February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
"As the deluge subsides and the waters fall, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerge once again." Churchill’s words about the end of the World War I could have been quoted again last Friday, as the Fermanagh-South Tyrone constituency provided the election cliffhanger drama of the day.
All eyes turned west to see if Sinn Fein could conquer the seat they last held under Bobby Sands and Owen Carron in the early 1980s. In the end, Michelle Gildernew prevailed over UUP candidate James Cooper and Independent Unionist Jim Dixon, to win with a majority of only 53 votes, a result that Cooper said he would contest.
Ugly scenes developed toward the end of the evenings as Sinn Fein supporters heckled and booed Cooper, who in turn angrily attacked Jim Dixon, who had been backed by the DUP.
"The reason the unionists lost this election is because of a so-called unionist party, who slunk away from here three hours ago, and hadn’t the guts to stand their own candidate," Cooper said.
The Impartial Reporter’s colorful account of the longest day noted that, "as Mr. Cooper, his wife and party workers made their way through the sea of green, a large man bellowed into their faces: ‘Up the ‘RA. Up the ‘RA. Up the ‘RA.’ "
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POLITICS OF GENTLENESS
Meanwhile, in Donegal, less than 60 miles away from those dreary steeples, politics was taking place of a vastly different kind.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern arrived in the county to open a new Holiday Inn, and the locals turned out to greet him in the hundreds, all apparently delighted at the opportunity to see him.
A standing ovation greeted Ahern in the Golden Grill bar, where he spoke for a few minutes before joining in the merriment.
As the Tirconnaill Tribune put it, "The people listened intently to the Taoiseach’s words and showed their appreciation."
NIAMH’S LATE
A mechanical failure has delayed the Irish navy’s newest patrol vessel from arriving in Cork harbor.
The LE Niamh was due to be delivered in the coming days, but damage to a gearbox during sea trials off the English coast caused the delay
The 78-meter, £20 million ship sheared a pinion shaft and lost the use of one engine. Even so, Inside Cork newspaper reports that it will still arrive ahead of time.
The patrol boat has not been fitted with a gun, but the retiring LE Deirdre, which LE Niamh was ordered to replace, will relinquish its Bofors gun.
With a top speed of 22 knots, LE Niamh will be used for fishery protection duty. The LE Niamh will be commissioned as a state ship at a ceremony in Haulbowline once it arrives. The "LE" prefix stands for "Long Eireannach," meaning Irish ship.
AUTISTIC EDUCATION
Autistic twin sisters Etain and Tara Fitzgerald, from Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford, are in San Francisco for an intensive three-month educational program.
Doctors hope that the program will give them the gift of speech — the 5-year-olds have yet to say a word. They are accompanied in California by their parents, Michael and Niamh, and 13-year-old brother, Shane.
Waterford and Kilkennt locals raised £50,000 toward the cost involved.
"The girls are now getting an opportunity they would not otherwise have had and our fingers are tightly crossed that it ends in success," Michael said.
"We have now gone well past the £50,000 mark, but the treatment is so expensive that every penny will be needed."
Michael and Niamh said they could never thank sufficiently the committee members who organized the fund-raising and those who made contributions.
"Our hope now is that the course they are undertaking will open up a whole new life for the twins," they said.
ZOO BIRTH JOY
Dublin zoo is celebrating its first birth since it reopened last month after the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Sasha and Marmaduke, the tapirs, have had a baby tapir, a female. With a short trunk, the tapir looks like an elephant. but is in fact more closely related to horses.
They usually spend most of their time by the edges of rivers in Asia, where they stay cool and eat fruit, leaves, stems and grasses.
Peter Wilson, Dublin zoo director, said: "We are absolutely delighted with the arrival of the baby tapir. It is encouraging to see that Dublin Zoo is expanding on all fronts. Not only has the zoo developed and expanded from a structural point of view, we have also managed to increase the number of animals as a result of births such as the baby Tapir."
Now they just have to think of a name.