Two cocky Dublin thieves ordered a taxi as their getaway car when they were stranded in Carlow early in the morning. They got their comeuppance when they were collected by a Garda car, after the alert taxi-driver who took the call notified gardai.
The thieves, one aged only 15, had robbed £20,000 from a Carlow jewellery store, said the Nationalist and Leinster Times.
They're cute down the country, that's for sure. There's a "better quality of life down the country", too, the same paper said which is why landowners around Carlow town are rejoicing in their newfound prosperity. Thanks to the willingness of Dublin commuters to set up home in Carlow, land zoned for residential development around the town has reached a "whopping" £86,300 an acre.
Sligo Corporation's only female councillor has claimed that the council is a "men's club" which attempts to silence women in local government. Ms Sheelagh Hanly believes she has been isolated and discriminated against at corporation level merely because she is a woman, said the Sligo Champion.
She also claimed she was denied the opportunity of representing the corporation on other public bodies and many proposals suggested by her were "hijacked" by her male colleagues. Ms Hanly was speaking to the Sligo Champion after a council meeting which she cited as an example of this.
She put down a motion some time ago, unanimously agreed by the borough council, that ramps be provided at Cartron Heights, yet when details of the allocation of the block grant for such facilities were agreed on Monday, Cartron Heights was not on the list.
"My motion was passed unanimously, yet it was not acted on. I can only conclude that this is because the motion was put forward by a woman and, as such, was not taken seriously." Ms Hanly also highlighted her failure to win a nomination as one of the corporation's four delegates to Sligo VEC, when she had been nominated to the board of governors at the Sligo Institute of Technology because of a gender balance requirement.
However, when it came to nominating delegates to serve as the corporation's representative on the VEC, four men were appointed, a situation which she described as "ludicrous".
County and urban council seats for women and men could soon become available in Mayo, if Oireachtas members take the advice of the Minister for the Environment.
Mixing its metaphors, the Con- naught Telegraph said Mr Dempsey "dealt a political bombshell" when he announced that he no longer wanted them to stand for election to local councils and corporations, a move which could have serious implications for those with "duel (sic) and treble mandates".
Surely there's no way Mr Dempsey can stop the duelling, with words at least.
In Ballyheigue, Co Kerry, an open grave was filled in minutes before a funeral Mass because of a dramatic dispute over a family plot, said the Kerry man. A Garda presence at the cemetery ensured that Ms Mary O'Hara could not be buried in the grave with her husband Henry, who died three years ago.
Ms O'Hara is survived by her only son Patrick and four daughters. Patrick O'Hara's solicitor, Mr Risteard Pierse, said in a statement there was "no family dispute, solicitor's correspondence or proceedings in existence between our client and any of his sisters in relation to the burial of the late Mrs O'Hara. Rather it appears that two of our client's sisters are and have been asserting ownership of the plot 124 B, Ballyheighue."
Ms O'Hara had expressed the wish to be buried with her husband. According to Mr Pierse, an application to Limerick Circuit Court for an injunction preventing the burial was unsuccessful. He told the Kerryman it was possible that proceedings may be continued against Kerry County Council.
New Ross UDC is claiming that it has been snubbed by the Taoi seach, Mr Ahern, who declined an invitation to unveil a 1798 sculpture in the town in June. The event was scheduled to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Ross. "The snub is all the more embarrassing for local Fianna Fail members given that the Taoiseach will actually be in town that night to attend a function being hosted by the new Ross Ballycullane Comhairle Ceanntair to celebrate none other than his election to office," said the New Ross Standard.
Council members are now "hoping to apply the same pressure which resulted in Mr Ahern eventually accepting an invitation to attend the opening of the World Sheep-Shearing Championships to be held in Gorey earlier that day," added the newspaper.