Omagh accused deny having any significant assets

Liam Campbell

Two of the four men found liable in a civil action for the 1998 Omagh bombings have denied having any significant assets.

Liam Campbell and Michael Colm Murphy were questioned before the Master of the High Court Edmund Honohan yesterday by lawyers acting for relatives of the 29 people killed in the atrocity.

The relatives sought the questioning in aid of execution of a judgment they obtained in a Northern Irish Court.

The families’ lawyers are seeking details of all shares or interests in companies they may hold, savings or monies held in bank accounts, as well as details of any debts or liabilities they may have.

In what was at times a heated and testy exchanges, both men said they had no interest in several properties mainly located in Co Louth.

Mr Campbell, who said he has been unemployed for many years and last got a social welfare payment in the 1980s, said the only assets he owns are half shares, along with his wife, in the family home and a 3.5 acre plot of land adjoining their home.

Mr Murphy, who strongly denied having anything to do with either the Omagh bombing or having any involvement in the IRA, said he had no assets as his ex-wife had “cleaned me” following their divorce.

Mr Campbell of Upper Faughart, Dundalk and Mr Murphy of Lower Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth were, along with Michael McKevitt and Seamus Daly, found responsible for the 1998 atrocity by the High Court in Belfast.

They were ordered to pay the families a total of £1.6m sterling. That judgment has been formally recognised in the Republic.

They were ordered by the High Court in June to provide sworn statements disclosing their assets and means. The victims’ families claimed the two failed to provide such statements.

Colm Murphy

Last month, their lawyers secured orders from Mr Justice Anthony Barr directing that the two be attached and brought before the High Court in Dublin to explain their alleged contempt.

Yesterday both men, who their lawyers said came in a voluntary capacity, attended for questioning before Master Honohan.

In response to questions from Andrew Robinson Bl for the families, Mr Murphy angrily rejected an assertion by counsel that he was ever a member of the IRA.

He said he was wrongly charged and convicted before the Special Criminal Court in respect of the bombing.. He said he was convicted because of “garda perjury”, and was subsequently acquitted at a retrial.

As he was charged “nobody wanted to have anything to do with me.” he said.

He lost his construction business, which had employed 60 people, because he was charged in connection with the bombing.

He accepted having previous involvement with property assets and a company, but now “I own nothing,” he said.  After his arrest everything “got f**ked up” he said.

In response to Mr Robinson’s questions, Mr Campbell denied having any interest, in the past or currently, in approximately half a dozen properties located in Athlone, Co Westmeath, Castlebar, Co Mayo, or in Co Louth or to companies.

Several of the properties it was claimed were in the ownership of people alleged to be relatives of Mr Campbell.

The court also heard of the relatives concerns the properties may have been transferred by Mr Campbell to others who now hold the properties for his beneficial interest.

Mr Campbell rejected this, and said the only properties he had any interest in were the family home and adjoining lands. 

Following their examination both men undertook to each provide a sworn statement containing a list of all their assets, such as property, worth more than €5,000, which they have an interest in, by October 23.

Source: Independent.ie

New manufacturing and office facilities to be built in Dundalk as part of jobs strategy

New manufacturing and office facilities will be built in Dundalk as part of the Government’s five-year strategy to accelerate job growth around the country.

Dundalk has been earmarked as one of nine locations where building world will commence to provide new facilities to companies.

This is part of a plan from IDA Ireland to help attract more multi-national jobs into each region.

In total €150 million will be invested into the capital investment project with €250m going into the overall strategy.

Other towns where advanced manufacturing and office facilities will be built include Sligo, Tralee, Castlebar, Galway, Limerick, Athlone, Carlow and Waterford.

Louth 1957 All-Ireland winner Dan O’Neill passes away

Dan O’Neill RIP

The death has taken place of former Louth 1957 All-Ireland winner Dan O’Neill.

One of two Mayo men to feature on the side that beat Cork, the Castlebar native remained an avid follower of the fortunes of the Wee County from his home in the west of Ireland.

Dan played for Castlebar Mitchels and Mayo before transferring to Louth following an expenses dispute, and was joined in the Wee County by Ballaghaderreen man Seamie O’Donnell.

The two had played together in 1954 on the Mayo team that won the National Football League title, and bumped into each other again at a border crossing when both were Gardaí stationed in Louth.

In a twist of fate, they ended up playing at midfield together in the second-half of the 1957 All-Ireland final when Louth defeated Cork – becoming the last two Mayo men to win All-Irelands.

In 2009 Dan launched his autobiography, Divided Loyalties, in which he fondly remembered his time in the Wee County.

“I spent almost eight years in Louth and naturally enjoyed a popular support from the fans there, which created in a me a very strong magnetic attraction for my adopted county. However, I always remained strongly attracted to my home county, and, indeed, I was delighted when circumstances allowed me to come back and wear the green and red again in 1963.

“At half-time in the All-Ireland final, Seamie came out from the half-forward line to play alongside me at midfield. So you had two Mayo men playing together at midfield for Louth in an All-Ireland final.

“Neither Louth or Mayo have won an All-Ireland title since, which is a source of great disappointment to me.”

In later years Dan played football in Galway. During his time in Louth he was a member of the Oliver Plunketts club and also the now defunct St Dominic’s and Naomh Mhuire.

It was while in Drogheda that he met his future wife, Nancy Callan, from Drumconrath in Co Meath. He retired from the Gardaí in 1962 and moved with his family back to the west where he worked for Calor Gas before going on to become the Regional Tourism manager for Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim.

Reminiscing his All-Ireland success in recent years, Dan said: “Of course, it’s the highlight of any footballers’ career to win an All-Ireland medal. It didn’t really matter that it was with Louth rather than Mayo. Once you win one All-Ireland, everything else is secondary. Ask any of the Kerry team that won seven or eight All-Irelands and they’ll tell you that the first is the one they remember most”, said Dan.

No funeral details are as yet available.

McGuinness retains her MEP seat

Mairead McGuinness at the count centre with Meath-based candidate Thomas Byrne

Ardee woman Mairead McGuinness has retained her European Parliament seat after being elected on the fifth count in the Midlands North West constituency this afternoon.

The Fine Gael MEP was in the count centre in Castlebar to hear the news with her final tally coming to 135,698.

The former Ear to the Ground presenter needed 17,000 votes after the fourth count to meet the quota, whereas Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy was less than 5,000 votes away.

However, McGuinness leapfrogged him following the elimination of independent Senator Ronan Mullen to join Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan in Europe.

Carthy, from Carrickmacross, is still likely to take the third seat with sitting MEP Marian Harkin leading the Fianna Fáil duo of Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne by around 30,000 votes. If, as expected, Byrne is eliminated then a lot would depend on how the Fianna Fáil pair transfer between each other to determine who takes the final seat.

Dundalk taxi drivers now using Hailo

Dundalk taxi drivers have started to use the Hailo taxi app in the last few weeks.

Hailo is a smartphone app that allows users to hail a taxi using just their phone, and without calling a taxi service.

The user places a pin on an on-screen map to guide the driver, or allows the phone to use their GPS co-ordinates.

There are no extra charges with the app, compared with other taxi services which can include a call-out charge, and journeys can be paid for using card.

All drivers are already licensed drivers.

The company says over four million trips have been made using Hailo in Ireland since the app first launched here in 2012, and was rolled out to Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick.

Taxis using the service are now available in Ashbourne, Bray, Greystones, Balbriggan, Celbridge, Navan, Trim, Athlone, Leixlip, Mullingar, Maynooth, Drogheda, Sligo, Ennis and, of course, Dundalk.

The company intends to roll the service out to Arklow, Letterkenny, Longford, Roscommon, Carrick-on-Shannon, Clonmel, Thurles, Ballina, Castlebar and Westport in the coming weeks.

It is also available in cities like New York, Toronto, and Barcelona.

The app has been downloaded more than 400,000 times in Ireland.

Competition hots up in Dundalk and District Darts League

The latest league tables

The roar when a double is hit, the gasp as a double is missed and the cheers of approval as a high score is hit, these are all the sounds that have been heard in Dundalk venues who are involved with the TUBORG Dundalk and District Darts League in recent weeks.

The past two weeks have shown that some have settled quicker than others and that the favourite doesn’t always win. Week three in the league was proof of that in every division.

The Premier Division saw the much anticipated meeting of The Stags and The Avenue Eagles and true to form the game went to the very last leg and with 45 100+ scores in the six games it was evident that this game could have went either way but it was Ollie Thompson who secured a 4 -2 win for “The Stags”

The Stags Red team had home advantage and made great use of it against the Commercial 1896 and with Mark Murtagh in flying form winning the first game, it was the Commercial left in the red as Ryan Murtagh hit the first 180 in the match en route to winning his game. Paddy Gibney then finished the match with a victory to secure a 5-1 win for his team.

The Stags Black team travelled to McEntaggarts and it was team captain Andy Mackin who secured the draw for the Stags team in the very last game on the night.

The game of the week in the First Division was once again a Stags Head team but this time it was the Stags Green, who had a convincing 5-1 win over the Punters Dragons. They had Stephen Shields in great form by hitting an 82 checkout by hitting BULL D16.

The Second Division game of the week went to the Malthouse Misfits who had a superb win over the Punters Tigers with Craig Goodman scoring well and finishing well to claim his team’s first 4-2 win of the season.

With a total of 21 league weeks this year this is going to be a very competitive year indeed.

The drama continued into week four of the league with many teams smarting after losses the week before but in the Premier Division it was a local derby when the Commercial Club played McEntaggarts and Niall Hinchey was back in the Commercial Team and impressed with a 2-0 win over Paul Monahan who was unlucky in the first leg not to hit the double.

This game proved to be a real family affair as two sets of brothers were within the two teams.

The McMahon brothers of Mickey and Alan where on opposing teams with Alan being a staunch Club member but the game of the night was called at the end when Declan “Sonny” Grimes was to take on his identical twin brother Kieran “Sonny” Grimes.

This game proved to be as entertaining as expected with wit and banter coming from both teams but it was Declan who was the victor and the Commercial 1896 team made up for last week’s blip in form by securing a 4-2 win.

The Avenue Eagles also bounced back from the previous week’s defeat by ensuring that they won well against Jackie’s Army. This match had three games which had two one score lines so it was a lot closer than the score shows. Hamilton Archer was against an in-form John Donnelly and the man from Jackie’s was scoring well hitting a maximum 180 in the first leg but Donnelly maintained his unbeaten run.

The Stags head Derby saw “The Stags” play the “Stags Red” and it was a night to forget for the Stags Red team who saw The Stags’ Paddy Kearney also known as “the Wee Master” leading his team to a 6-0 win. Kearney himself was in great form by finishing one leg in 17 Darts.

The First Division game of the week was between Courtney’s and Oriel Active and it saw Courtney’s take their first points of their league campaign.

Patrick Taaffe has maintained his unbeaten run for Oriel Active but with Conor Mackin and Tony Kenna both recording their first wins, a draw was a fair result in a good game.

The First Division is a very tight league and Andrew Matthews’ win to secure two points for his Punters Dragons Team may have a major impact by the end of the league.

The Second Division is being led by the Castlebar Knights and they solidified their lead with a win over the Malthouse Misfits . This team will be hard to beat if Barry Dillion keeps hitting 18o’s and Brian McArdle maintains the standard which saw him hit a 110 (T20 18 D16) finish to win his game.

Johnny Masons and Ferguson’s game ended in a draw and in what was a very close game it was down to Joe Crawley to make sure he overcame “Buster” Carroll to earn the draw. This game came down to the very last leg and it was nail biting stuff for all involved.

Due to the passing of a family member, the DDDL and team captains agreed that the game between The Stags White and the Commercial Hawks should be postponed.

The Committee and all players of the TUBORG Dundalk and District Darts league would like to offer their condolences to the members of the family involved.

Rice narrowly misses out on glory at Mayo Darts Classic

Gerry Rice receives his prize at the Mayo Classic

The Tuborg Dundalk and District darts league has got back into full swing with round two of games being completed last Thursday but the players from the town are still travelling around the country to take on the best.

Last weekend saw two Louth County players and Commercial Club team mates travel to Castlebar in County Mayo to take on Ireland’s finest.

John O’Brien and Gerry Rice both arrived in Mayo on the Saturday and it wasn’t long before they were on the practice board preparing for the Mayo Darts Open.

The high standard of player was very evident when a number of players who had travelled to the World Masters Qualifiers in Hull were spotted hitting the treble twenty on many of the 16 boards set up for the competition. Terry McNulty from Mayo was circling in his World Cup Jersey after playing in the WDF World Cup of Darts in Canada less than a month ago.

The competition was the first part of a weekend of darts to be held in the Welcome Inn Hotel in Castlebar. The Louth Contingent grew later in the evening when the Connolly clan arrived in the form of dad Dermot, and the dynamic duo of Robert and Mark.

The competition got underway and despite hitting a 180 with his first three darts John O’Brien was convincingly beaten by James Quigley form Mayo. The three and a half hour drive may have had an adverse effect on the Dundalk man.

Meanwhile the young guns of Robert and Mark were going well , sadly Robert was another early faller while Mark made it to the last eight of the competition. This left Gerry Rice as the only Louth man flying the flag in the competition and he made sure it flew high right up to the final.

Gerry faced the provisional Irish number one Glenn Spearing from Dublin. Glenn has represented Ireland on many occasions and seemed to have nerves of steel as he quickly took control and went into a 1-0 lead in this best of 11 game.

It was then that the “Quiet Man” began the fight back. Rice claimed the next leg having narrowly missed the bullseye for a 170 checkout. Spearing pushed on into a 3-1 lead and the fire was lit in Rice’s mind and he reacted brilliantly pushing the game right to a 4-4 draw.

The Louth contingent and many neutrals were chanting Rice’s name and wishing every dart into its intended target. Gerry pushed ahead to 5-4 and with scores of 100, 100, and 167 in the tenth leg Gerry was sitting on Double 16 to win. The dart was thrown and the supporters jumped as it appeared to be in but sadly it sat on the wrong side of the wire.

Glenn duly took his chance and levelled the game. The final leg was a tense affair but the Irish No 1 showed his experience and took the victory.

Spearing paid tribute to the standard of all players on the day but most of all to Gerry and commented that he thought he had been beaten with Double 16. Gerry received his prize and although not taking home the title he has the satisfaction of knowing he has made another positive start for Louth darts on the national circuit.

The next day’s event was the Matthew Geraghty memorial darts classic which was a recognised INDO event and once again the Louth contingent were in action and it was young Robert Connolly who made the headlines by reaching the semi finals of the competition and earning himself some valuable ranking points which will help his cause in getting on to the Irish Youth darts team.

It was with some hint of disappointment but a strong sense of pride that the Louth men and boys headed onto the long road home to start preparing for the next onslaught on the national circuit.

BMG Foods to invest in Dundalk Value Centre

The local Value Centre are proud sponsors of Dundalk FC

BMG Foods, which run Spar, Mace and XL stores nationwide, are planning to pump additional investment into their Value Centre Cash and Carry on the Castle Road.

The commitment was made as part of a plan to also expand its network in Castlebar, Letterkenny and Sligo.

BMG also announced today that it will open 30 new XL stores by the end of the year. While the locations of those stores have yet to be revealed, it is hopeful that this area will benefit.