A round-up of other home news in brief
Gardaí called to bar siege in Balbriggan
The Garda Public Order Unit was last night called to a siege at a bar in Balbriggan, north Co Dublin, after the bar was taken over by a group of customers, writes Tim O’Brien.
The incident happened at about 7pm last night when staff and some customers of John D’s bar at The Square were seen to suddenly leave the premises, followed by the closure of the bar doors.
Four Garda cars and a Garda van arrived and began diverting traffic from the scene. By 8.30pm the town centre was closed to traffic and gardaí were preventing pedestrians from approaching the pub.
One witness told The Irish Times she saw the rear door of the bar open and three men emerge assisting a fourth who was injured.
Locals said the bar had been the scene of at least two ongoing rows among an extended family, not all of whom were locals, over the weekend.
A spokesman for the Garda Press Office confirmed a number of arrests had taken place.
120 evacuated from hotel fire
UP to 120 guests had to be evacuated from a hotel in Rosslare Harbour in the early hours of yesterday morning after a fire broke out.
The fire in St Helen’s Hotel, formerly known as the Great Southern Hotel, started at about 6am. Guests in the hotel were immediately alerted by the night porter and evacuated from their rooms.
Two units of Wexford Fire Brigade were at the scene, and were later joined by a unit from Enniscorthy, as they fought for some hours to bring the blaze under control.
Protesters meet county manager
Protesters from west Cork who took over Cork County Hall’s main chamber last month, claiming that an overhaul of the local authority’s planning policy would deny young people the opportunity to build a home in their area, have met the Cork county manager.
On April 13th over 60 protesters staged a sit-in in the council chamber opposing what they claim are plans to restrict development on the west Cork peninsulas.
About 200 residents also protested outside Cork County Hall to highlight concerns over the proposed designation of coastal regions of west Cork as “scenic landscape”.
A six-member committee of west Cork residents met Cork county manager Martin Riordan to explain their anxiety about developments.
‘No plan’ to cut A&E at St Columcille’s
The Health Service Executive has said it has no plans to end round-the-clock emergency services at St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Dublin.
It was responding to a report that staff at the hospital had been informally told the hours of the hospital’s emergency department would be reduced in two weeks.