Several hundred workers marched through Ballinasloe town centre last night to protest at job losses at the Square D manufacturing plant, writes Lorna Siggins.
Last week the US owners of the Co Galway plant, Schneider Electric, announced they intended to close the plant with the loss of 385 jobs.
It has been in east Galway for over 31 years and the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, who is from the area, expressed "shock" at the announcement.
Employees of the company organised the march, and invited other workers - including former employees of the AT Cross plant which closed over two years ago - to support them.
The protest began at St Michael's Square and wound up outside Ballinasloe Civic Offices, where a joint meeting of Ballinasloe Town Council and other bodies were meeting to discuss an action plan in the wake of the closure.
Ms Tish Gibbons, of SIPTU, says the union does not believe that orders at Square D had dropped to such an extent that full closure was justified.
Ferris calls for action on crime
An "entire community" in the Castleisland area in Co Kerry is living in fear because of the actions of a small number of people, the Sinn Féin TD in North Kerry, Mr Martin Ferris, has claimed.
He has called for more Garda resources "to bring the perpetrators to justice". Older people have been subjected to burglaries, and repeated burglaries in a number of cases, he said.
"What makes it more unacceptable is the fact that these suspects are well known to gardaí, but unfortunately the gardaí do not have the adequate resources to tackle them," he said in a statement.
According to the Sinn Féin office they had received a number of calls from concerned residents about the burglaries. Some people had complained they could not get through to the gardaí.
Gardaí in Castleisland are working from temporary accommodation since an arson attack on their station. However there is a full complement of gardaí in the Castleisland area. A Garda sergeant was due to take up position there next week, according to a senior garda in Kerry.
'Jeanie Johnston' in Waterford
The Jeanie Johnston replica famine ship arrived in Waterford yesterday and will be open to the public from tomorrow until February 2nd.
The ship will return to Tralee early next month and open to the public at Fenit Harbour from February 8th to 14th. It will then depart for Tenerife on February 16th. The barque has completed sea trials and has visited Dublin and Belfast during the past month.
The chairman of the Port of Waterford, Mr Ben Gavin, said he was "delighted" to welcome the sail training vessel on her maiden call.
"The sight of this great vessel on the Waterford Quays gives a flavour of what we can expect to see in 2005 when the Tall Ships race will commence here.
"The port received confirmation this week that the sail training vessels Dunbrody and Jeanie Johnston will both participate in the Tall Ships and we are delighted that these two venerable ships will fly the Irish flag at that prestigious event in Waterford."
Irish woman found murdered
A 40-year-old woman from Co Waterford has been murdered in London with the man suspected of killing her thought to have subsequently taken his own life.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to an address in Norwood, London, early on January 16th where they found the body of Ms Linda Ann Dolan, who was originally from Scart, Knockanore, Co Waterford.
A post-mortem found the cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation.
Later on January 16th, the body of a 57-year-old man, Mr Anthony Roy Bellchambers, was found at the same address. The post-mortem in this case is likely to find the cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning.
Ms Dolan's funeral takes place in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Knockanore, tomorrow.