There is renewed hope that the afterschools service at Gweedore road in Dungloe can be saved.

The service has been operational for five years, under the auspices of the Dungloe based Rosses Community Development.

The CDP has told the unit’s two staff, and the families that use the service, that they no longer have the resources to fund it.

However, CDP Chairperson Mary Mc Hugh says they hope to identify new sources of funding, and the service could be up and running again in a few weeks time………..

Donegal County Council says the formula being used to appoint a new co-ordinator for the Donegal Youth Council is a new and innovative way to ensure that the service is provided in the most effective way possible.

The service is effectively being put out to tender, with the county council inviting proposals from “suitably qualified and competent service providers”  for the delivery and coordination of Donegal Youth Council.

Director of Services Michael Heeney says this is not simply a means of circumventing the public service recruitment ban. He says it’s a way of ensuring a vital service continues………..

Former Ulster chairman Tom Daly has pulled out of the race to become the next GAA President. The Donegal man revealed that he came to the decision after considering the demands of the position in relation to his professional and personal commitments.
Tom said ‘I deeply appreciate my nomination for this prestigious position and the many offers of support which I have received from throughout the Association.’ Daly’s withdrawal means that the contest to succeed Christy Cooney is now a two-horse race between two Leinster candidates – Liam O’Neill and Sheamus Howlin. Laois native, O’Neill is now regarded the overwhelming favourite to be elected.

Two jobs will be lost and up to twenty families affected by the closure of the afterschools service at Gweedore road in Dungloe today.

The service has been operational for five years, and was providing afterschool care to pupils from the Dungloe school area and other parts of the Rosses.

The service was run by the Dungloe based Rosses Community Development project through funding from state body Pobal. However, the CDP has told staff and families they can no longer fund the service.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin will rule today on the October 2004 conviction of Mary Kelly.

Ms Kelly, who had previopusly been based in Burtonport had been convicted of criminal damage to a US military aircraft at Shannon airport on 29 January 2003.

Her Appeal was heard on 29th July 2008, and no explanation has been given to date as to why it took over two and a half years to deliver the judgment.

This first trial resulted in a hung jury on 4th of July 2003.

The State subsequently retried Ms Kelly and she was convicted in Ennis Circuit Court under Judge Carroll Moran on 29th October 2004.

Voting is underway in the General Election.

Polling stations opened at 7 o’clock this morning, and will remain open until 10 o’clock tonight.

Votes will be counted tomorrow.

There are 58,501 people on the electoral register in Donegal North East, and 64,030 in Donegal South West. 1,121 people were added to the register in Donegal when the supplementary register was published last week.

People don’t need a polling card to vote – most forms of official photographic ID will be accepted.

The IMPACT Trade Union has accused the of cheating workers in Donegal out of pay. The union says the HSE has reneged on an agreement reached at the Labour Relations Commission last September that staff who had their hours cut until the end of the year would have those hours reinstated from the beginning of January.

However, IMPACT says while that has happened at Letterkenny General Hospital, it has not happened in the community sector.

Spokesperson Richie Carruthers says the matter is now being referred back to the LRC, and he believes there can be only one outcome……

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny says he believes the party can take two seats in Donegal North East.

Mr Kenny was speaking in Burt during a brief tour of Donegal.

Addressing party workers on the final day of the campaign, he urged them to work tirelessly in a bid to return two Fine Gael TD’s from Donegal North East…………

While in Burt, Mr Kenny spoke to haulier John Mc Laughlin, who’s been organising a protest at the rising cost of fuel, and also met briefly with Noelle Duddy of CCC-NW, during which he pledged that breast cancer services at Letterkenny General Hospital will be preserved.

Noelle Duddy says all the parties have now offered similar guarantees……….

Labour’s Jimmy Harte has been accused of dodging the issue by refusing to comment on concerns that Labour policy on cancer services will see those services cut at Letterkenny General.

Independent candidate Betty Holmes says a promise from Labour Sligo / North Leitrim candidate Susan O’Keefe that Sligo General Hospital would be made a centre of excellence if she was elected is of concern.

She says say such a move could mean a downgrading of services in Letterkenny.

Labour’s Jimmy Harte has declined to comment, accusing some of using the issue as a political football – but now Fianna Fail Candidate Charlie McConalogue has entered the fray.

He shares Ms Holmes concerns and has accused Jimmy Harte of dodging the issues:

Councillor Harte has responded by way of a statement: He said comments by political opponents are desperate eleventh-hour attempts to win votes at the expense of the most vulnerable in our society.

Police in the North have issued a renewed appeal for information about the murder of a man in Derry last year.

Today is the first anniversary of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty – who was found dead on the Braehead Road.

He had been shot in an attack which has been claimed by the Real IRA.

The detective leading the investigation said police inquiries were continuing but that they would be substantially progressed if there was more information coming from the community.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison says police are still working on the case, have made progress, but not enough to bring charges.

Inspector Harrison says there are people in the community who know what happened to Kieran, and who killed him adding It is to those people that he once again make this appeal.

Kieran Donnely had been in the family home at Coshowen until about 8pm on the Wednesday evening of 24 February when he went out.

The next sighting of Kieran is when a passer-by found his body on the Braehead Road around 10.40 pm.

Police want to speak to anyone who was on that road anytime from 8pm that evening and saw anything suspicious or who knows of Kieran’s movements after he left his home.