A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Santa castle visit to benefit Simon
A 15th-century Co Galway fortification has been transformed into a “Santa’s castle” to help raise funds for the homeless.
The Galway Simon Community will receive a percentage of the admission fee to Dunsandle Castle near Craughwell. Constructed for the De Burgos in the 15th century, the castle was extended into a manor house around 1650 and was lived in until about 1791. It is now owned by Malcolm Goodbody.
A torchlit procession through the castle’s 20-acre woodland, songs and stories form part of the 90-minute “Santa experience”.
It runs from Thursdays to Sundays until December 23rd and admission is €27 for a child and €11 for an adult. More information is available on 091-503865 or at www.santacastle.ie
Crean graveyard to be improved
The small graveyard of Ballynacourty, near Annascaul in west Kerry, the burial place of the Antarctic explorer Tom Crean, has become such an attraction that Kerry County Council is being forced to carry out improvement works to accommodate the visitors.
Crean, the son of a farmer who joined the British navy at the age of 15, was a key figure in three of the four major expeditions to the South Pole over 20 years. He was hand- picked for the teams of Scott and Shackleton.
He was awarded a number of polar medals as well as the Albert medal for bravery. He died in 1938 and is buried in a tomb in the tiny cemetery of Ballynacourty which he built himself.
New footpaths and a tarmacadam car park will be completed before Christmas.
Woman (84) dies in Dundalk house fire
Gardaí in Dundalk are investigating the cause of a house fire which claimed the life of a local woman on Saturday morning. She was named locally as Mary McKeown (84).
She was the only occupant in the house on Faughart Terrace, a quiet residential area close to the town centre. The alarm was raised by a passerby just before 9am and fire crews used breathing apparatus as they went into the house to search for her.
The possibility that the fire may have started in a bedroom is being investigated. A postmortem will be carried out today in the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk.
University in discussions over halted construction projects
NUI Galway says it is still in “discussions”, following the closure of four construction sites for major projects valued at €50 million on the university campus.
At least 300 sub-contractors involved in the four building projects have been out of work since the appointment of a receiver to Michael McNamara Co, the main contractor, over a week ago.
Work has halted on the university’s new science research building, a translational and clinical research facility, a humanities and social sciences research building and an extension to the arts/science concourse.
A new €40 million engineering building is not affected, as it is being built by Bam Contractors (formerly Ascon).
The McNamara company, which is at the heart of the Bernard McNamara property empire, was placed in receivership on November 11th after months of talks with the National Asset Management Agency.