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Category: Archive

Around Ireland

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Patrick Markey

Canine cosmetics

Irish dogs who feel at a loss after going for the chop may get a chance to renew their manhood if an American company is given the green light to import its canine silicone implants.

The company, Neuticles Naturals Corps., based in Missouri, provides a cosmetically enhanced artificial testicles for neutered dogs and allows their guilt-ridden owners to feel better about letting their animals go under the knife, reports the Sunday Tribune.

If the Irish Veterinary Council approves the product, the artificial testes could be in Ireland within 18 months.

The product is already being sold in the U.S., where a Chinese pug named Frodo became the first dog in the world to receive a new pair after an operation in California.

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A previous model brought complaints from owners who said a polypropylene version made a distinctive “thunk” sound when their dogs sat on hard wooden floors. According to a company spokesman, the new testes are soft and squidgy.

Company officials, who hope Bill Clinton’s presidential dog, Buddy will use their product, say they expect no problems getting the product approved for Ireland, “unless there is some sort of religious problem.”

Celtic cry for help

Welsh tour operators, disgruntled by a financially ruinous season, have contacted the Irish Bord Failte requesting that the Irish tourist board adopt them.

The Sunday Tribune newspaper reported recently that the Brecon Beacons Tourism Association and Llandovery and District Tourism Agency in Wales asked the Irish group if they were interested in “taking over the promotion of our part of Wales,” after bad weather and failing numbers shattered confidence in the native Welsh Tourist Board.

In a letter sent to the Bord Failte, Welsh operators praised the Irish tourism agency for its professionalism and marketing skills, hoping to benefit from the windfall growth in Irish tourism.

“In desperation therefore, both of out associations are offering ourselves for adoption . .. would the Irish Tourist Board be interested in taking over the promotion of our part of Wales,” the letter states.

Bord officials, however, are not taking the offer seriously, but said they are willing to share information and assistance with the Welsh.

Welsh Tourist Board officials have also criticized the idea as making “no sense.”

Liverpool murder connection

Two gardai detectives traveled to England recently to question four people in connection with the murder of Irish taxi driver Eileen Costello O’Shaughnessy, whose body was found in a remote laneway in Knockdoermore.

The detectives were in Liverpool questioning a man who was tracked to England after witnesses saw him in the vicinity of incident the night of the murder, the Galway Advertiser reported.

The man being questioned is a drug addict and alcoholic with a psychiatric condition. He also has a previous conviction for manslaughter in England, where he served a prison sentence. Two other Irish who moved to London after the incident and an Englishman have also been questioned.

Gardai tracked the man to Liverpool after a female student complained that the man harassed her in Ceannt Station on Nov. 30 last year, the night that O’Shaughnessy was murdered.

Investigators believe 15 minutes after the student was harassed, O’Shaughnessy picked up a fare to Claregalway. Her body was found early the next morning by a farmer. Since then Gardai have interviewed more than 10,000 people and collected 3,000 statements, but no one has been charged in the murder.

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