A round-up of today's other regional news in brief.
Galmoy mines to close down two years early
More than 200 workers are to lose their jobs when a mining company shuts down two years ahead of schedule this summer, writes
Dara deFaoite
Workers at Galmoy Mines in north Kilkenny were told yesterday that operations would cease completely at the zinc mine this May. Management announced last September the mine would be wound down on a phased basis by July 2011 with the loss of 221 jobs. It said the decision to close the mine early has been taken “against a background of depressed zinc prices worldwide”.
Galmoy Mines, which is owned by the Canadian-based Lundin Mining Corporation, employs 221 workers, 105 of whom work in the mines.
Local Fine Gael county councillor Mary Hilda Kavanagh said news of an early closure has hit the area hard. “In the past there was somewhere else to go, such as the construction industry, but there’s nowhere to turn for these workers at the moment.”
Pedestrian killed in Limerick named
The man killed while crossing the road in Limerick on Wednesday night has been named as Seán Humphries from Lelia Place. He was the fourth person killed on Limerick roads in recent weeks.
He died after he was knocked down near the Abbey Bridge.
Year’s first salmon caught in Killarney
The first salmon of the year has been caught in Kerry where the season opens later than in other parts of the country. The wintry weather is felt to have kept both the fish and the anglers from moving until now.
Former fisheries officer Gerry Looney from Killarney caught the 10lb spring salmon on Tuesday morning on the Middle Lake in Killarney. Mr Looney is a retired fisheries officer with the south Western Regional Fisheries Board.
Mr Looney said he had not realised it was the first fish in Ireland but had “partly guessed” it was the first caught in Killarney.
The season in the southwest opened on January 17th. Some other areas of the country open on January 1st.
On Wednesday, the second salmon of the year was caught on the river Laune, also in Killarney, when Tralee man Tony McCormack caught what the board described as “a beautiful 9lb fish using a spinner”.