A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Conference told of 'good food' concerns
Ireland is failing to reach its potential as a destination for culinary tourists, a conference on food has been told, writes Paul Cullen.
Information on good food was often inaccessible to visitors, according to Peter Ward, chairman of Taste, the representative body for artisan food producers.
Almost 90 per cent of US tourists cite food as their primary leisure activity when visiting Ireland, compared to just 6 per cent for golf, he pointed out.
"We have an endless supply of people producing good food, but the infrastructure to access them is not there," he told the Euro-Toques food forum in Co Wicklow yesterday.
Information needed to be collated and more more user-friendly, said Mr Ward, who suggested the creation of "food trails" for tourists.
He also called on local councils to support farmers' markets, for example, by providing access to electric power, a water supply or parking.
While markets were expanding in some parts of the country, they had not yet reached the point of being sustainable, he warned.
"Markets are subject to disparate regulations interpreted in different ways. It's often easier to find parking in the supermarket car park than at the market."
Producers' responsibility was to ensure that markets had sufficient variety and to "get away from the notion of a travelling circus".
"If it's in Wexford, a market should reek of Wexford. No tourist wants to make a tour of markets only to find that they're all the same."
Leading US food writer Colman Andrews told the forum that Ireland had tremendous potential as a food destination, "but let's not get ahead of ourselves".
"For someone getting off a plane, it's not like arriving in Florence or Burgundy; you have to do some digging."
Fermanagh crash victim named
A man who died when his car hit a tree near the Border on Saturday morning was named yesterday as Peter Roohan jnr, a nephew of 1960s Donegal and Ulster GAA football star PJ Flood.
Mr Roohan, whose well-known family owns businesses in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, and Belleek, Co Fermanagh, lived near Belleek. The crash happened near Belleek.
Mr Roohan, who was in his 30s, will be buried tomorrow after a funeral Mass at St Michael's Church, Mulleek, Co Fermanagh.
Dead seagulls did not have bird flu
The discovery of about two dozen dead seagulls on a beach in south Kerry led member of the public, aware of the avian flu scares, to raise the alarm over the weekend.
However, preliminary results indicate the deaths are due to a form of botulism confined to the individual birds, Harry McDaid, chief officer for the Kerry Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said.
The society was alerted after people out walking found the dead birds near the golf links beach in Waterville, Mr McDaid said.
He said there was no threat to human health.