M derived from his vetinary pharmaceuticals firm in Newry, Norbrook Laboratories, which also has plants in the US.

He is considered a generous benefactor in his home area of Kilcurry, and has been responsible for much remedial, and restoration work in and around Kilcurry Church and graveyard.

Like most great success stories Haughey came from relatively humble beginnings and began his gainful employment with R.Q. O'Neills, at their former shop in Earl Street, Dundalk.

With his acquired wealth he has developed a taste for castles, and his home is Ballyedmund Castle (hence the peerage title)on the northern shore of Calingford Lough, just directly across from Carlingford itself. He bought the castle, which has a substantial acreage of farmland, in a ruined state, after it had been fire-bombed in the early part of the northern troubles, and restored it to it's glory. He also owns Corby Castle, near Carlisle, in Cumbria.

A former member of the Irish Seanad, he now represents the Ulster Unionist Party in the House of Lords, a position which carries with it, the title, Baron of Ballyedmund.

Rumours abound, though as yet totally unsubstantiated, that he recently bought the freehold of Dundalk, when the title came up for sale by tender towards the end of last month.

Stan The Man in Gun Fracas

The week did not begin well for Dundalk man, and Ireland Manager, Steve Staunton with the news that no less than six of his players had withdrawn, through injury, from tomorrow (Wed) night's game at Landsdowne against Holland,

However it got decidedly worse last night, when he found himself being confronted by a gunman, outside the Portmarnock Hotel, where he is staying with the squad.

It appear that 'Stan' went outside the hotel onto the forecourt to use his telephone, and was accosted by a 'shouting' man, using threatening language, who pulled, what appeared to be, a gun from inside his jacket.

At this point Staunton fled back into the hotel and alerted FAI security staff, who in turn called the Gardai. A man was later arrested on the beach, and today Gardai were still searching for what is described as a replica of an Uzi sub-machine gun.

It's a case of history repeating itself, since it was in the same hotel in November 2003, in the run-up to a friendly game against Canada, that two armed robbers fired a shotgun blast into the ceiling of the complex, not far from where the Irish squad were dining.

Six Staunton Stars Cry Off

Steve(I'm the Gaffer)Staunton has suffered, an astonishing, six 'Cry Offs', including three of his key players, ahead of next Wednesday's Ireland game against the Netherlands, at Landsdowne Road.

Skipper Robbie Keane, vice-captain Shay Given, Terry Dixon, Richard Dunne, Stephen Ireland and Alan Lee have all claimed injury, and withdrawn from the squad.

Is six at the one time just a very bad coincidence, or could there be trouble in the Irish Camp.

Staunton said: "It's far from ideal to lose so many of the squad through injury".

Isn't he just the master of understatement.

Eight Days A Week

In the retail trade it's definitely 'Dog Eat Dog', and the desire to get the lion's share of 'disposable income' doesn't even snooze, let alone sleep.

So, like it or not, Dundalk appears to be on a path towards Sunday trading, perhaps reluctantly, but no doubt pressurised by the move of the Marshes Shopping centre, whose manager cites as justification, the fact that in the U.K Sunday trading is the 'norm'.

The 'norm' it may well be for many years in the largely populated regions, and cities of the U.K.,but there are still countless places similar in size to Dundalk, which are ghost towns on Sunday, while people still enjoy their day of rest.

No doubt Dundalk traders, and their staff, will miss their well earned day of quality time with their families, if/when this comes to pass.

Meanwhile just up the road in Drogheda, traders in West Street, the main street, complain that business is down dramatically since road works began on the street nine weeks ago. Dunnes stores, who have a branch there, have cut the hours of part-time workers by 14, as a result of poor turnover, resulting from the disruption to the street.

Other traders struggle to survive, and one business, with 75 employees, has warned staff of a possible three day week ahead, as business is down dramatically.

It seems no time as all since Dundalk traders were singing the same tune, and while progress is inevitable it always has a high price tag, in term of the business community, who see their turnover plummit, while their overheads remain the same.

Murder House Vigil

Despite much pre publicity, the relatively small turnout at yesterday's prayer vigil, outside the murder scene house, at Ice House Hill in Dundalk, in which a mother of three died in a frenzied knife attack in April of last year, seems to indicate the public's waning interest in turning such scenes into macabre shrines.

Puzzling Census Figures.

The North Louth, recently released, census figures are a little puzzling.

Omeath is up by 23.8% on the last figures, and it seems reasonable since there had been much new building, of apartments, and houses, there in recent years. Greenore down by 2.2% might have been caused by the several catastrophic blows to employment figures it received in recent times, with the closure of a number of commercial enterprises.

However if one views rapidly expanding Carlingford, from high up on the side of Slieve Foye, it's really hard to imagine that it could be suffering a 3.1% drop.

Dundalk Newry Linkup Delay

It's disappointing news that the linkup between the Dublin/Dundalk M1 Motorway and Newry/Belfast M1 will be delayed until at least 2010.

It's was rather surprising 10 years ago when the single carriageway by-pass was opened between Cloghogue Chapel, and the Mourne Country hotel roundabout, that a little more 'future' thinking wasn't used in preparation for the eventual motorway link-ups.

It will now cost £102M to replace the by-pass with a seven mile stretch of 'near motorway' type of dual carriageway during which 10 houses will be demolished and there are twelve objectors to the route from the Sheepbidge Inn to Cloughogue.

If the route passes successfully through the planning stages, work could begin next spring. Meanwhile work is rapidly progressing from Sheepbrige Inn to Sprucefield where it joins the original M1.

The original section from Sprucefield to Belfast was far ahead of it's time, when constructed in the early 1960's, and there is an 'Urban Myth' that some of it's straight sections were to be used by the US Air Force in the event of a conflict with the Soviet Union, back when things were not quite so cosy between the two powers.

Louth Co.Council Get Your Act Together.

The fact that Louth County Council has this week been forced to issue a formal letter of apology to a local family after their mother, who died ten years ago, was recently prosecuted in the courts and fined for an offence under the Litter Act, highlights the rather common occurence of families receiving correspondence addressed to the departed loved ones after their demise.

Utility companies, such as electricity, and telephone are frequently guilty of this problem, until such time as the families provide them with updates, but one would expect the local authority to implement a way to avoid unnecessary, and distressing correspondence.

It this case Louth County Council really surpassed themselves when they prosecuted the deceased woman which resulted in her being fined €250, expenses of €200 and costs of €75.

A spokesperson for the County Council said this week that they deeply regretted the incident and would be writing to the family to apologise for the hurt they have caused.

They also said that the summons was “legally issued” in accordance with their procedures, which included the issuing of registered notification.

A registered letter requires a signature when it is being delivered and it is entirely unlikely that someone else, now residing at old family home, which was sold four years ago, signed for it.

The Council says they have now undertaken a review of their procedures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again.

It was probably an excusable happening in the years BC(before computers)but one would imagine it would be possible to link with, or update their housing records on a regular basis, from the North Eastern Health Board computers, where presumably, death certificate records are stored.

Could prosecutions from speed cameras be invalid?

In the UK there's an interesting legal probe going on as to whether or not road traffic cameras are a 'legal' entity.

In other words, have they been granted legal status by having passed through legislature as device-specific statutory instruments approved for speed measurement.

It may sound a bit ludicrous but founder of the UK's Safe Speed road saftey campaign Paul Smith, has already described the news as an interesting new challenge to speed camera evidence.

It appears that certain cameras there have never been 'legally' approved going back as far as 1992, and the result could possibly mean the handing back of millions of pounds in fines.

The possible flaw in the authorisation procedure was uncovered by a chap known as Robbie the Pict, who successfully led the campaign which finally saw the removal of the tolls on Scotland's Skye Bridge on 21st December 2004, and which were the most expensive tolls anywhere in the UK, i.e Car £5.70 Sterling,one way, Coach £41.20......and you think €1.60 Dublin to Dundalk is bad?

Is it possible that Irish cameras may not be legal?

It is interesting to note that Smith of Safe Speed, who has spent thousands of hours examining the overall road safety effects of speed cameras, believes that they make the roads more dangerous.

Cooley on World Drinks Map

A US spirit company is bringing the Michael Collins branded whiskey, which is produced at Cooley Distillery at Riverstown, to the Irish market from next month.

Cooley Distillery is Ireland's only independent whiskey maker, and has many brands, most of which are sold exclusively on foreign markets.

Initially produced for the American market, it was the brainchild of Sidney Frank, billionaire founder of Sidney Frank Importing, the New york based drinks company, which also owns and markets the whiskey, and it has sold over 120,000 bottles since it's release there in March.The company also markets Grey Goose Vodka, and Jagermeister.

It is very distinctive in it's especially long bottle branded with " The Big Fella's (Michael Collins) signature from the 1921 Treaty, a detail which, no doubt, makes it very appealing to the Irish American market, and probably provides for some interesting debate before, and after dinner, in many far flung parts of the states.

The idea for the whiskey, which is sold in both original blend, and single malt, came from the late Sidney Frank, once listed as the 185th richest man in America. Having read, and been intrigued with Tim Pat Coogan's (ex-editor of the now vanished Irish Press) book on Collins,he commissioned him as a consultant on the project.