Just under half the population of Louth now have a Facebook account

Just under half of the population of Louth now have a Facebook account, according to new statistics from EightyTwenty.ie

The website found that 47.19% of the county use Facebook – the fourth highest figure in the country after Waterford (47.45%), Limerick (50.05%) and Dublin (75.41%).

The figure for Louth was significantly higher than that of neighbours Monaghan (31.08%) and Meath (26.07%).

The news comes just weeks after EightyTwenty.ie found that Louth had the third highest proportion of tweets per county on Twitter, just behind Cork and Dublin.

The same stats also found that Louth had the highest proportion of tweets per 1,000 of the population of anywhere in the country.

According to EightyTwenty, Louth people are “highly savvy when it comes to social media.”

“Louth and Waterford appear near the top of this and the Twitter study. This would suggest the two counties are highly savvy when it comes to social media given that a high percentage of the local population are active on Facebook and send a high volume of tweets in comparison to other counties.”

Adams pays tribute to Mandela

Local TD Gerry Adams has paid tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela on his Twitter page.

The Sinn Féin president met Mandela on a number of occasions and this morning described him as a “hero”.

Commenting on the passing of the 95-year-old last night, Deputy Adams said: “I am lucky 2 have met Madiba in Ireland, South Africa & London a good few times. Freedom fighter, Visionary, Hero!”

He also posted the photo above of the pair in one of their meetings.

After news of his passing broke last night, Adams also posted the following message: “Even though news of Madiba’s death was expected my heart slipped@the news of his passing. A great human being. An inspiration. Mandela go deo.”

Dundalk On Ice ready to go

Dundalk On Ice gets underway tomorrow and the rink is ready to go at the Market Square for the big opening.

The ice rink has been pieced together in recent days and thanks to the Dundalk Jobs Twitter account for sharing this picture of it yesterday afternoon.

Prices for an hour long skating session at this year’s Dundalk on Ice will be as follows:

• Child (under 12 years) €6.95 compared with €10 last year
• Adult  €9.95 compared with €12 last year
• Family of 4 (two adults & two children) €25 with €5 per child thereafter compared with €35 last year.

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McDonnell signs for Shelbourne

Stephen McDonnell

Local footballer Stephen McDonnell last night signed a contract with Shelbourne for next season.

The former Quay Celtic and Glasgow Celtic midfielder has played for Dundalk FC for since March 2010 and will be best remembered by Lilywhites’ supporters for scoring a crucial late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Waterford United in the first leg of the 2012 promotion/relegation play-off.

McDonnell’s role was limited with Dundalk this season as he made just 11 league appearances and the 21-year-old will be hoping to reignite his career with a move to Tolka Park.

Commenting on his Twitter page, McDonnell said he was “delighted” to have signed with Shelbourne and said he was targeting an instant return to the Premier Division following their relegation last season.

He also thanked Dundalk FC for the last four years.

Did someone forget to pay the ESB bill in Dundalk?

Large portions of the town have been left without light over the course of the last 24 hours.

Local journalist Niamh Kirk posted the above picture of Clanbrassil Street blacked out to her Twitter account yesterday evening but it was not the only area affected by a black out.

Clarke Station was also affected by the black out, while other areas have been reported to have been hit too.

Commuters delayed as Enterprise breaks down in Dundalk

Local commuters, as well as those travelling from Belfast to Dublin this morning, have been delayed by an hour as the train has stopped at Dundalk due to a mechanical fault.

The 06.50 Belfast-Connolly train is operating 50 minutes late, according to the Iarnrod Eireann Twitter account.

The train has terminated at Dundalk due to a “mechanical fault”.

The 8.22 Enterprise from Drogheda to Connolly has also been delayed by 25 minutes due to a mechanical fault.

Iarnrod Eireann have apologised to commuters via their Twitter account.

Another milestone for Talk of the Town

Talk of the Town reached another milestone yesterday when Liam O’Neill began our 1,000th follower on Facebook.

We’d like to thank you all for the support you’ve shown us in the last few months. Our primary aim, as always, is to promote the town, highlight issues that affect it and keep people in the know about what is happening in the area.

None of that could happen without you so thank you for the support.

You can follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/talkofthetowndundalk or on Twitter at @TOTTDundalk

PayPal hiring in Dundalk

Louise Phelan of PayPal

PayPal are currently hiring for English speaking roles in Dundalk

The company’s VP of Global Operations, Louise Phelan, has been on Twitter this morning advertising the positions.

You can find out more about the various roles in PayPal here or email dundalkrecruitment@paypal.com for further details.

PayPal moved into Dundalk early last year and have promised to create 1,000 jobs for the area.

Ah here!

Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny has his jumper returned to him by Stephen Egan of Panama Café

We know there’s not always major breaking news to report on but The Dundalk Democrat appear to be missing a scoop more than most.

A story appeared on their website over the weekend titled ‘Relief as Kenny jumper safely returned’.

The article centred around the fact that Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny left his jumper behind in Panama Café at the Market Square only to later have it returned to him.

Yep, that’s as interesting as it gets folks and the article has gone viral – but not in a good way – on social media sites.

Next week, we’ll have a report on how the Dundalk boss missed out on clubcard points at Tesco after forgetting to swipe his card at the till.

Source: Relief as Kenny jumper returned (Dundalk Democrat)

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• This week’s Dundalk Democrat (talkofthetown.ie)

Sharkey hits out at County Manager over lack of a report on housing acquisitions by council

County Manager Philomena Poole

Sinn Féin councillor Tomás Sharkey has accused Philomena Poole of making a “bad start” as the new Louth County Manager after a report into the council’s acquisition of houses wasn’t presented as promised at this morning’s monthly meeting for September.

Ms Poole, who took over as County Manager during the summer, commissioned Deloitte to carry out an audit of council house acquisitions from 2010 after a Dundalk Democrat article revealed that two senior members of the local authority’s housing section had overseen the sale of their own homes to the council.

A statement from the council last weekend promised that the County Manager “will report to the full council at it’s September meeting”. However, that failed to happen at this morning’s meeting, leading to Cllr Sharkey to hit out at Ms Poole on his Twitter account.

It is now likely that the report will not be ready, at best, until the October meeting.

Related articles

• Audit of council house acquisitions to be carried out in Louth (talkofthetown.ie)
• Dundalk Democrat report on Council staff selling their own properties to the local authority (talkofthetown.ie)