The number of burglaries in the Louth Garda Division jumped 17% from 2007 to 2014, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The figures reveal there were 896 burglaries in the county in 2007, compared to 1,048 in 2014.
In comparison, burglaries in the Cavan/Monaghan Garda Division fell 21% in the same period while in Meath the burglary rate was up 10%.
Louth will face Carlow in the opening round of the Leinster Senior Football Championship following last night’s draw.
While that looks like a favourable tie for the Wee County, things will get progressively harder after that.
Should Colin Kelly’s side progress to the quarter-finals then they will take on neighbours Meath, with the winners of that tie likely to face Dublin, who will await the winners of Laois and Wicklow in the other quarter-final.
Louth last met Carlow in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Championship, when they went down on a 0-14 to 0-13 scoreline in Portlaoise.
The Boyne Valley Bridge at the entrance/exit to Co Louth on the M1 motorway has been named as one of the 80 most iconic construction projects of the last 80 years.
The list was published in the latest issue of Construction Magazine, Ireland’s leading publication for the construction industry.
It was developed to mark the 80th anniversary of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), which was founded in 1935.
Renamed the mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge in June 2013 in honour of the former Irish president, the cable bridge spans the Boyne River and sits on the county boundary of Meath and Louth.
The bridge was built from May 2000 to early 2003 at a cost of €35 million and was designed by Roughan and O’Donovan, who were awarded the ACEI Presidential Award in 2005 for the design.
It opened on June 9th 2003 and was the longest cable-stayed bridge in Ireland until October 2009 when the River Suir Bridge opened on the N25.
The bridge is managed under a public-private partnership between the National Roads Authority on behalf of the Irish Government and a private company, Celtic Roads Group. The concession company has an obligation to maintain the road for 30 years.
The bridge and motorway are tolled in both directions to finance its construction and maintenance.
In 2006, the Bridge was awarded the Excellence Award (Civil) from the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland
The bridge is 352.5m in length and 34.5m wide. It is 95m high and has a longest span of 170m, with six spans in total.
Projects were chosen for the iconic list in Construction Magazine which were innovative, iconic, award winning, the first of their kind or infrastructurally critical. Projects from each of the last eight decades are included on the list.
Speaking about the list, Construction Magazine Editor Brian Foley said, “This list celebrates some of the really great construction projects that have been undertaken in this country over the last 80 years. In recent times there has been a lot of criticism aimed at the construction sector, particularly around certain badly built or poorly conceived projects which have given the industry a bad name. However as the projects in this list show, the construction industry plays a vital role in the economy and Irish society. It has contributed a lot to Irish life and some of these projects play an extremely important and positive role in the State.”
Check out the list here.
Fuel laundering is a major problem in this area
Louth Local Authorities have dealt with almost 600 cases of illegal fuel laundering and waste dumping in the county over the past five years at a cost of almost €4 million.
That’s according to new figures released by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, who revealed that there were more than 1,200 cases in border counties since 2011.
Almost half of the clean-up operations took place in Louth where 596 cases have been reported. Neighbouring Monaghan was closely behind with 509 sites, while Cavan, Donegal, Offaly, Meath and Waterford also had similar operations carried out.
The issue was raised at a recent meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Armagh when a detailed report on the problem by Senator Paul Coghlan was discussed.
In a report to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly in February, Mr Coghlan detailed the scale of the illegal cross-border trade worth hundreds of millions of euro a year and called for new cross-border task force to combat it.
Mr Coghlan will this morning address the members of Louth County Council about the need for a new approach to the problem, which has had a direct impact on the water quality in the county in recent years.
Minister Kelly revealed in response to a Dáil question recently that since 2011 more than €5 million had been allocated to local authorities by his department to deal with the problem, with almost €4 million of that being spent in Louth.
Louth missed out on a place in the Leinster Junior Championship final after Meath staged a dramatic late revival to run out 2-11 to 0-16 winners at Drogheda last night.
The Royals had been five points down with eight minutes to go but corner back Chris O’Connor proved their hero as he popped up with the winning point on the stroke of full-time.
Despite seeing Kevin Ross hit the net for the visitors after eight minutes, Louth had led by 0-9 to 1-5 at the break but three good goal chances that were all missed proved costly in the end.
With James Califf and Ronan Holcroft leading the scoring, the Wee County opened up a 0-16 to 1-8 lead by the 52nd minute.
However, a Bobby O’Brien goal two minutes later threw Meath a lifeline and they registered three points in the final four minutes to snatch the win.
Scorers – Meath: K Ross 1-3 (0-2f), C Lynch 0-6 (1f), B O’Brien 1-0, S Crosby, C O’Connor 0-1 each.
Louth: J Califf (2f), R Holdcroft (1f) 0-6 each, J McEneaney 0-2, J Agnew, C McKeever 0-1 each.
Louth – C Lynch; K Toner, B Mulligan, C Lenehan; P McGrath, C Smith, D McComish; J Califf, J McEneaney; J Agnew, R Holdcroft, C McKeever; D Maguire, D O’Connor, G McSorley. Subs: P Kirwin for McSorley (37), D Quigley for Smith (BC 43), R Nally for Maguire (50).
HIQA has said it has grave concerns about child protection services in Louth and Meath.
The Health Information and Quality Authority published a report recently on its inspection of the child protection and welfare services provided to children living in direct provision accommodation in four of the Child and Family Service areas, namely Louth/Meath, Midlands, Sligo/Leitrim/West Cavan and Dublin North City.
The authority says around 14% of the population of children living in these centres were referred to the Child and Family Agency in one year, compared to 1.6% for the general child population.
In the year to August 2014, there were around 1,600 children living in direct provision accommodation. Of these, there were 209 referrals of child protection and welfare concerns relating to 229 children.
Among the issues identified were physical or mental illness of a parent impacting on capacity to provide quality care for children, mental health issues for children and parents, isolation, and lack of clothes and toys.
Protection concerns included children being left alone for long periods of time as well as proximity of children to unknown adults living on the same site, and inappropriate contact by adults towards some children.
In Louth/Meath, there were significant delays in social work interventions. Of particular concern was that in 27 out of the 38 cases reviewed, children were not met with or seen by social workers to inform their decision making about the referral even though records indicated concerns about their safety and welfare.
There were significant delays in completing assessments and sharing information, which placed children at risk. In this area children did not all receive the services they needed, initial assessments were not completed and some risks were not addressed. In one case there were significant concerns about an allegation of physical abuse of two children and the case was closed without children being visited.
Mary Dunnion, Director of Regulation of HIQA said: “The quality of the child protection and welfare service provided to children across the four areas sampled in this inspection was radically inconsistent. The quality and level of service varied widely across the four areas visited. In the Midlands the service was mixed but in Louth/Meath the service was much poorer and some risks had not been identified and addressed by managers. There was no strategic plan in place to identify and meet the needs of this particularly vulnerable group of children and families.”
The Louth Junior team will be hoping to book themselves a place in the Leinster Junior Football Championship final when they take on neighbours Meath in Drogheda tomorrow night.
Throw-in is at 7.30pm with the two sides vying to book a place in the decider against either Wexford or Longford, who meet in the other last four tie on the same night.
The HSE in the North East spent more than €1 million on taxis in just six months, according to new figures revealed at last week’s Regional Health Forum.
From November 2014 to April 2015, a total of €1,018,532 was spent by the HSE on taxis across Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan.
Around €994,000 of this was spent bringing patients from one hospital to another, while a further €23,700 was spent on taxis bringing specimens to laboratories.
Cllr Tomás Sharkey described the figures as “shocking” to LMFM but the HSE defended the costs saying that their vehicles were prioritised for emergency work and the use of taxis was still more cost effective than investing in further HSE vehicles which would require 24/7 staffing, maintenance, fuel, insurance and tax.
Damien Quigley with his parents Majella and Tommy
A local man was one of nine ordained as a deacon in Maynooth on Sunday.
Damien Quigley from Cedarwood Park in Cox’s Demesne and a member of the Parish of the Holy Redeemer joined the seminary in Maynooth in 2010.
A former student of Coláiste Rís, Damien studied in both Dundalk IT and Queen’s University where he graduated with a degree in science.
He then went on to work for Tesco for 12 years where he reached a senior management position, overseeing a number of stores in the South Dublin area.
A love of the church prompted the now 40-year-old to seek to join the priesthood though.
Damien is the youngest son of Tommy and Majella ‘Solo’ Quigley and was the only member of the Armagh archdiocese to be ordained at the weekend by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Ordination as a transitional deacon takes place one year before ordination to priesthood. As well as his family and friends, amongst those supporting Damien at the weekend was fellow local man, Barry Matthews, who is due to be ordained a deacon next year.
The nine deacons are from the dioceses of Armagh, Clogher, Cork & Ross, Derry, Down & Connor, Galway (2), and Meath (2).
They will continue their priestly formation in Maynooth for the next year.
As a deacon, the nine will be able to do almost all that a priest does with the exception of saying Mass and hearing Confession.
A deacon may proclaim the gospel, preach, preside over public prayer, baptise, assist at marriages and bless them, give viaticum to the dying, and lead the rites of burial.
Damien Quigley supported by his family and friends at his ordination on Sunday
Fuel laundering is a major problem in this area
Nineteen filling stations have been shut down in Louth in the last three years – more than any other county nationwide.
The closures came as part of an investigation by Revenue Commissioners into fuel laundering that started in mid-2011.
While figures for 2011 were unavailable, The Journal.ie revealed today that 13 stations were closed in Louth in 2012, with three each in 2013 and 2014.
Dublin (12) and Meath (11) were the next worst offenders.
Filling stations are obliged to hold an auto fuel trader’s licence and/or a marked fuel trader’s licence in order to trade in fuel.
The stations that were closed were either unlicensed or had failed to adhere to the conditions of their licences.
Some of the stations which were closed have opened again and the premises are now in line with licensing requirements.
There are also cases where the premises changed hands and a new owner applied for a licence or licences.
Talk of the Town 