Eilisha Devlin delves into the archives to bring you the news and images from yesteryear.
August 21, 1976
Farmers stress need for cross-border co-operation
The need for cross-border co-operation between farmers in the Republic and their counterparts in the Six Counties was stressed at the recent meeting of the Letterkenny branch of the Irish Farmers Association and it was decided to invite the officers of an Ulster Farmers Group to a meeting of the branch in October.
Donegal farmers in Donegal will need a minimum price of £65 per tonne for feeding barely due to the low yields and the scarcity of grain in the county.
This was declared by the Donegal I.F.A. Grain Committee this week. The drought situation which prevails throughout most of Europe has caused a serious reduction in cereal yields and though this will probably lead to dearer prices for the housewife it points to a very buoyant market for crop farmers during the coming harvest.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, TD meeting Margaret Blaney in Letterkenny. The year was 2008.
The committee felt that a number of buyers in other parts of the county had the confidence and foresight to pay £64 and £65 per tonne. It can be ascertained from the market trends that prices for grain will be good.
This week all the merchants in County Wexford, which is a surplus grain producing area, are paying £64 while it must be accepted that £65 per tonne in Donegal- which is a grain importing grain area – is a realistic price.
Jamie Scott – a king of thatches and musicians
The only cottage that Jamie Scott of Gortnavern thatches today is his own. But some years ago he had been thatching 23 houses in Ramelton and kept them regularly in repair.
He had thatched at Glenleary and as far as Ray, Rathmullan and his services were in great demand. The King of the Thatchers of that district had all the skills of his craft and a great pride in doing a good job.
Jamie Scott spent the days of the First World War in Scotland. He went as a very young man in 1915 and spent six years there mainly in Brown’s Shipyard, where he supplemented his pay with additional days of working in the drydock – “That was the hardest day of all.”
But coming back to Gortnavern, Letterkenny, Jamie learned his craft of thatching principally from Johnnie Kelly of the neighbourhood. He was a very good thatcher and he watched him for many days. Jamie quickly made a name for himself as a thatcher.
Always skilled with his hands and with a keen intelligence, he took special pride in his work. Today there is only one thatched house in Ramelton – that is Conway’s Pub: “Many times I thatched Conway’s.”
Letterkenny man’s £32m contract in Fiji
Many Irish people who left behind poverty and hard times in the late forties and fifties headed to other lands in search of fortunes. Some made it, but some others found the going too tough.
A Letterkenny man who made it is Hugh Greene. Hugh arrived in Australia in times that were far from affluent and sought whatever work that came his way.
He sweated under a blazing Australian sky cutting sugar cane, half choked to death in dark mucky tunnels and dug drains whenever he had to.
But he had the courage and the determination to succeed and succeed he did. Today the company of “Greene and McCahill Ltd.” is one of the four largest construction companies in New Zealand with an annual turn-over of around £10m.
Approximately 400 men are employed by them and they have contracts all over New Zealand and Australia, while at the moment they are also involved in a massive £32-million road building contract on the Island of Fiji.
That sort of success speaks for itself but those who knew Hugh Greene before he left his native county could detect little change in him now. He still was the cattleman he was before his departure and his accent is so clearly that of a Donegal man that one would have the impression that he never left the county.
Carol Ann McIntyre and her son Eoin present the Michael Oliver U14 Division 2 Championship Cup to the Naomh Brid Captain on winning the Regional Title. The year was 2009.
August 17, 2001
Disease alert – Cattle seized
A JOINT Garda and Department of Agriculture investigation was continuing yesterday (Thursday) following the seizure of 15 cattle and a truck at a checkpoint in Lifford earlier this week.
The seizure on Tuesday was the first time that animals had been found being taken across the border illegally since the foot and mouth crisis began in February.
The animals were seized after Gardaí operating a checkpoint at Lifford stopped a lorry traveling from the Strabane direction at around 8.30am.
Since the early 1990s, it had been illegal to import cattle from Northern Ireland because of the BSE. Gardaí and Department of Agriculture officials are involved in an ongoing battle against the illegal smuggling of cattle.
The animals were being transported from Northern Ireland but they were tagged with southern ear-tags. Superintendent Jim Gallagher from Letterkenny said the driver, from south Armagh, said he was bringing the animals for slaughter to Donegal.
“He produced papers which purported to show that the animals were born and reared in the Republic. The driver said he had taken a short cut through the north and the cattle had originated in Monaghan,” he said.
“The cards and tags have been examined and the animals have been taken to the Department of Agriculture pound in Cavan as the investigation continues. Our enquiries are continuing but when a lorry from the North with cattle tries to come across the border we have to assume that it is doing so illegally. We can’t take chances at all,” he said.
Ramelton’s Trevor Loughrey with Kilmacrennan Mayor candidate Adrian Boyce. The year was 2009.
Students end tough year on a high
A difficult year for Leaving Certificate students in Donegal’s schools ended on Wednesday night with the publication of their results.
In a random survey of schools across the county the general consensus was that grades were up and the majority of exams students were pleased with their results.
Countrywide results are up despite the difficulties during the ASTI strike days and the official government sources have denied there was easier marking because of the strike.
Principals in the schools surveyed on Wednesday believed the excellent results were because of the students’ hard work and extra classes to make up for strike days. Principal of the Loreto Convent in Letterkenny Sister Siobhan Ni Chuill was delighted with the results.
Personally congratulating all the pupils she said the results were “tremendous and everyone was so pleased with them.”
There were a number of high achievers in the convent getting seven As, who will certainly get their first preference choice for college. Sr Siobhan said more than 90 per cent got distinctions.
The days lost earlier in the year because of the ASTI action did not seem to have affected the results.
Mr Cathal Green, Principal of Mulroy College, Milford said he was extremely pleased with the grades achieved by the 43 pupils who sat the examination in June.
At St Eunan’s College the story was the same with principal Fr Micheal Carney very happy with this year’s results.
Internet Cafe opens at Letterkenny General Hospital
Keeping in touch with family and friends is now much easier for patients and staff in Letterkenny General Hospital since an Internet Cafe was established in the hospital.
Janne Kroell Moeller, (19) from Lolland Island in Denmark and Miriam Ouy (25) from Normandy in France, provide tuition in the use of personal computers for staff and patients who wish to use e-mail and the Internet.
They are part of a European project to establish a patient Internet Cafe within nine hospitals in six different countries.
Letterkenny General Hospital is the only Irish hospital outside of Dublin participating in the new project.
Letterkenny-based Consultant Geriatrician, Dr Ken Mulpeter who has a number of overseas professionals on his team commented, “The Internet cafe provides an opportunity for my staff, who have a busy lifestyle, to keep in touch with family and friends via e-mail.”
Mary Kelly, Health Promotion Coordinator at the hospital said; “I am very pleased with the responses received to date from patients and staff alike.”
Paying tribute to the expertise and enthusiasm of the tutors, she said, “Patients who are confined to bed or are unable to visit the internet cafe will not lose out on the service as Miriam and Janne are happy to make ward visits complete with laptop.”
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