A round-up of today's other stories in brief…
Injunction on Ballymun flats picket continued
The High Court has continued to tomorrow an injunction prohibiting picketing outside flat blocks in Ballymun in an industrial dispute that has left almost all of those blocks without lifts.
The temporary injunction was granted on a one-side only basis to Dublin City Council on Tuesday against the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union and two named picketers.
The application arose from a dispute which began last February when the lift repair company, Pickerings, sought to make seven of its employees redundant.
Since then, 25 of the 27 lifts in nine remaining eight- storey blocks and in the 14-storey Plunkett Tower had gone out of commission because it has not been possible to repair them due to the pickets, the court was told. Some 450 families and four wheelchair-users are affected.
The court heard yesterday that the union had been notified of the injunction and Ms Justice Mary Laffoy ordered it remain in place until tomorrow. In the interim, the union will prepare affidavits in reply to those submitted by the council.
Roddy Horan for the council told the court on Tuesday the situation over the unrepaired lifts was “parlous” and the tenants were “suffering dreadfully”.
The court heard the council had ended its contract with Pickerings and was ready to put in a new contractor but the union had said it would continue picketing.
Teacher 'walked out' of inquiry
A teacher acquitted eight years ago of sexual abuse charges made against him by a number of pupils at a special needs school prematurely "walked out" of a new inquiry into his 12-year suspension with pay, counsel for the school told the High Court yesterday.
Gerard Hogan SC said Patrick McGlinchey's response to the way the inquiry was being conducted was "wholly premature and inappropriate".
Counsel was opposing an application by Mr McGlinchey (57), Newport, Co Tipperary, for an order quashing a bid to re-suspend him over allegedly frustrating a new inquiry into his 1997 suspension.
When the case opened on Tuesday, Mr McGlinchey told the court the inquiry was not conducted in a fair manner.
Yesterday, opening the case for the school, Mr Hogan said the independent chairman of the inquiry, who was appointed by the Bar Council, had conducted the inquiry in an impartial and fair way.
Mr McGlinchey's claims that the children who made the allegations should have been brought before the inquiry did not recognise the limits within which the inquiry had to work, counsel said.
The inquiry and Mr McGlinchey did not have the power to call the children and the parents involved said they were not prepared to allow their children to attend.
However, counsel added, some eight or nine of the parents themselves were prepared to attend to give evidence. It also had to be borne in mind that these were special needs children with disabilities ranging from moderate to severe.
The hearing before Ms Justice Mary Laffoy continues.
Youth (17) held after shots fired in Moyross
A 17-year-old youth was in custody in Limerick last night after a number of shots were fired at a house in a large housing estate in the city.
The teenager was arrested in possession of a firearm shortly after shots were fired at a house in College Avenue, Moyross. Nobody was injured in the attack, which took place shortly before 5pm.
The youth was taken to Mayorstone Garda station where he was being held last night under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. He can be held for up to 72 hours.The shooting is believed to be drugs-related but is not connected to the wider Limerick feud, according to gardaí.
Supt Frank O’Brien of Henry Street Garda station said the increase in the level of patrols in Limerick following the recent deployment of the armed Emergency Response Unit led to the quick arrest.
Investigation into death after arrest
The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is investigating the death of a man after he became unconscious at a Garda station following his arrest for a public order offence, writes Conor Lally.
Named locally as Antonio Nunes (39), an Irish national from Killinarden, he was arrested on Tuesday evening and fell unconscious at Tallaght Garda station at about 8.15pm. Gardaí who checked him in a cell found he was unresponsive. He was taken by ambulance to Tallaght hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy informed the commission of the man’s death, and an investigation was begun immediately.
Woman (83) fought with intruder
An 83-year-old woman told a jury yesterday how she kneed in the groin, hit with a curtain pole and punched an intruder in her home in Derry last year.
She also told the jury that she threw a bottle of water at the intruder and tried to bite his hand and scratch his face.
The grandmother was giving evidence in the trial of Thomas Anthony Burke (50), Eglinton Terrace, Bogside.
Mr Burke denies falsely imprisoning and assaulting the woman in her home in Northland Road last May. He denies a further charge of stealing £180 from her.
The witness told the jury of eight women and four men at the city’s crown court that the intruder pulled her hair and punched her and that when she attempted to escape he slammed the front door of her home on her right arm.
Prison officer awarded trial costs
A prison officer who was acquitted of making a false needle stick allegation has been awarded his trial costs.
Judge Patricia Ryan had directed a not guilty verdict at the end of Robert O'Neill's trial last November after Seán Gillane SC, defending, said the jury would have based its decision on "conjecture".
Mr O'Neill (44), North Circular Road, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to falsely claiming in May 2006 that his hand was pricked by a syringe left on the palm reader at Mountjoy Prison the previous day.
Froebel college to move to Maynooth
All student teachers from Froebel College of Education in Dublin will move to NUI Maynooth in 2013.
The university and Froebel unveiled plans yesterday to establish the Froebel department of early childhood and primary education at the Co Kildare university.
Under the plan, Maynooth will be the only Irish university offering the full spectrum of teacher education on campus – from primary and secondary through to adult and community.
The Froebel college was established by the Dominican Sisters in 1943 and is based at Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Judge Ryan said she had carefully considered all the witness statements in the case.