News

FIANNA Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, has defended the decision not to run a party candidate for the Presidential election, despite stinging criticism from local county councillors.

MEMBERS of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in the emergency department of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

WHILE the wheels fell off the wagon for Fianna Fáil in the March General Election, party leader, Micheál Martin this week acknowledged they got things badly wrong in Clare at the local elections in June 2009.

IT is easy to understand why Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore is so “quiet, indecisive and unsure of himself” in Cabinet, as reported during the week. He cannot afford to annoy his Fine Gael colleagues.

LAST weekend I visited an art exhibition in Edinburgh titled 400 Women. It was made up of portraits, in various media, of women who have been murdered or disappeared in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. The City, formerly known as El Paso Del Norte, has an international reputation for violence and was once branded “the most violent zone in the world outside of warzones”.

VULNERABLE children with special needs will face an increased risk of being forced out of mainstream education facilities following the “horrendous” 13% cut in Special Needs Assistants this year, unions have claimed.

SUICIDE prevention is more difficult at the Cliffs of Moher than other locations because of the landmark’s emotional significance, according to the head of the Irish Coast Guard (IRCG).