Phones fault puts a damper on fire service

SOMEWHERE in Co Wexford there are a few thieves who probably wish that they had learned something about Irish painting before attempting their latest caper.

When they broke into Kelly's Resort Hotel at Rosslare, which is noted for, among other features, its comprehensive collection of modern works by leading Irish artists, they made off with the lesser works.

The Wexford People reported that the thieves overlooked more valuable works in favour of a few worth merely "hundreds rather than thousands of pounds". Gardai had not bothered to issue a statement about the stolen paintings because, to put it delicately, they "did not fit the category of rare or famous works which would find a resale on the criminal market".

Firemen in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow have been reduced to running to a public park to use the telephone in emergencies. The Wicklow People said the run down shed which serves as a station has been without a phone since persistent dampness made the line crackle so much that finally it could no longer be used.

Instead, firemen summoned via beeper to the station to deal with emergencies must run down the road and take instructions in a kiosk in a public park. The firemen, who have known busy summers fighting fires non stop, have not even got mobile phones, much less such little luxuries as toilets, a handbasin, heating or drying facilities.

Wicklow County Council says it plans to upgrade the facility. But Councillor Jimmy O'Shaughnessy fears that the council intends to run it down until it has to be closed.

The Kerryman showed an enlightened attitude when it pictured a proud and happy young mother breastfeeding her baby, in what must be a first for a local newspaper. The good example was being set by Pauline Bewick's daughter Poppy, whose three month old son Aran Mulvihill is the artist's first grandchild.

Poppy and her mother paint together daily while Aran sits happily in his pram. "We wheel him around to each painting and we judge them by whether he smiles or not," Poppy told the Kerryman.

A potato famine of a kind has hit a frozen chips factory in Co Donegal, where there's a glut of the wrong kind of potatoes and a lack of the type required to make a good chip.

The Donegal Democrat said that potato farmers are facing severe financial pressures, and even the possibility of being forced out of business, due to a huge surplus on the market and very low prices.

However, Donegal Foods in Letterkenny, described by the Donegal Democrat as "the Republic's only frozen chips processor", is finding it difficult to get the potato varieties it requires and has even ordered a small quantity of potatoes from Germany to see if they are of the right quality.

A pharmacy in Co Mayo has spotted a market in the growing concern among parents in rural areas about drug abuse. The Connaught Telegraph said that the pharmacy is offering parents do it yourself kits to test for illegal drugs, costing £36 each. The pharmacy claims it is the same test as used by the FBI, said the Telegraph.

The Drug Alert kit contains a three inch pre moistened sample collector, which gathers minute - and usually invisible - drug traces when you wipe it across desktops, telephones, books, door handles or other items. It detects cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, heroin, methamphetamine, PCP, LSD and ecstasy.

The parent places the sample in a sealed bag marked with a serial number and posts it to a Dublin laboratory. Ten days later the parent can phone the lab, quote the serial number and learn whether the sample was positive or negative. Since no names or addresses are given, anonymity is assured.

The Connaught Telegraph reported that a popular local radio presenter shocked listeners when he walked out of his live show on a Mayo station after claiming that he was being "gagged" by the Irish Radio and Television Commission.

Mr Willie McNeely, a salesman who anchored a lunchtime one hour programme on CRCfm in Castlebar each Saturday and Sunday, believes that the restraints imposed on community stations, by the IRTC are "too restrictive.

"What are you giving up for Lent?" the Wexford People asked Ms Kathleen Meyer. "At 82 I don't think I should be giving up anything," she quipped.

Another woman of a certain age, Ms Josephine Roche, said that she would try to give up "sweet things" - but she was not just referring to the contents of her shopping bag.

"I'm giving up the toy boys as well," she added.