A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Commission urges closure of Limerick psychiatric hospital
The Mental Health Commission has recommended the closure of Limerick’s 186-year-old psychiatric hospital St Joseph’s as its inspectors have deemed it not suitable for the purpose of providing care to its residents.
The finding is contained in a report by the commission’s Inspectorate of Mental Health Services concerning an unannounced reinspection of the hospital, which was built in 1825 and accommodates 53 psychiatric patients.
In its chief recommendation arising from the reinspection, the commission states that the hospital is “unsuitable for the purpose of providing care and treatment to residents and should close”.
The inspectors are recommending that “an urgent review of medication should take place in all four wards in the hospital”.
Gardaí investigate Slieve Bloom fire
Gardaí are investigating a fire which damaged between 50 and 100 acres at one of Ireland’s largest nature reserves in the Slieve Bloom mountains in Co Laois.
Units of the Mountmellick and Mountrath fire brigade yesterday brought the blaze under control with the aid of 20 Coillte employees.
The blaze broke out in the Slieve Blooms near Clonaslee, shortly after 10pm on Wednesday.
Coillte district manager Richard Whelan said it was the “third consecutive week that a fire has started after dark in the area”.
Cobh to mark 'Titanic' sinking
While the centenary of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic occurs next year, the tragedy will be marked with a more modest ceremony at an event in Cobh, Co Cork, this Sunday, April 10th.
Three days after the vessel left Cobh it struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, including 79 of those who boarded in Cobh.
The prayer, hymn and wreath-laying ceremony at the Titanic Memorial in Cobh will be followed by the ceremonial reading by schoolchildren of the names of the Cobh passengers.
Man jailed after sex with underage girl
A former business owner who had underage sex with his 16-year-old employee after she was drinking with him was yesterday jailed for two years and told he must complete a sex offender’s treatment programme.
The 40-year-old had abused his position of trust and passing sentence yesterday Judge Ray Fulham said the accused “was old enough to be her father”, and “what should have been a happy period in the young girl’s life turned out to be the very opposite”.