Around Ireland: news from home

LEFT AT THE ALTAR

A Limerick bride was left in tears at the altar recently when Gardai seized her Nigerian fiancT for deportation from Ireland.

Eileen Hayes was about to say “I do” to Joseph Chuhwunike Ndibe when the police walked into the Limerick Registry Office.

“We are sorry we had to arrest him in such circumstances, but we had no choice in the matter,” a Garda source told the Limerick Leader.

The 28-year-old refugee had applied for asylum in Ireland and was living in Ireland for a year and a half.

A close friend said that Hayes and Ndibe had been dating for 6 months and were “madly in love.”

The friend said that Ndibe “never got the deportation papers,” because he had moved in with Hayes. “They were supposedly sent on Good Friday, which means they wouldn’t have arrived until last Tuesday and he was arrested three days later. Is this good justice?”

Gardai responded that Ndibe had broken the law by moving and the responsibility was his to tell them of a change of address for receiving mail.

FAREWELL FRIES

They’ve flipped their last burger in Sligo.

After 35 years, Sligo’s oldest hamburger joint, the Carlton Cafe, has closed, as owners Peter and Mai Filan hung up their aprons.

Back in their heyday, they fried three tons of chips a week.

More recently, the Carlton Cafe became famous as the home of Westlife singer Shane Filan, the youngest child of seven raised by the Filans while they ran the cafe.

“In the early years, we mainly did just fish and chips, but we extended the menu as the years went on, and customers could literally have anything from a cup of tea to a good old fashioned fry-up to a succulent steak,” Peter Filan told the Sligo Champion.

“In those days, the only take-away restaurants in the town were ourselves, the Mayfair, and the Rainbow in Wine Street. None of the local factories had their own canteens, so we did the catering for a lot of hungry workers in the town.

“Business was so good we’d often be on our feet until the small hours of the morning, as people would drop in after dances in Strandhill or Bundoran. It was hard work, but we enjoyed every minute of it, and we had some very loyal customers.”

FISHY BUSINESS

Something fishy is happening in Long Derg, according to scientists.

Genetic tests on trout in the lake in Tipperary have shown that the fish are not native to the waters — but no one has ever claimed responsibility for stocking the lake with non-native fish.

Questions were first asked two years ago when anglers noticed a sudden sharp increase in the number of catches they were making.

Also, all the fish caught tended to be about the same size and weight. And they tended to swim in shoals, unlike fish that have grown up in the wild.

A keen angler, who didn’t wish to be named, said: “After two years out there with no fish, I went out last year with the wet fly and had six fish in the boat on my first day.

“The habits of these fish are different to the natives. They jump up in the air when hooked, whereas the native fish tend to stay down in the water. Last year four boats fishing off Urra Point landed 80 fish within a week. That’s more than they got in the whole season the year before. These fish are a different color. They have white flesh and the native lake trout’s flesh is more pink.”

The Electricity Supply Board, which controls the entire Shannon fishery, has strongly denied any suggestion that it stocked extra trout in Lough Derg.

DRIFTERS PROBED

Have the Drifters run aground?

One of Ireland’s greatest showbands, the group run by brothers Joe and Ben Dolan, is being investigated because of cross-border links to a Northern Ireland brokering firm, according to a report in the Westmeath Examiner.

South Armagh businessman Michael Aiken and his son Michael Jr. were described as the principals of the firm, Northern Ireland Insurance Brokers.

According to another newspaper, the Irish Mirror, the investigation into the affairs of Aiken and his son were prompted following the discovery of suspicious activity at NIIB in Belfast. It was claimed accounts had been opened using false addresses.

This week Joe Dolan met with officers from PSNI and it was alleged that Ben Dolan had twice been interviewed.

No arrests have been made so far.

BUS DRIVERS ANGRY

Dublin Bus drivers almost went on strike last week but drew back at the last moment.

A strike was in the cards after bus drivers complained about a series of violent attacks on them by passengers.

Up to 20 drivers have suffered verbal and physical abuse in the last few weeks, being urinated on, spat at and had bricks thrown at them.

One bus driver has had to take time off after being attacked savagely by a female passenger he was trying to help. The young woman fell off her seat while apparently under the influence of alcohol and drugs. When the bus driver tried to help her, she bit his arm. He has since learned that the woman may be infected with the Hepatitis C virus. He must now wait six weeks before he is tested and is said to be out of his mind with worry, noted the Southside People newspaper.

Local Chief Superintendent Mick McCarthy has given union representatives assurances that he will put extra resources onto public buses to monitor the situation.

“It is a deplorable situation going on in Tallaght,” said John McGrane of National Bus and Rail Union.

“Bus drivers are not prepared to put up with these assaults, day-in and day-out. They are being singled out by these yobbos and some of them are left traumatized by their encounters.”