A 50-year-old Galway farmer was in a “critical” condition in hospital last night with a gunshot wound to his upper body, writes Lorna Siggins.
The man was taken by ambulance from his home to University College Hospital, Galway, early yesterday.
The farmer lives at Toorard, near Headford in the north of the county.
Gardaí sealed off the area for a technical examination.
Two men on taxi hijack charges
Two men, one aged 26 and the other 33, were charged yesterday at Athlone District Court in connection with the hijacking of a taxi on January 12th, 2007.
The taxi driver picked up two men at about 2.15am on that date in Mullingar. He was subsequently seriously assaulted and thrown from the taxi.
His assailants drove off in the direction of Castlepollard.
Stamp honours 1918 sea tragedy
A new stamp commemorating the worst disaster on the Irish Sea was launched yesterday.
The RMS Leinster was sunk by a German torpedo off Dún Laoghaire in October 1918, with the loss of more than 500 lives.
Up to 300,000 copies of the 55 cent stamp will be issued by An Post to mark the 90th anniversary of the sinking.
The victims included several postal workers as well as scores of on-leave soldiers from Britain, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.A committee organising the 90th anniversary events has appealed for relatives of the victims to come forward.
Car registrations down almost 18%
New car registrations are down almost 18 per cent since the same time last year, the latest CSO figures have revealed.
It is the third consecutive month that registrations have fallen year on year.
There were 17,587 new private cars licensed in April 2008, compared with 21,427 in April 2007, a decrease of 17.9 per cent.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan blamed the decrease on confusion about vehicle registration tax (VRT) changes which begin on July 1st.
“Environment Minister John Gormley should have introduced the VRT changes from January 1st instead of the introduction date of July 1st,” said Mr Hogan.
The CSO figures show a small demand for more environmentally friendly vehicles. Of the 23,712 new vehicles licensed in April, there were 139 vehicles fuelled by petrol and electric, while petrol and ethanol accounted for 404.