More news in brief
A fire in which an elderly woman died in her house near Straide, Foxford, Co Mayo, yesterday morning may have been started by an electrical fault.
Ellen McHale (83), a widow who lived alone, died after her bedroom caught fire. The alarm was raised by a neighbour and fire brigade units from Castlebar and Swinford fought the outbreak, which was confined to the bedroom.
Investigations were continuing last night, but Mayo chief fire officer, Séamus Murphy, said: "It has all the signs of a tragic accident."
Attack at halting site on firefighters
Firefighters in Waterford responding to reports of a fire at a halting site were attacked with stones and other missiles.
The Waterford City Fire Service rescued a trapped horse and foal at the Kilbarry halting site at 8.20pm on Wednesday evening. However, the service was again called to the site half an hour later, when the incident occurred.
Anyone with information can contact gardaí in Waterford on 051 305300.
Juvenile fish put into Lough Derg
Some 80,000 juvenile fish have been released into tributaries of Lough Derg to boost trout fishing on the lake which borders Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Galway.
The unfed fry, reared by the Scariff, Whitegate and Mountshannon Anglers Club at its hatchery at Mountshannon, were released into rivers on two sides of the lake.
The hatchery has produced nearly a million unfed trout fry, which have been released to enhance fishing conditions on Lough Derg and its tributaries.
Club members capture adult fish from local rivers and strip the eggs from the females and milt from the males to produce the unfed fry in the hatchery.
Club spokesman John Collins said: "Of the 80,000 unfed fry we produce, only 3-5 per cent will survive to mature fish, but that's 3,000 to 4,000, which is a huge amount of trout."
He said it took the fish about two years to reach a weight of 1lb.