General « Thurles Information

Teenager Critical Following Collision With Horse In Tipperary.

Cahir Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to a serious collision between a motor vehicle and a horse, which has left a teenage driver in a critical condition in hospital.

Gardaí attended the scene of the collision, which occurred at approximately 11.55pm last night on the M8 at Cahir Abbey Upper, Cahir, Co Tipperary, between Junctions 11 (Cahir South) and Junction 10 (Cahir North).

We understand that a loose horse wandered out onto the motorway into the path of an oncoming motor vehicle.

According to Gardaí the male driver, who was in his late teens, sustained serious injuries and was removed to Cork University Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

Last night and this morning diversions were in place as forensic collision investigators conducted an examination of the collision scene.

Today, Gardaí are appealing to any person or road user who were travelling in the area with cameras (including vehicles with dash camera footage), to make same available to Cahir Gardaí.

Persons with information can contact Cahir Garda station at Tel. No.: 052 7445630, the Garda Confidential Line on Tel. No.: 1800 666 111 or indeed any Garda station.

Drugs Destined for Addresses In Tipperary Seized by Revenue Officers.

Revenue officers have seized parcels containing drugs with an estimated street value of €450,000, in the area Dublin and Athlone.

The parcels were destined for addresses in counties Tipperary, Dublin, Galway, Cork, Meath, Waterford, Kildare, Clare, Louth, Leitrim and Cavan, but were halted as part of Revenue’s ongoing operations targeting the importation of illegal drugs.

In the Dublin area, routine operations at two premises saw illegal drugs seized, with an estimated value of over €370,000.
The drugs seized included small quantities of butane honey oil, cannabis resin, MDMA, ecstasy tablets, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids and 18kgs of herbal cannabis.

In Athlone on Monday last, using the assistance of detector dogs ‘Bailey’ and ‘Sam’, Revenue officers discovered illegal drugs, while examining parcels, leading to the seizure of almost 4kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated street value of €80,000.

Latter were concealed in various parcels labelled as ‘board games’, ‘car organisers’, ‘tuxedos’, ‘tea’, ‘jeans’ and ‘pet blanket’.

The parcels are understood to have initially originated in North America, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Investigations into both Dublin and Athlone seizures remain ongoing.

Death Of Seamus Shortall, Formerly Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

It was with a great sadness that we learned of the death, on Sunday, 1st May, 2022, of Mr Seamus Shortall, Greenford, London, and formerly of Rathmanna, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

The passing of Mr Shortall, is most deeply regretted by his sister Bridget, brother Paddy and brother-in-law Dan, nieces, nephews, extended relatives, neighbours and friends.

Requiescat in Pace.

Funeral Arrangements.

The earthly remains of Mr Shortall will repose for Requiem Mass at the Church of Our Lady of the Visitation, Greenford, London, before being repatriated to his home town of Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

His body will further repose in Kennedy’s Funeral Home, Dublin Road, Thurles on Thursday evening next from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, followed by interment on Friday morning May at 10:30am in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Moyne Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

[NB: Due to C-19 virus fears; those attending will continue to observe strict adherence to social distancing, face covering, with no hand shaking.]

The extended Shortall family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time and have made arrangements for those wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Release Of CSO Crime Statistics On Victims & Suspected Offenders.

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD has noted today’s publication of the latest statistics on victims and suspected offenders of serious crimes recorded by An Garda Síochána.

The latest release from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) covers Recorded Crime Victims 2021 and Suspected Offenders 2020, and includes statistics showing a rise since 2018 in the proportion of victims who are women in crimes including attempts/threats to murder, assaults, and harassment offences.

Minister McEntee said, “The new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence – which I will bring to Government in the coming weeks – will have a particular focus on prevention, and on ensuring victims are better supported.
It will set an overall goal of zero tolerance for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and will ensure that people, particularly women and vulnerable people, feel safe and are safe in our communities.
I am also focused on strengthening legislation in this area. Last week I secured Government approval to draft legislation to make stalking and non-fatal strangulation standalone offences, and I will publish a new Hate Crime Bill which will introduce new, specific aggravated offences with enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against certain characteristics, including gender”.

The CSO report shows that four out of five victims in sexual violence cases in 2021 were women, and the Minister also noted the drop in the proportion of sexual violence incidents that were reported within a year of them occurring – and urged people to report these heinous crimes as quickly as possible to assist An Garda Síochana in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Minister McEntee added, “We know that these statistics do not paint the full picture of sexual violence in this country, as it only relates to people who have come forward to report what has happened to them. We know that it a sad reality that there are many more victims of sexual violence out there.
We need to know the true extent of this problem and that is why we agreed to the development and delivery of a significant new national survey on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland by the CSO. The survey will look in detail at the experience of sexual violence and abuse for both women and men in Ireland.
The No Excuses campaign that my Department ran from 2019 until the end of 2021 underpins the message that sexual harassment and sexual violence will not be tolerated. It highlights that, as a society, we all have a role to play in preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence.
We are currently in the process of developing a further campaign to raise awareness of the meaning and importance of consent.
Also, through the Justice Plan and Supporting a Victim’s Journey, I am working to reform the criminal justice system at every point in which a victim comes into contact with it, and to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases”.

To date, a number of key actions have been delivered as part of implementing Supporting a Victim’s Journey including:

The introduction of preliminary trial hearings;
The nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSU);
The first cohort of staff at a new sexual offences unit in the Director of Public Prosecutions office formally took up their roles last year;
Work to advance the training for all personnel who come into contact with vulnerable victims is underway

The Department has also agreed to the development and delivery of a significant new national survey on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland by the CSO. It will look in detail at the experience of sexual violence and abuse for both women and men in Ireland.

The full statistics can be accessed at: www.cso.ie

5,688 New Virus Cases On Irish Mainland Today.

To date world-wide, the Covid -19 virus is known to have infected 499,748,065 people, while vaccine doses have been administered to at least 11,110,770,965 persons. Sadly, also at least 6,181,560 people have lost their lives; deaths caused solely by this killer virus.

Today, the Department of Health here in the Irish Republic has confirmed a further 4,761 new cases of Covid-19, within the past 24 hours. Same figure includes 1,749 PCR-confirmed cases of the virus and 3,012 positive antigen tests registered through the HSE portal.

Today, also there are 1,004 patients with the disease in our Republic’s hospitals, a reduction of 77 patients on yesterday’s figure. Of these 53 people are being treated in intensive care units.
Sadly, a further 19 deaths have been recorded today within the Irish Republic, same bringing the total number of Covid-19-related deaths, since the start of the pandemic, to 6,884; shown as the figure published up to yesterday.

Meanwhile; the Department of Health in Northern Ireland has also confirmed another 927 positive cases of the virus within the previous 24-hour period, up from 632 notified on yesterday.

As of this morning, there were 440 Covid-positive patients in northern hospitals, of whom 3 remain in intensive care units.

Also in Northern Ireland, sadly, 2 patients, who had previously tested positive for Covid-19, have been reported dead, bringing the total number of deaths linked to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic to 3,369.