A round-up of today's other regional news in brief ...
Gardaí arrest Wicklow hotel raid suspect
A man was being questioned last night by gardaí investigating an armed robbery at a Co Wicklow hotel during which a Minister was among a group of guests held at gunpoint.
Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche and eight other people were held by three armed raiders when the Druids Glen Marriott Hotel and Country Club near Newtownmountkennedy was robbed last December.
An estimated €20,000 in cash was taken.
Officers from Bray Garda station arrested a suspect in his late 20s yesterday morning in connection with the robbery. He was held under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
Mr Roche (61) and his driver were leaving Druids Glen following a swim when they were approached by the raiders on December 15th.
Tralee hospital faces cutbacks
The outpatients department at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee is to be shut down for several weeks during the year, as part of a cost-saving exercise announced by HSE South yesterday, writes Anne Lucey.
The hospital’s 29-bed Annagh Ward, a male surgical ward, is to switch from a seven-day to a five-day ward.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) criticised the cuts and the way they were announced. Industrial relations officer with the INO Michael Dineen said frontline services were the first to be reduced by the HSE, when the opposite should be the case.
Axe attack in barber’s shop
A court in Clare heard yesterday how a man’s afternoon haircut at an Ennis barber’s shop ended when an axe-wielding assailant struck him twice on the head with the weapon.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Raymond Fullam said that David McDonagh was lucky to escape with his life in the axe attack by Anthony McDonagh (22), Waterpark View, Ennis, at Brownie’s barber’s shop on September 18th last.
David McDonagh suffered a broken arm and remained in hospital for five days. In brief evidence, he said the feud was now resolved between the two sides and he accepted Anthony McDonagh was very sorry.
Judge Fullam described the attack as a vicious assault, and imposed a four-year term on McDonagh, suspending the final two years.
Three trapped in car for 12 hours
Three elderly people were treated in hospital yesterday after they were trapped for more than 12 hours in a car which went off the road and ended up on its side in a field the previous night in Co Kilkenny.
The driver and two passengers, all understood to be in their 70s, were forced to spend the night in the car when they were unable to free themselves from the vehicle.
The incident occurred on a dangerous bend on the Ballyraggett to Castlecomer road, shortly after 8pm on Tuesday.
The occupants were freed from the vehicle at about 9am yesterday after a passing motorist spotted the car in the field. They were taken to St Luke’s hospital, Kilkenny, for treatment and their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
Petrol bomb attack on home
A family narrowly escaped injury after a petrol bomb was thrown at the front of their home in Conway Park, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, early yesterday.
It is the second petrol bomb attack in the town in the space of 48 hours following a similar incident at a house in Fair Green, on Monday night. No one was injured in either attack but there was extensive damage.