Cattle stolen as couple went to Mass

James McGahon at the pen where the cattle were stolen from

Gardaí are investigating an incident which saw four cattle stolen from an elderly couple’s farm last Friday night.

The finished steer animals belonged to James and Ann McGahon, from the Stonetown area.

The couple went to Mass last Friday night but on her return around 8.30pm Ann noticed fresh tracks coming out of an unused gate. The next morning James discovered four cattle missing.

“The couple have taken it fairly bad,” Louth IFA chair Matthew McGreehan told The Farmers Journal.

“On the way back from Mass, Ann noticed tracks coming out of a gate they don’t use. When they went to count the cattle the next morning, they discovered that four finished bullocks had been stolen.”

The four animals, worth over €7,000, were Simmental and Friesian crosses.

According to Matthew McGreehan, an attempted rustling took place near Cooley last week, but the cattle broke free before they could be loaded. He encourages people to be vigilant in securing their stock.

“The Department of Agriculture and gardaí are going to have to clamp down on it,” said McGreehan. “They can leave no stone unturned. In the meantime, farmers need to be conscious of rustling when they are putting animals in sheds. They should also put padlocks on gates in fields, particularly where a permanent loading pen is already in place.”

The IFA chair has arranged a meeting with Garda Chief Superintendent, Pat McGee, to discuss the matter further.

No joy for local boxers Broadhurst and Lambe

Stephen Broadhurst lost out to Michael O’Reilly on Friday night

There was no joy for Dundalk boxer Stephen Broadhurst on Friday night after he lost out to Portlaoise’s Michael O’Reilly for the 75kg senior national elite title at the National Stadium in Dublin.

The 20-year-old, who has 10 national titles under his belt at youth level, was aiming for senior success at his first attempt but the Dealgan southpaw was no match for O’Reilly, who earned a unanimous verdict over three, three minute rounds on the night.

There will also no joy for Stonetown boxer Joanne Lambe, who lost out to Dervla Duffy in the Women’s Featherweight Final.

Diesel laundering waste dumped at Ballykelly

A large dumping of diesel laundering waste was discovered on the Louth and Monaghan border earlier today.

3,000 litres of diesel sludge was discovered illegally dumped at Ballykelly –  near to Louth Village and Stonetown.

This is the second dumping of fuel waste this month after two cubes of diesel laundering sludge were at dumped at St Brigid’s Shrine on February 1st.

Louth County Council are dealing with the disposal of the waste but at great cost to the taxpayer.

Floats stolen following break-ins to local businesses

The float of a shop in the Ballykelly area was stolen during a break-in in the early hours of last Thursday morning.

The incident happened between 3am and 4am, with a passing driver seeing two men fleeing the scene in a silver Ford Focus, heading in the direction of Carrickmacross.

The men had made their escape by the time the gardaí had arrived on the scene.

Ballykelly is located on the Louth/Monaghan border, near to Louth Village and Stonetown.

Meanwhile, there was a similar break-in to a premises in the Hale Street area of Ardee in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Access to the premises was gained by the thieves cutting a hole in the wall. They then made off with the float and cigarettes.

Anyone who might have heard or seen anything in relation to this is asked to contact gardaí in Ardee.

No retrial for O’Brien

Barry O’Brien

The State will not seek a retrial in the case of a local man who had one of his two convictions for IRA membership quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal last year.

Mr Damien Colgan SC this morning told the Special Criminal Court that the State wished to enter a “Nolle Prosequi”, in other words not proceed with the retrial of Barry O’Brien.

The 41-year-old father of five from Stonetown near Dundalk, was convicted in December 2010 of membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on April 6, 2004.

He was jailed for three years and nine months by the Special Criminal Court in February 2011.

On July 2 2012 the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled it would quash the conviction imposed by the Special Criminal Court and direct a retrial of Mr O’Brien.

He had appealed against his conviction on the basis that the warrant issued for his arrest was invalid because it was issued by the Superintendant in charge of the investigation.

Last year the Supreme Court declared that section 29 (1) of the Offences Against the State Act (as inserted by section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1976) was repugnant to the Constitution, as it permitted a search of a person’s home on foot of a warrant not issued by an independent person.

The court found that Article 40.5 of the Constitution expressly provides that a person’s home is inviolable and shall not be forcibly entered except in accordance with the law.

Three weeks after his 2011 conviction was overturned, O’Brien was convicted by the Special Criminal Court of membership of the IRA on August 8th, 2010.

He was sentenced to five years with three years suspended but was released on bond after the non-jury court ordered the sentence to commence on the date of the charge.

Counsel for the defendant, Ms Deirdre Murphy SC, asked the court to excuse her client’s non-attendance at the hearing as his car had suffered a puncture en-route to court.

Ms Murphy told the three-judge court that bail money also needed to be paid out to O’Brien.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the Special Criminal Court, said the court would make all necessary ancillary orders to the entering of the Nolle Prosequi by the State.