More news in brief
The salvage of the 8-meter (26-ft) lobster boat Rising Sun may begin next week if weather permits, according to the Department of Transport yesterday, writes Lorna Siggins.
A contract for the salvage was awarded yesterday by the Irish Coast Guard to a Rosslare-based company, Tuskar Rock Marine. The salvage is being carried out at the request of the family of the vessel's skipper, Pat Colfer, who is still missing following the vessel's sinking in November with the loss of three lives.
State abandons fight for costs
The State has dropped plans to pursue seven members of the Burren Action Group for €35,000 in legal costs arising from the decade-long Mullaghmore conflict.
Last month, the Chief State Solicitor's Office appointed a debt-collection agency to pursue the seven, including author John O'Donoghue, academic Prof Emer Colleran and broadcaster PJ Curtis, for €34,427 in legal costs.
However, the Chief State Solicitor, David O'Hagan, has written to the group to state: "I have now been instructed not to pursue any further the balance of the State's costs." Mr O'Hagan gives no reason for the decision.
The group was successful in defeating plans to build the Mullaghmore centre in the Burren National Park in 2000, with the State being forced by a High Court order in 2001 to demolish the unfinished interpretative centre.
Since then, no progress has been made on identifying alternative visitor facilities in the Burren, though the Department of the Environment is expected to later this year publish a draft management plan for the Burren National Park.
Postmortem inconclusive
Gardaí in Galway say they have no reason to believe that the death of a student in the city this week was suspicious, writes Lorna Siggins. Postmortem results on her death were described as inconclusive by gardaí yesterday, as further toxicology tests will have to be conducted.
She has been named as Taryn King (22), of Massachusetts in the US. It is understood that she had been attending college in Galway for just a few weeks.
Gardaí say Ms King died at University College Hospital Galway, on Thursday after she was found unconscious in her student accommodation at Gort na Coiribe on the Headford Road.
No link found in vCJD deaths
Three cases of the human form of mad-cow disease in the south Dublin/Wicklow area are not linked, according to the Health Service Executive, writes Ruadhan MacCormaic.
Health officials had been asked to investigate an apparent geographical connection between the three cases of vCJD (variant Creutzfeld Jakob disease) in the area. A HSE spokes- woman confirmed yesterday that an inquiry had found no evidence of a link. The inquiry followed a query by Dublin County Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty.
On January 10th, Dr Geraghty told an inquest that he was aware of a young man from Bray, Co Wicklow, who was suffering from the disease, bringing to three the number of vCJD cases with a link to the south Dublin/ Wicklow area. He was speaking at the inquest of Jason Moran (24), Shankill, Co Dublin, who died last June from vCJD.
Drugs linked to fall from flats
A man who fell nine storeys to his death last October at Ballymun Towers had consumed a cocktail of drugs and may have been hallucinating, an inquest heard yesterday.
Martin Prendergast (32), Finglas, Dublin, fell from the top balcony of the flats and landed beside the lift shaft on Sillogue Road in 2004.
Dublin City Coroner's Court returned an open verdict yesterday.