Louth County Council accepting applications for retained firefighters

Dundalk Fire Service dealing with a recent fire at Mullen’s in Roden Place

Louth County Council are currently accepting applications for retained firefighters across the county.

The roles for suitably qualified persons are available in Ardee, Carlingford, Dunleer, Dundalk and Drogheda Stations. The annual retainer for a retained firefighter is €7,562 – €10,383 per annum.

Candidates must be living and working within a five minute mobilisation time of their local fire station and have a reasonable level of fitness to apply.

Open nights will be held from 7pm to 8.30pm in Carlingford Station on Tuesday October 27^th, Ardee Station on Wednesday October 28^th and Dunleer Station on Tuesday November 2^nd.

The closing date for applications is Friday November 6^th with more details available here.

1916 Lecture Series comes to Dundalk tomorrow night

Following on from successful events in Ardee and Dunleer, the 1916 Commemoration Lecture Series visits Dundalk tomorrow night.

Organised by Dundalk and District Old IRA Commemoration Committee, the event in the Old Gaol will be the third in a series of eight to commemorate the lead in to 2016 and the centenary of the Easter Rising.

On the night Conor Keelan and Donal Hall will give lectures on Seán MacEntee and the Hughes brothers, respectively, all of whom had links to the former Dundalk Urban District Council either as employees or as Councillors.

The series then moves to Newry on November 6th where there will be a lecture on Patrick Rankin, the only participant from that area to partake in the Rising. Four days later in The Shirley Arms in Carrickmacross, Terence Dooley will give a lecture concerning the 100th anniversary of Pearse’s visit to the town.

The series then moves to Drogheda before Christmas where Tom Reilly, author of a biography of Joseph Stanley, will give a lecture on his life.

In the New Year two additional lectures conclude the series. Mary Gallagher returns to Drogheda to discuss the Ceannt connections with the area and Liam Reilly will give a lecture on Volunteer activity in South Louth that same evening.

Finally Ruth Sweetman, a descendant of the O’Rahilly family, will give a lecture on the family in Carlingford.

All are welcome to attend tomorrow night’s event, which gets underway from 8pm.

Denis Cummins to step down as Dundalk IT president early next year

Dundalk IT’s Denis Cummins

Denis Cummins is to leave his position as president of Dundalk IT early next year.

The Drogheda native, who has been in the position since 2006, will be taking up a new as-yet-to-be-revealed job elsewhere.

He confirmed to The Argus this week that he had notified the Governing Body of his decision to leave “early in the New Year” and said he was “greatly privileged” to have been president for 10 years and involved with the institute for 30 years.

He also thanked all those who had supported him from his days as a student right through to the present.

Renua leader Creighton launches O’Dowd’s General Election campaign

Michael O’Dowd and Lucinda Creighton canvassing in Ardee yesterday

Renua Ireland leader Lucinda Creighton was in Ardee yesterday to launch local candidate Michael O’Dowd’s General Election campaign.

Former Fine Gael councillor O’Dowd, a brother of sitting Louth TD Fergus, will represent the fledgling party in next year’s General Election.

He will have campaign offices in both his native Drogheda and Ardee and will be campaigning in the rest of the county in the weeks ahead.

Renua Ireland’s election platform will be based on “rewarding work, rebuilding trust.”

Yesterday they were the first party reveal their election posters ahead of the General Election. O’Dowd is one of 14 confirmed candidates so far.

Less than a third of drink driving cases in Louth lead to convictions

Less than a third of drink driving cases before the courts in Co Louth since January 2013 have resulted in convictions.

That’s according to figures published in today’s Irish Times, which show that just 32% of drink drivers had been convicted between the start of 2013 and May 2015.

Only Kerry, at 29%, had a lower conviction rate than Louth, which had the joint second lowest figure alongside Waterford.

The national average was 40%, with Offaly having the highest conviction rate at 68%. England and Wales both had a 97% conviction rate in comparison.

In Dundalk, there were 134 convictions for 392 offences (34%) while there were 118 convictions for 385 offences in Drogheda (31%). It was revealed that in Ardee of those convicted of drink driving, none had their licence numbers recorded.

The same judges would be present in the District Courts in Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda, with neighbouring Cavan and Monaghan also having low conviction rates of 41% and 42% respectively.

Eight years for possession of explosive devices at Kilcurry church

The church in Kilcurry where the device was intercepted

A Drogheda man who pleaded guilty to possession of explosive devices including an adapted beer keg at a local church last year was yesterday sentenced to eight years in prison, with two years suspended, at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

David Gallagher (38), of Marley Court, Drogheda, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance on May 25th, 2014 at Kilcurry, Co Louth.

The charge stated that Mr Gallagher had in his possession PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) and RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine), an adapted 50 litre beer keg, 50kgs of ammonium nitrate home-made explosive, an improvised detonation cord, improvised steel booster tube and improvised time and power unit.

Earlier this year, another man was tried and convicted of the same offence. Gareth Mulley (45), with an address at Ashling Park, Dundalk was sentenced to ten years in prison at the Special Criminal Court in July.

44 on trolleys in Lourdes Hospital today

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has the highest number of patients being treated on trolleys in the country today.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there are 44 people on trolleys in the Lourdes today.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has the second highest at 36.

Earlier this week the hospital came in for severe criticism after seven ambulances were backed up waiting to check-in patients at the hospital due to the overcrowding problem.

Additional beds to open for general elderly rehabilitation service in Louth County Hospital

The Louth County Hospital in Dundalk

A number of additional beds are to be opened at the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk to establish a general elderly rehabilitation service.

The new service was confirmed in a statement from the HSE, which said the development is one of the measures that has been identified in helping alleviate the over-crowding situation in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

Elderly patients in Drogheda who meet the appropriate criteria will now have a period of rehabilitation in Dundalk before being discharged home.

Speaking on LMFM radio this morning, local councillor Tomás Sharkey, a member of the Regional Health Forum, welcomed the news and said he hoped it would be a stepping stone towards the full restoration of services at the Dublin Road hospital.

He said: “It’s more than five years since acute medical, intensive care and A&E services were removed from the Louth County Hospital. That has created an overcrowding crisis in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for the last five years so when this plan comes to pass and when acute medical beds are back we’re going to see an improvement in services for patients, a reduction in the overcrowding at Our Lady of Lourdes but we’re also going to see the door open once again to keep the pressure on as a community in Dundalk and north Louth to try and get our Minor Injuries Unit to be made 24/7 and to get back A&E and intensive care.”

Sharkey calls for A&E in Dundalk to reopen after ambulance fiasco in Drogheda

Some of the ambulances that were backed up at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda yesterday afternoon

Local councillor Tomás Sharkey has called for the Accident and Emergency Department in The Louth County Hospital to be reopened immediately, insisting that it should be an election issue.

His call comes after Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda was so badly overcrowded yesterday afternoon that as many as seven ambulances were backed up waiting to check in patients for up to four hours.

Cllr Sharkey said that delays in admitting patients meant less ambulances were on the road to respond to other emergencies. The Sinn Féin representative said the first step in solving this crisis was to reopen the A&E in Dundalk.

As many as 70 patients were reported to have been on trolleys in the Lourdes Hospital yesterday with ambulance personnel unable to check patients in until a trolley for them became available.

Commenting on Facebook former local TD Arthur Morgan said: “What is happening in the Lourdes is a scandal. Both staff and patients are subject to what can only be described as abuse.”

The A&E in the Louth County Hospital was closed and replaced by a minor injuries unit on June 28th 2010.

Yesterday’s issues come just a few days after HIQA reported high risk hygiene issues in the Lourdes, which management at the hospital put down to overcrowding.

Dundalk 1916 Project looking for volunteers

Paul Hayes of An Táin Arts Centre

With 2016 not far away, we can expect to see many centenary projects gearing up and preparing for performances and events to mark the Centenary of the Easter Rising. Among them is a new initiative from An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk which will see a new piece of theatre devised by participants in a process which will start next Wednesday night and culminate with performances in An Táín at Easter next year.

Managing Director, Paul Hayes explains: “We’re conscious that the Town Hall, where An Táin is based, is a building which has a special resonance with the events of 1916 in Dundalk. It was here that Pádraig Pearse was to have addressed an audience around the time of the Rising, and it was here that Dundalk Urban District Council discussed the events in Dublin and Dundalk at their subsequent meeting. With that in mind, An Táin Arts Centre is inviting people from the town and throughout Louth to work with us in devising a new way of looking and recounting what happened in Dundalk nearly 100 years ago.”

The genesis of the initiative was meeting between County Arts Officer, Brian Harten, Paul Hayes from An Táin Arts Centre, and Declan Mallon, Upstate Theatre project, based in Drogheda. At that meeting, it was decided to create a new recounting of the events which took place in Dundalk in 1916. Upstate Theatre Project has long experience of working with communities to develop film and drama productions, where the stories, and the way of telling those stories, are shaped by the community participants themselves.

As Declan Mallon says: “We don’t do re-enactments. What we aim to do is to unearth people’s stories, and present these in new and innovative ways.”

Declan Mallon and Paul Hayes were behind the acclaimed Ship Street Revisited, which saw a dilapidated street in Drogheda transformed into an outside stage for stories and performances informed by the memories of past residents of the street. Another of Upstate Theatre’s productions, The Far Side, was described by The Irish Times as “hilarious and heartbreaking, simple and surreal.” And so the people behind these productions are behind the new initiative for An Táin Arts Centre.

“We’re inviting people to join us in the Arts Centre in Crowe Street on Wednesday October 7^th at 7pm”, says County Arts Officer, Brian Harten.

“What will eventually be presented in April will be informed, to a large extent, by the views, stories and questions of the people who come along. If you can sing or act, great. If not, but are interested in 1916 in Dundalk, come along anyway. We want people to be involved and to help mould a re-telling of a momentous event in Irish history”