Around Ireland: ANCHOVIES AHOY

By Stephen McKinley

The most shocking news from the west coast of Ireland last week came in the form of anchovies — the tiny herring-like fish considered a delicacy by some is normally never found in cold waters such as the north Atlantic. Now several fishermen have reported finding it in their nets.

One of the largest anchovy catches turned up in Donegal Bay last week.

“It is very unusual, particularly so far north,” Marine Institute scientist John Molloy said. “Occasionally you’d get individual specimens in trawl hauls, but nothing of any note.”

Large quantities of pilchard had also been caught off the south coast, he confirmed.

“We have had pilchard fisheries before, so that’s not so unusual. However, they are also a southern species,” he said.

Sea fishery officer Kevin Flannery specualted that the anchovies were swimming on an unusually warm northward moving current, reported the Irish Times.

MISSING CHILD RETURNS

Savannah McNally is back from her safari.

The 20-month-old child was taken from her mother by an unidentified woman who was apparently known to the family.

“I was worried she was gone, completely gone,” said overjoyed mother Anne Marie McNally of her daughter, missing for a number of days. The baby was spotted by a shopper at lunchtime in Portlaoise Shopping Center.

She described the woman who took her as a “silly girl” who should apologize to her and the family for their ordeal.

“At least she looked after her, I suppose,” she added. The child has a serious kidney condition, which only added to the family’s concerns.

BOND NAVAN BOUND?

License to thrill? That’s what Navan Arts Center hopes to acquire, if it can get Pierce Brosnan, the current James Bond, to become its patron.

Locals are also hoping to have the Irish premiere of the next James Bond movie held in the town, says the Meath Chronicle.

Navan Civic Trust is currently faced with the task of raising _1.7 million locally for the proposed theater and arts center.

SMOKING SMUGGLERS

Inside Cork hits its readers with a scoop this week, the news that a prominent local Cork sports personality — unnamed — is “making huge profits from the sale and distribution of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco.”

Reporters for the online news service observed workers for the sports personality selling cigarettes and tobacco out of “a large leather carrier bag.”

Because of the high price of cigarettes in Ireland, smuggling cigarettes is highly profitable. It is believed that carriers bring large quantities from Spain, alleging that the cigarettes are for personal use, exploiting a legal loophole.

Gardai are investigating. They told Inside Cork that they have already stopped 170 million cigarettes from reaching the black market, which would have cost the government _50 million in taxes. How much, one wonders, have the cops failed to prevent?

WATERFORD RIOT

Kilcohan, Co. Waterford, was the scene of a riot recently after a gang of youths, apparently high on drink and drugs, went on the rampage.

A security guard was injured in the Kilcohan Shopping Center, and over the following two nights other people, including women, were attacked and one man suffered serious leg injuries.

“Some of those involved looked like they were from another planet they were so out of it,” said an unnamed witness.

An elderly lady was also attacked, and suffered cuts to her face, according to the Munster Express.

YOU’RE NOT INVITED!

In Derry, there’s precious little peace and goodwill around this Christmas — at least between local Sinn Fein politicians and the city’s DUP mayor, Mildred Garfield.

Garfield stunned the Shinners by not inviting them to the annual mayoral Christmas party.

“This isn’t the first time that the DUP have sought to exclude Sinn Fein — two years ago Joe Miller did the same thing. It is the height of pettiness and quite possibly a breach of council protocol,” a Sinn Fein spokesperson said.

Garfield told the Derry Journal: “I am paying for the party and I am entitled to sit down and eat a meal with whoever I want to eat with. I am inviting those people who I have been associated with all year and people who I want to be at the party.”

LOVELY LURGAN?

Northern Ireland’s leading spoof newspaper, the Portadown News, takes a dark look at charity this week, asking readers to give generously to the Lurgan Christmas Appeal. Lurgan lies just east of the town of Portadown, Co. Armagh.

“Everyday life in Lurgan is a struggle we to the West can hardly imagine,” the online newspaper says. “Children as young as 10 are often sent out to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Many things which we take for granted are unavailable, particularly soap, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and washing powder.”

“Lurgan’s tragedy has already created a terrible refugee problem in Moira, and if the situation isn’t controlled, they might start moving here as well.”