In Short

A round up of today's other stories in brief...

A round up of today's other stories in brief...

Timber firm lobbies over factory site

Staff at Wicklow timber firm Abwood Homes have been lobbying Wicklow County Council in advance of today's vote on whether to approve planning permission for retention of part of the factory, writes Tim O'Brien.

Under a High Court judgment obtained by the county council last year, the site on the western side of the N11 south of Newtownmountkennedy was to have been cleared by April. However, council planners who won the case recently said they would recommend a material contravention of the county development plan to allow part of the development to stay.

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Their decision is based on a new application to retain two of the three buildings on site, together with the creation of a 100-metre development-free zone alongside the N11 and the installation of a new earthen bank, obscuring visibility of the factory from the N11.

Man dies while cutting hedge

A man in his early 50s was killed in a freak accident in Co Wexford on Saturday while out cutting his hedge.

Its understood he fell on to the hedge trimmer at Castletown, Gorey, at about 11am and died at the scene.

His name has not yet been released by gardaí.

Drowned aid worker's funeral

The Co Galway aid volunteer who drowned in Ghana over a week ago is to be buried in her home parish tomorrow.

Natalie Higgins (24) from Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway, died after she was swept out to sea by a rogue wave while walking along a beach in Ghana. She had only been in the country for 10 days, having volunteered to work in an orphanage.

Ms Higgins will be buried after funeral Mass in St Bernard's Church in Abbeyknockmoy at 1pm tomorrow.

'Mad Pride Day' staged in Cork

The inaugural "Mad Pride Day" was staged in Cork yesterday to tackle the stigma and loneliness associated with mental illness, writes Olivia Kelleher. Modelled on Gay Pride days, the aim of the event is to "celebrate ordinary madness" and break down divisions between those who have experienced the psychiatric system and those who have not.

Woman stable after cliff fall

A woman who fell off a cliff at Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow yesterday afternoon was last night in a stable condition at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. The woman was airlifted to the hospital by helicopter.