Today's other regional news stories in brief
Yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, wrote to the EU Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel to emphasise her strong reservations concerning the proposal. The Minister has advocated a 3 per cent increase in what Ireland is allowed produce under the EU Milk Quota system which is due to end in 2015.
Concern over EU limit on milk output
An EU Commission proposal to only allow a 1 per cent increase in the milk output member states can produce has sparked concern in the dairy sector here, writes Seán Mac Connell.
The commissioner is expected to announce the change in the system as part of the so-called Common Agricultural Health Check due later this year when a major review of the policy is expected.
In her letter Ms Coughlan expressed her disappointment at the low level of ambition in the figures circulating concerning quota expansion in the period leading to its abolition.
Woman (79) dies in fire
A 79-year-old woman has died in a house fire in Co Clare only days after her elderly cousin was critically injured in a fire at his home.
The woman, named locally as Molly Carey, died on Wednesday evening at her home at Clonloum Beg, O'Callaghan's Mills, about 12 miles from Ennis.
The widowed pensioner had originally escaped from the blazing house but re-entered in an apparent attempt to extinguish the fire.
Cities vie for Monopoly site
Two of Ireland's southern cities are battling it out to get a coveted place on the new world edition of Monopoly. Natives of Cork and Waterford have been voting to help boost their bids for inclusion on the world's most popular board game, writes Ciarán Murphy
While the deadline to vote for the top 20 places on the new board has passed, two spaces have been reserved for wild card nominations and Cork and Waterford are Ireland's remaining cities.
The wild card winners will occupy the first two property spaces, traditionally held by Kimmage and Crumlin, and in recent times, Donegal and Westmeath, on the Irish version.
The Irish Monopoly is manufactured by Hasbro in Waterford. National sales and marketing manager Anne Dermody said yesterday the results would be known on Sunday.
Tributes paid to solicitor
Tributes were yesterday paid to Garry McMahon, practising solicitor, poet, sean nós-singer and former Kerry senior footballer, who died on Wednesday after a short illness.
Mr McMahon (70) was the eldest of five sons of the late Bryan McMahon, the Listowel writer, and his wife Kitty, and a brother of Mr Justice Bryan McMahon of the High Court.
The Circuit Court in Tralee will not sit until 3pm today as a mark of respect and to allow the legal profession attend his funeral in Newcastle West.
Judge Carroll Moran said Mr McMahon was a superb raconteur and "an elder statesman" who passed on his wisdom to younger solicitors.