By Patrick Markey
A 12-year-old Loughanure boy seriously injured in an accident while playing football died in a Dublin hospital recently.
Eamon McBride, a first-year student at Pobail Scoil, Cloughaneely,
received serious head injuries when a steel goal post collapsed on top
of him as he played football with friends at the rear of the school, according to the Donegal News.
Teachers attended to the boy while they awaited the arrival of an
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ambulance from Letterkenny General Hospital. The injured boy was
later transferred to Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, where he was on a life support machine until he died. His mother Susan and other family members remained at his bedside in Dublin.
This is the second time that tragedy has struck the McBride family. His older brother Martin, 15, was killed in a car accident at Annagry in 1996.
Staff and fellow pupils at the Cloughaneely school were in a state of deep shock after the tragedy. School principal, Patsy McVicar, said the school was closing at 1:30 p.m. for the return of Eamon McBride’s remains from Dublin. The school cancelled their sports day event as a mark of respect for the dead youth.
Cave yields up ancient tomb
A rare neolithic cave tomb and an Iron Age axe head have been discovered at the end of a previously unknown 150-meter cave system at Cloghermore, the Kerryman newspaper reported recently.
County Arch’ologist Michael Connolly, who examined the cave system, recommended further investigation in a report drawn up for the National Museum and the Office of Public Works.
“Cave tombs are relatively rare in Ireland. The caverns in which the three graves were found are so deep into the system that there must have been a different entrance when the graves were created,” Connolly said.
Items taken from the caves should indicate just how old the burials were, he said, adding that he projected they dated to the neolithic era. The caves were explored by a team led by Tralee man Richard Kelter who said they now intend to explore other potential cave systems in the area.
Peace troubles in Clare
Clare’s government minister Sile de Valera, grand daughter of Eamonn de Valera, found herself in the eye of a political storm recently over her failure to unambiguously support the referendum on Northern Ireland.
As the campaign to secure a massive “yes” vote for the agreement gathered pace, the minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht was accused of “lacking leadership” and “fudging” her voting intentions by Green Party Election Candidate Brian Meaney, the Clare Champion reported.
And Minister de Valera is also out of step with her Fianna Fail party colleagues Tony Killeen and Brendan Daly.
It is understood that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was disappointed with Minister de Valera’s failure to attend the official launch of the
government’s rally to whip up support for the “yes” campaign in the
Castletroy Park Hotel.
Indeed, de Valera was conspicuous by her absence as public representatives from Clare and Limerick gathered to hear Ahern and other speakers urged a “yes” vote for the referendum.
The wheel has now come full circle for de Valera’s granddaughter. During a republican commemoration service in Fermoy in September 1979, she attacked then Taoiseach Jack Lynch over his policy on Northern Ireland, which was rumored to be moving away from the core Fianna Fail philosophy of securing an united Ireland.
At a recent Fianna Fail meeting in Spancilhill, she urged supporters to look to their own consciences when making up their minds about the referendum.