logo
Westmeath car crash leaves one dead and another seriously injured

Westmeath car crash leaves one dead and another seriously injured

Irish Times15 hours ago
A man in his 60s has died and a woman has been taken to hospital following a collision in Co Westmeath on Wednesday.
The crash involving two cars occurred at about 4.20pm on the N4 at Ballinalack.
After gardaí and emergency services attended the scene, a male driver in his 60s was taken to Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar, where he was later pronounced dead.
A woman driving another car involved in the collision, also aged in her 60s, was taken to Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, where she is receiving treatment for serious injuries.
READ MORE
No other injuries have been reported, said a Garda spokesperson.
The road is closed with local diversions in place while a technical examination is carried out by forensic collision investigators.
Gardaí are appealing to any witnesses of the collision, or any road users who may have camera footage and were travelling in the area between 3.30pm and 4.30pm, to come forward.
Until Wednesday, 85 people had been killed on Irish roads so far this year, according to Garda data.
Drivers accounted for 31 fatalities, followed by pedestrians (21) and motorcyclists (15).
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘He wanted to have sex': Fitness to teach inquiry hears allegations teacher drove student to driveway of old factory
‘He wanted to have sex': Fitness to teach inquiry hears allegations teacher drove student to driveway of old factory

Irish Times

time10 minutes ago

  • Irish Times

‘He wanted to have sex': Fitness to teach inquiry hears allegations teacher drove student to driveway of old factory

A fitness-to-teach inquiry has heard testimony from a former Leaving Certificate student of how a teacher picked her up from her estate after school and brought her to the driveway of an old factory. 'He wanted to have sex, I wasn't sure. I remember trying to get over to the driver's side, I remember the clunkiness of it,' the witness told the inquiry on Wednesday. She has complained to the Teaching Council that while she was an 18-year-old student, a teacher at her school had sexual encounters with her on four to six occasions between March and June 2018. The complainant also alleges that she and the teacher sent communications to each other on Snapchat, the social media app, many of which were of a sexually explicit nature, including photos of a penis and nude photos of the complainant. READ MORE The teacher, who was not present, submitted that the complainant's case was a weak one which lacked detail. He submitted the case contained inconsistencies regarding dates, that the complainant had narrowed the date range on which the sexual encounters occurred on to between March and April 2018, and he noted the complainant said the sexual relationship was consensual. The teacher, who has been registered since 2016 taught in the school for five years. He is now working at another school and submitted that he has 'an exemplary record of service in both schools'. The complainant alleged that after speaking with her best friend and classmate, she found out the teacher was also sending inappropriate messages to her, messages which he had also sent to the complainant. The complainant further related how at the time of the allegations she was not in a positive mental state. She said she was drinking alcohol, had issues with food and that two years previously was hospitalised and that the teacher was aware of her mental health issues. She outlined a pattern of deleting the teacher from Snapchat and adding him again if she was struggling and as a means of coping. She felt he had a duty of care to her as a student and that he took advantage of her poor judgment. She said he encouraged her drinking and he sometimes provided her with cigarettes when he would pick her up in his car close to her home. She said while she did okay in her Leaving Certificate, her experiences that year with the teacher had an effect on her. She told how days before the exams she forwarded a letter to her best friend which outlined some details of the behaviour between herself and the teacher, but not the sexual nature of it as the teacher had convinced her not to. Neasa Bird, BL for the director of the Teaching Council, said that it is her client's contention that there is a prima-facie case of professional misconduct and a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers. The complainant, with the assistance of a trusted friend, previously submitted videos to the Teaching Council of her scrolling down through some of the Snapchat communications she had saved. The complainant also said the teacher's behaviour was manipulatory, that he had groomed her before having a sexual relationship with her. She related how the teacher provided her with a study plan when she was struggling with her mental health even though he was not one of her teachers. However, she felt this intervention was a tactic on his part to reassert him as a responsible adult, another method of gaining her trust. She related how she first came into contact with him when she obtained two lessons of additional tuition from him in August 2017, when she was 17. She said he added her, accidentally he said, on Snapchat that October. The complainant had turned 18 the previous month. She said a message from the teacher to her on Facebook, even though they were not Facebook friends, in December 2022 offering his congratulations to her on graduating from university spurred her to make her complaint to the Teaching Council. It was decided at a preliminary hearing that there would be no disclosure of the name of the school or of any information which would reveal the identity of any witnesses. The panel also ruled today that this order of anonymity would not extend to the name of the teacher. The inquiry will reconvene on Tuesday, July 15th.

Man arrested as motorcyclist critically injured in Waterford crash
Man arrested as motorcyclist critically injured in Waterford crash

Sunday World

time19 minutes ago

  • Sunday World

Man arrested as motorcyclist critically injured in Waterford crash

Gardaí are appealing for witnesses A man in his 60s has been arrested and a motorcyclist in his 50s was critically injured following a collision with a car in Co Waterford yesterday evening. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses following the incident, which occurred in Monvoy in Tramore around 7.40pm on Wednesday. The motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, was brought to University Hospital Waterford in the aftermath, where his condition is described as critical. The driver of the car, a man in his 60s, was arrested at the scene and has been detained at a Garda Station in the south east under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. The road is currently closed for a technical examination by Forensic Collision Investigators and local diversions are in place. Gardaí are appealing for anyone with information regarding this incident to come forward. A spokesperson said: 'Any persons who were in the Monvoy Cross area between 7.30pm and 7.50pm and who may have witnessed the incident should contact investigating Gardaí. 'Any road users who were travelling in this vicinity at the time, and who may have camera footage including dash cam, are asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardaí. 'Gardaí can be contacted at the Tramore Garda Station on 051 391620, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.' Investigations are ongoing, they said. Stock photo (Niall Carson/PA) News in 90 Seconds - July 10th

RTÉ's ‘Noraid: Irish America and the IRA' leans towards the Che Guevara version of history
RTÉ's ‘Noraid: Irish America and the IRA' leans towards the Che Guevara version of history

Irish Times

time5 hours ago

  • Irish Times

RTÉ's ‘Noraid: Irish America and the IRA' leans towards the Che Guevara version of history

The makers of Noraid: Irish America and the IRA , RTÉ 's flashy new two-part documentary about the Provisionals' support base in North America, say they want to 'tell a story that is misunderstood or not known at all'. But of course, anyone who was alive during the Troubles will remember only too well how elements within Irish America helped fund the IRA's campaign and, in so doing, contributed to the bombings of civilians, the kneecappings, the murder of Gardaí and the sectarian campaign against Protestant farmers along the border. How shocking to think this part of history might be in danger of slipping between the cracks of popular recollection. The film (RTÉ One. 9.35pm) doesn't quite paint Noraid – a contraction of 'Irish Northern Aid Committee' – as misunderstood heroes. However, it might have gone further in making explicit what they were supporting. That is, the slaughter of pensioners on Remembrance Sunday, the kidnapping and murder of businessmen, industrial-scale bank robbery. That isn't to absolve the British state of its sins in the North , its backing of loyalist death squads or the stain of colonialism, as dark as not-quite-dried blood. But the documentary does not convey, or even really acknowledge, the horror the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland felt at the time towards the Provos. And that is relevant to the story, as it also explains the widespread revulsion towards Noraid. If anything, the first of two episodes leans ever so subtly towards the Che Guevara version of history – never mind the body count; look at the cool poster we got out of it. READ MORE Hipster touches abound as the producers play up the New York element of the story. The Beastie Boys feature on the soundtrack, and the title cards are modelled on old cop shows. These are flourishes that do not always sit well with the grim subject matter. Still, there are flashes of humour, too – such as when activists recall arranging for senior members of the republican movement in Belfast to be interviewed by one of America's most widely-read journals, Playboy. Meanwhile, taxi driver John McDonagh remembers booking an ad in Times Square supporting the IRA – it finished with the initials 'UTP'. This spelt 'Up the Provos', though the company that took the booking thought it meant 'Up the Pope'. 'They never asked me what type of charity,' McDonagh says. 'I said I wanted to send season's greetings to the Irish people. They never asked what type of Irish people. I didn't offer what type.' If the film doesn't take a strong enough stand on the Provos, it does give a voice to senior Noraid figures and allows them to communicate their views uncritically. It introduces Martin Galvin, a lawyer and leading figure in Noraid. He was banned from entering Northern Ireland but went anyway in 1984. In the riot that followed his appearance at a rally in West Belfast, British security forces shot dead a protester with a rubber bullet. Galvin obviously wasn't to blame for the bloody excesses of the British security establishment. However, the violence would not have broken out had he not been there. 'We support Irish freedom ... the only way the British are going to leave Ireland is for the fight to be successful,' Galvin says – seemingly cleaving to the old republican shibboleth as seeing the British as an entirely external force and ignoring the inconvenient presence of a million unionists. Still, it is revealing to learn that Galvin and other Noraid members are far removed from the misty-eyed Irish-American stereotype. Noraid was largely based in New York, and its members have the hard-bitten qualities of characters from a Scorsese movie. That said, modern Sinn Féin's hipster-Marxist axis won't be thrilled to learn that Noraid expunged any hint of socialism from imported copies of An Phoblacht because that sort of thing would not have gone down well with Irish Americans. Nor do the producers address the uncomfortable fact that Irish America – so keen on the physical force of republicanism – would go on to become a power base for Donald Trump and, thus of 21st century Neo-Fascist. Interviewed today, Galvin is unapologetic and still retains some of the firebrand qualities that are a feature of his archive appearances. The documentary is also careful to point out that while Noraid organised fundraisers for Sinn Féin, it never supplied arms to the Provos. The task of smuggling guns across the Atlantic fell to organised criminals. That story will be told in part two and will touch on the role of Whitey Bulger (as later played on screen by Johnny Depp). But part one provides a fascinating portrait of a crucial element of the struggles – of true believers from across the sea who seemed to fancy themselves more Irish than those in the 26 counties who didn't much care about the Constitutional status of the North, only that people stopped dying. 'What I've found is the diaspora make a serious attempt to understand the Irish culture, whereas a lot of people that are actually from the island of Ireland have never made an attempt to understand the diaspora culture,' says Chris Byrne, a former New York cop and republican sympathiser. It is a reminder few are as committed to the spilling of blood in Ireland as those who never set foot here.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store