A round-up of other stories in brief...
Murder suspects held for further questioning
Two suspects in the murder of a man killed in a triple shooting in January were being questioned yesterday after gardaí were given permission to extend their detention at a late-night court sitting in Dublin.
The men, aged 25 and 19, are being questioned about the murder of Stephen O’Halloran (20) at Kilmartin Drive, Tallaght, Dublin, on the night of Monday, January 19th. The father of one was shot in the head by two gunmen as he sat in a car with two friends, who were wounded in the attack.
Postmortem due after man’s death
Gardaí in Galway are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a man whose body was found in a city residence yesterday.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis is expected to conduct a postmortem on the body today at University College Hospital, Galway.
The man, believed to be in his mid-40s and from Latvia, is reported to have sustained an injury to the head and to have died yesterday at an apartment in Riverside, close to the N17.
Diocesan clergy to fall by 30%
The number of clergy in a west of Ireland diocese is set to fall by 30 per cent over the next four years, leaving most parishes there with just one resident priest by 2013.
No more than 70 priests will be available to serve in the diocese by then, some 30 fewer than at present, it was claimed. A working group set up by the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has come up with proposals on how the archdiocese might be best served by fewer priests.
Among proposals accepted by Dr Neary is the grouping of parishes into “clusters” to ensure pastoral needs are met.
Welfare inquiry in Border areas
Department of Social and Family Affairs officials have launched an operation in the Cavan-Monaghan Border region targeted at people from the North who take up addresses just across the Border to claim social welfare benefits in the Republic.
So far officials have found that, in one case alone, 18 people with the same address in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, were claiming dole.
A married couple claiming unemployment benefit in Northern Ireland receives the equivalent of €106.70. By obtaining an address in the Republic, the same couple can receive €333.90 a week.
Phillip Cox, regional manager at the department, said it had identified 101 suspect cases, which were being investigated.
Pilgrimages up at Lough Derg
Bookings for pilgrimages to Lough Derg, the island retreat near Pettigo, Co Donegal, are well up on recent years.
The pilgrimage season opens with one-day retreats on May 2nd and three-day retreats from June 1st.
Lough Derg manager Deborah Maxwell said yesterday pilgrim numbers usually rose or fell according to the state of the nation.
“When things maybe aren’t so bright people do tend to turn back to something that’s traditional and solid – something like Lough Derg, where you can get a sense of prayer or a sense of hope.”
American college president killed
The president of an American college was killed in a road crash on Wednesday en route to Limerick for a conference at the Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Dr Thomas E Dillon, president of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, was killed just after 2pm on Wednesday when he lost control of his car on the M7 in Co Laois and hit the verge.
Mr Dillon was travelling with his wife, Terri, for the three-day conference.
Peadar Cremin, president of Mary Immaculate College, said the college was devastated.