The County Manager has been outling the potential of Killybegs as a service port for wind and wave energy.

Seamus Neely was speaking at the Association of Irish Regions conference in the Marine Institute in Galway this week.

It was told that ESB international intends to begin building the State’s first full-scale ocean energy project off the west coast early next year.

Four sites off Mayo, Galway, and north Clare are under consideration for the project.

A 26-year-old Derry man who subjected a woman to what a judge described as ‘a terrifying experience’ was jailed today at the local Crown Court.

Jospeh Patrick McDermott of 54, Rosskeen in Derry admitted six charges including aggravated burglary and arson on July 1st last year.

The court was told that a young woman was asleep in the bedroom of her flat and awoke to find McDermott there carrying a knife.

When the woman woke, the court was told Mc Dermott asked for an individual by name and told the woman he would ‘cut her to pieces’ if she had anything to do with this person.

He then threw a dress to her and told her to get dressed.

The woman noticed the smell of smoke, then realised and noticed that McDermott had set fire to clothes on a chair and on a clothes horse.

The defendant was confronted by a neighbour and another man, both of whom he threatened with a knife.

Judge Piers grant said that it was ‘a terrifying experience’ for the woman and was aggravated by the fact that McDermott set fire to the flat.

The judge said McDermott had ‘an appalling record’ of 52 offences in the last ten years, and he was satisfied McDermott posed a risk of serious harm to the general public.

McDermott was sentenced to 4 years in prison of which he must serve a minimum of two in custody and had en extended licence period of two years added on.

A west Donegal man was charged with 183 counts of sexual assault on seven minors at Letterkenny District Court yesterday.

The 41-year-old married man, who cannot be named, is alleged to have sexually assaulted the male and female minors, between 1984 and 2009.

Some of the alleged victims, who were aged between eight years and 13 years, were related while others were neighbours.

The man was arrested by gardaí on Wednesday and brought to Milford Garda station where he made no reply to the charges after caution.

Insp Kevin Gately did not object to bail but asked Judge Paul Kelly to impose conditions on the man to surrender his passport; not make contact with any of the injured parties or their families; to sign on at the Garda station on Mondays and Fridays between 9am and 9pm; and to provide an independent surety to the court.

Concerns are being raised that the NOWDOC service in Donegal could be cut completely after midnight.

It follows confirmation that NOWDOC Ltd, which was set up to provide urgent GP care to patients in the out-of-hours periods, and the HSE are ‘reviewing service provision arrangements’.

There are also concerns that the four NOWDOC centres covering all of Donegal could be reduced to one centre based in Letterkenny.

That would mean one car to cover all areas of Donegal.

Donegal South-West Deputy Pearse Doherty says that if today’s reports of cuts to the NOWDOC service are true, then the people of Donegal may take to the streets in protest..

Potato farmers in Donegal could be facing a total wipe-out of their crops if weather conditions do not improve in the coming weeks.

Heavy rains have been flooding fields across the county and farmers are facing the worst potato harvest in decades.

The majority of farmers have only 10% of the crop harvested so far this year, where as normally at this time of year it would normally be 60%.

Spokesperson for the IFA in Donegal, and potato farmer, William Monagle says farmers are facing losing their crop altogether…….

A man has appeared in court in Derry charged in connection with what was described as a ‘paramilitary attack’ in the city last year.

24 year old Lee Wilson, with an address at Pickford Close in Rugby,  England was brought back to the North by PSNI officers to face  a charge of attempted murder.

Wilson was also charged with possessing a claw hammer and assaulting a man in August 2010.

The court was told the charges related to an incident in which three masked men, one armed with a claw hammer, attacked another man at a loyalist bonfire on the eve of the annual Apprentice Boys march.

It was said that the attack bore all the hallmarks of a paramilitary attack.

A defence solicitor told the court that his client had a clear record and had visited the city on a regular basis to see family and to take part in loyal order marches.

Wilson was released on bail on condition that he only enters the city for court appearances. He will appear again on December 1.

Gardai in Buncrana are to be questioned about what a local councillor says is a worrying rise in burglaries and robberies in the area.

Cllr Ciaran Mc Laughlin says in the past week alone, there have been a number of incidents at Heather Park, Connyberry and The Woods, as well as an attempted robbery in Bridgend.

Cllr Mc Laughlin says there is anecdotal evidence that this pattern is being repeated throughout Inishowen, and he’ll be raising the issue with senior gardai at a joint policing committee meeting next week.

He says rather than seeking to scale back the garda presence in Donegal, the government should be increasing it.

He says recent incidents have left people frightened…..

Martin McGuinness says he knew there would be attempts to undermine his campaign for the presidency.

But he says many people in the North were surprised by the backlash.

The presidential hopeful also says his wife would have no problem moving out of Derry’s Bogside if he wins the race for the Áras.

Bernie McGuinness has lived in the area all her life – but the Sinn Féin member says she would adapt well to life in the Phoenix Park:

The family of Dennis Donaldson is taking legal action against the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.

In a statement this evening, their solicitors Madden and Finucane say in April, they raised grave questions about the role PSNI  Special Branch members in the circumstances leading to Denis Donaldson’s murder, and this week’s BBC’s Spotlight programme have confirmed those concerns.

They say it now seems that when those issues of complaint were raised with the current Police Ombudsman, they were “systematically suppressed”.

Full statement -

STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILY OF DENIS DONALDSON

IN RESPONSE TO REVELATIONS IN BBC SPOTLIGHT

In April 2011, we published new information that raised grave questions about the role PSNI Special Branch members played in the circumstances leading to Denis’s murder.

Disclosures by BBC’s Spotlight programme (Tues. 18^th Oct. ‘11) have confirmed our statement of concerns.

PSNI Special Branch members knew the movements and communications of Denis Donaldson, and his wife Alice, during the time that he had sought refuge in Donegal.

One former senior member of PSNI Special Branch knows how this information was obtained, why it was gathered, where it was processed, who accessed it, and what was done with it.  His code-name is ‘Lenny’.  He is Denis’s former PSNI Special Branch handler. ’Lenny’ remained a senior member of PSNI Special Branch until earlier this year when he retired from that organisation.

It is now apparent that the issues of complaint, deemed to be “grave and exceptional” that were raised with the current Police Ombudsman were systematically suppressed.  The role played by ‘Lenny’ had been central to our family’s complaint.  The current Police Ombudsman did not even interview ‘Lenny’.

The current Police Ombudsman further demonstrated bland indifference to the content of a journal, which Denis Donaldson had secretly compiled, but which was seized by Gardai at the scene of his murder. They continue to withhold that material from the family citing “security concerns”.  

Our solicitors are now preparing legal action in light of the Police Ombudsman’s handling of our complaint.

A Donegal South West TD has called for a NO vote in the referendum to give the Oireachtas powers to conduct inquiries.

Deputy Thomas Pringle and other members of the Technical Group of Independent TDs and Senators say the wording of the constitutional amendment could end up giving politicans too much power, and they want more time to debate and discuss the wording.

Deputy Pringle says the current wording could, in the long term, allow  for politically motivated inquiries which could threaten human rights…………..