Other stories in brief...
€68,000 for rail worker in injury claim
An Iarnród Éireann depot worker who sustained a back injury after he was supplied with a brush seven inches shorter than normal and required to do heavy manual work without proper training has been awarded €68,000 in damages by the High Court.
The award was made by Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan to Faoláin Fanning, Mountjoy Square, Dublin, against the rail company.
The court was told Mr Fanning took up his position as depot worker in January 1989. Two years later he experienced back trouble. He had a major operation and was five months out of work. He had resumed light duties and continues to work with the company.
He said he sustained the injuries because the company required him to do heavy manual work. He claimed repetitive bending was needed to grease the points on a rail system when the company knew or ought to have known that such work in the absence of proper training and adequate tools was likely to cause injury.
Armagh man cleared of rape
A jury at the Central Criminal Court took just 40 minutes to find an Armagh man not guilty of raping a woman following a wedding reception five years ago. The 39-year-old married man had denied raping the south Armagh woman on September 15th, 2001, at a hotel in Monaghan. His acquittal by a jury of three women and nine men came on day five of a retrial.
A previous jury was discharged in June 2005 after a 10-day trial when it declared following four hours of deliberation that it was deadlocked.
Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins discharged the accused man.
Man accused of manslaughter
A man charged last June with assaulting another man on Dublin's O'Connell St was yesterday charged with his manslaughter. Wojcich Kuzma (27), a Polish security man, Sackfield Court, Blessington Street, Dublin, had been charged on June 27th with assault causing harm to Alan Barbour (27) on June 18th.
Mr Barbour, Lucan, Dublin, died in Beaumont Hospital five days after he received a head injury during the alleged incident. He was returning home with a friend in the early hours after a night out.
Independent bail of €5,000 had been set when Mr Kuzma appeared in court last June. Gardaí had no objection to that being extended to the new charge.
Judge Timothy Lucey remanded Mr Kuzma to appear on December 1st.
GAA compensates schoolgirl
The GAA has agreed to compensate a schoolgirl injured during camogie training in her school gym. The Circuit Civil Court heard that Antonia Malone had been advised by a GAA coach she did not need to wear a protective helmet for indoor drills.
Ms Malone, Airlie Heights, Lucan, Co Dublin, who was dribbling a sliothar in and out of a line of cones, fell and fractured a front tooth.
She sued Scoil Mhuire, Woodview, Lucan, and the Gaelic Athletic Association. Declan Buckley, for the school, said it had been agreed the claim against the school should be struck out without an order for costs.
Counsel for the GAA told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, the association had agreed without prejudice to settle Antonia's claim for €7,500.