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October 5, 2007

Landslide terror cuts off family

A TERRIFIED Kerry family endured a harrowing day and night after a dramatic landslide completely cut them off from the rest of the world.

Con O’Riordan and his family had to issue a desperate plea for help by telephone when a massive bogslide collapsed an old bridge that was their only link with the main road.

The shocked father-of-three made the disturbing discovery as he was driving to work from his home in Kilcummin, Killarney.

The bridge had been washed away and the road was buried under a foot of water after tonnes of bog gave way during heavy overnight rainfall.

Mr O’Riordan, his wife and their three children could find no way out but his biggest fear was for his 84-year-old mother, who lives in an adjacent house, and is not in good health.

“She has a number of medical problems and the home help and a nurse call every day. She was very frightened by it all, very upset” he said.

His house and his mother’s home were completely cut off by the bogslide which washed away a 12-metre section of road.

“Tons of bog gave way and split the road in two before tumbling into the river. We were completely stranded and in an awful state,” said Mr O’Riordan who contacted The Kingdom by telephone to highlight his plight.

He said he didn’t hear the road collapsing during the night and was flabbergasted to see the aftermath as he went about his business early the following day.

He believes that water had built-up behind the bog and it forced the ground to collapse.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was an awful shock to get,” he added.

Kerry County Council rallied to help the O’Riordan family and a roads crew was dispatched to the scene at Toormore as soon as the call for help was made.

The Kingdom

Seaweed storage plans not going with the flow

A PLAN to store seaweed, in connection with a seaweed products business featured on TV last year has been turned down by Sligo County Council.

There were four objections for a change of use of existing outbuildings and horse stables from agricultural use to commercial use providing offices, packaging and storage sheds for organic seaweed products at Kilmacowen, Ballisodare.

The applicants said that the site had been used as a family home and organic vegetable farm and all they were trying to do was turn some agricultural storage into aquaculture storage.

They said there would be no retail or manufacturing on the site and no extra traffic, noise or pollution. They were just storing seaweed for use in the Voya range of products which were manufactured in Britain in one of only four plants in the world capable of developing such organic products.

However, Ciaran MacFadden, from Kilmacowen, in the course of a lengthy objection, said that as a neighbour who had followed the progress of Celtic Seaweed Bath products “with much pride and goodwill”, it was with regret that he felt he had “little option but to object.”

He felt this was clearly the beginning of the “highly ambitious and laudable” expansion plans put forward on the TV programme The Mentor”in 2006.

“It will inevitably bring noise and other disturbances in the heart of closely placed, maturing family homes. This is absolutely inappropriate and avoidable particularly when there are suitable, purpose-built and properly designed enterprise units lying vacant within convenient distance of the operating base of Celtic Seaweed Bath Products,” he said.

There were also objections from neighbours Bridget Nitschke, of Carrowkeel and Norman Pugh, of Kilmacowen, principally on the grounds that the area was residential rather than commercial and granting such an application would set an undesirable precedent.

The council planners turned down the application on the grounds that the site was located within the ‘Green Belt’ identified in the Sligo and Environs Development Plan.

Sligo Weekender

Mayo GAA star is fondly remembered

THE WORLD of GAA lost one of its most respected figures when Castlebar-born Eamonn Mongey died peacefully at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin.

Fondly remembered for his immense contribution to the double All-Ireland winning Mayo teams of the early 1950s, Eamonn was hugely respected for his legal career also. A barrister by profession, he served as Registrar of the High Court and Registrar in the Supreme Court.

A talented writer, his book Probate Law in a Nutshell remains the best selling law book in the country.

However, it is for his exploits on the football field that he is best remembered in Mayo.

His two Celtic Cross medals are supplemented by five Connacht senior football titles and two National League winners medals. Other honours collected by the talented midfielder included a Railway Cup winners medal with Connacht and two selections on All-Ireland teams.

Former Mayo footballer Dermot Flanagan has paid a glowing tribute to the man who he had grown so familiar with down through the years.

“Our families would always have been very close since the 1950s and of course with us both being barristers and having strong connections with the Mayo scene in Dublin, we kept that close relationship,” said Dermot.

“He was just such a lovely man and once he opened up, some of the stories about the camaraderie of the team and the craic they had, were just great. As a player, I actually envied the sense of connection they all seemed to have with each other back then.”

Mayo GAA star is fondly remembered

THE WORLD of GAA lost one of its most respected figures when Castlebar-born Eamonn Mongey died peacefully at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin.

Fondly remembered for his immense contribution to the double All-Ireland winning Mayo teams of the early 1950s, Eamonn was hugely respected for his legal career also. A barrister by profession, he served as Registrar of the High Court and Registrar in the Supreme Court.

A talented writer, his book Probate Law in a Nutshell remains the best selling law book in the country.

However, it is for his exploits on the football field that he is best remembered in Mayo.

His two Celtic Cross medals are supplemented by five Connacht senior football titles and two National League winners medals. Other honours collected by the talented midfielder included a Railway Cup winners medal with Connacht and two selections on All-Ireland teams.

Former Mayo footballer Dermot Flanagan has paid a glowing tribute to the man who he had grown so familiar with down through the years.

“Our families would always have been very close since the 1950s and of course with us both being barristers and having strong connections with the Mayo scene in Dublin, we kept that close relationship,” said Dermot.

“He was just such a lovely man and once he opened up, some of the stories about the camaraderie of the team and the craic they had, were just great. As a player, I actually envied the sense of connection they all seemed to have with each other back then.”

Western People

Man beaten and left for dead

ONLY DAYS after being brutally beaten to the head and face and left for dead at the edge of his front garden Enniscorthy man Richard Frayne has spoken-out about his ordeal.

The 43-year-old and his partner had only just gone to bed when they heard a disturbance next door to their beautiful home in The Paddocks.

“I heard the next-door neighbour’s doorbell ringing; she had been away on holidays,” said Mr. Frayne. “We knew there was no one there so we were suspicious.

“I heard a noise about five minutes later in the neighbour’s house so I went outside to the front garden.”

He immediately noticed a man standing at the corner of his neighbour’s house staring right at him.

Within seconds, three others came running around the corner and all four ran at Mr. Frayne.

Pushing him to the ground, they kicked, boxed and hit him with a sweeping brush and timber objects.

He said: “I tried to cover my face but I couldn’t do anything. They left me for dead. To me it was nothing short of attempted murder.”

The ferocious attack went on for almost five minutes.

He was so preoccupied with defending himself that all he can recall of the thugs was their age.

He said: “They seemed to be in their mid-20s. I don’t know where they were from. I couldn’t say if they were local or strangers to the area.

“Even if they were talking I couldn’t hear them because I was so busy trying to protect myself. In a situation like that, you don’t have time to think.”

All this time his partner was growing increasingly concerned inside the house. She knew something was wrong as Richard had not come back in but she was afraid to go outside.

The men eventually gave up their assault, fleeing from the estate in a car that is believed to have been parked at the end of the roadway.

Mr. Frayne dragged himself to the door of his house where his partner was shocked to find blood pouring from his head, deep gashes to his temples and his eyes swelling up.

Echo

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