Two men jailed for an attack in Letterkenny which left Derry chef Mark Mc Shane permanently brain damaged have had their sentences increased

Cousins 24 year old Alan Lackey and 31 year old Aidan Mc Hugh, both from Milford, were convicted of the 2007 attack and each sentenced to two year’s imprisonment.

Yesterday, those sentences were increased from two to five years, with the last two years suspended.

Mark’s sister Dymphna has been giving her reaction to the sentence increase, she talks of how for a time she thought Mark may be better dead, how he has changed and the life sentence that she feels she has been given:

Today marks 25 years since three Strabane men were killed by the SAS.

Brothers Michael and David Devine died alongside Charlie Breslin when they were ambushed by the SAS near an IRA arms dump in a field overlooking Fountain Street in Strabane.

The Devine and Breslin families still maintain that their lives could of been maintained.

Joe Breslin, Charlies brother, says he doesn’t think anyone will ever be held accountable for the deaths.

A 35 year old Donegal man has been jailed for 4 and a half years for incest with his sister in the 1990′s.

The man also pleaded guilty to 20 counts of sexually assaulting the girl when she was aged between 10 and 15.

The Central Criminal Court heard the abuse took place on a weekly basis, often when their parents were at bingo.

Further details have emerged today of the garda operation which saw five men arrested in Donegal.

It is reported in today’s Irish Independent that the arrests were part of an anti-crime operation targeting dissident republican groups.

Local senior officers suspected members of a breakaway republican group were behind the intended hold-up plot in  Donegal.

The splinter group, which styles itself “ONH” and is based in Strabane has been blamed for a series of crimes in the north-west in the past couple of years.

As a result of an ongoing operation by gardai against dissident republican groups in the border region, officers set up a checkpoint in Letterkenny in the early hours of yesterday.

They stopped a car and detained four suspects for questioning. An initial search of the vehicle yielded a number of items for examination, including balaclava helmets, plastic ties and an imitation firearm.

A fifth man was arrested in Buncrana.

All five can be detained without charge for up to three days.

The garda investigation into the activities of the group was stepped up last night as Special Branch officers from Dublin backed up Donegal personnel.

Donegal County Council saw a number of acrimonious exchanges last evening, with the February meeting adjourned for over 40 minutes folowing clashes between Mayor Brendan Byrne and Sinn Fein Cllr Padriag Mac Lochlainn.

Earlier, at the reconvened January meeting, members narrowly voted against using council funds to pay for US trips on St Patricks Day. When the February meeting opened, both Mayor Brendan Byrne and Deputy Mayor Charlie Mc Conalogue addressed the meeting, telling members that they will will visit New York and Chicago next month at their own expense.

Mayor Byrne added he hopes that the mayor and deputy paying for their own trips will become the norm for the remainder of this councils lifetime.

However, the meeting soon descended into the realms of farce when Cllr Mac Lochlainn sought to respond and the mayor refused to allow him do so, saying that he had moved Mayor’s Business forward, and no replies were allowed. Cllr Mac Lochlainn challenged his right to do so, accussing Cllr Byrne of presiding over the end of democracy and treating the council as his own fiefdom, a claim denied by the Mayor. Eventually, Cllr Byrne adjourned the meeting.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Charlie Mc Conalogue says Cllr Mac Lochlainn was seeking publicity, and the mayor was right to do so.

Speaking aftwerwards, Cllr Mac Lochlainn told Highland Radio he wanted to make it clear that the mayor has an expense fund of €43,000, and the payment for the New York trip can comes from that.

Stranorlar area Fianna Fail Councillor Patrick Mc Gowan has been appointed Chair of the inaugural Donegal Joint Policing Committee. Both he and Letterkenny area Fine Gael Councillor Noel Mc Bride were nominated, and when the vote of the committee’s 14 councillors was tied, Cllr Mc Gowan’s name was drawn out of a hat.

The challenge facing the council now is to oversee the selection of community representitives to serve on the JPC, and get the committee up and running.

Cllr Mc Gowan says his focus will be to support the gardai.

A court has heard a 35 year old Donegal man sexually abused his younger sister on a weekly basis in the 1990′s, often when their parents were at bingo.

He is to be sentenced at the Central Criminal Court tomorrow after pleading guilty to 2 counts of incest and 20 counts of sexual assault.

He was 17 at the time the abuse started and that his sister was ten.

The court heard she only disclosed what happened to Gardai in 2007 when her brother had a daughter.

In a statement read out to Mr Justice Paul Carney, she said she hates her brother and still has nightmares.

26.5 million euro has been announced today for the upgrading of regional and local roads in County Donegal.

In addition to the selected routes, this year’s allocation for County Donegal will go towards projects such as maintenance programmes together with a grant for local improvement schemes in the county.

7.5 million euro has been allocated to Donegal County Council as Discretionary and Restoration grants while a further 12 million euro is allocated as an improvement grant.

Specific allocations have been made for improvements to a number of routes including Ardaghy to Ardara, Clonmany to Ballyliffen, Kerrykeel to Elburn and the R245 at Woodlands and the R252 at Fintown.

The largest single allocation is of 2.5 million euro for the Mulroy Bay Bridge and approach roads while 363 thousand has been allocated for storm and flood repairs in Gweedore.

Buncrana Town Council has been granted 195 thousand euro, Bundoran Town Council 139 thousand euro and Letterkenny Town Council will receive 395 thousand euro.

Donegal County Council has voted against authorising the sending of a delegation the the US for St Patrick’s Day celebrations next month. The motion to fund the trip was lost by 13 votes to 14, with Fine Gael Cllr Martin Harley abstaining.

Traditionally, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and one official attend functions in New York and Philadelphia

Mayor Brendan Byrne has indicated he will travel to the US and fulfill a number of functions at his own expense:

A ‘hydrogen highway’ could be created between Derry, Belfast and Dublin, with alternative energy refuelling points, as part of a ground-breaking plan by the University of Ulster.

The suggestion is aimed at making hydrogen and electric powered vehicles a viable alternative to petrol driven machines.

Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-rich fossil fuels.

Sinn Fein MLA, Martina Anderson, is set to raise the proposal with the Environment Minister, Edwin Poots today (Monday), and she believes the proposal is worthy of serious consideration.