Staff at one of Donegal’s top hotels say they’ve been left humbled by the support they have received within the county as they continue to welcome guests.

The team at the award-winning Shandon Hotel & Spa overlooking Marble Hill beach decided to stay open as Level 3 restrictions were brought in.

And the decision of General Manager Carolynne Harrison to introduce a half-price offer exclusive to Donegal residents – to comply with the new Government advice – has gone down a treat with loyal local customers.

“We’ve always attracted a lot of customers from within Donegal, especially at this time of the year so when we faced new restrictions we had to decide what we wanted to do,” said Carolynne.

“My team and I were determined to protect jobs over this three-week period. But we were also mindful of the many Donegal customers who were already booked in over this time and we really didn’t want to let them down.

Carolynne Harrison of the Shandon Hotel.

“It was so difficult dealing with customers from all over Ireland who had booked to come here and no longer could. For some it was to have been their only break this year.

“We’ve rebooked many of those guests to another time; but we also knew that there were Donegal residents booked to stay with us and we didn’t want to let them down, so we’re here, working hard and happy to welcome so many loyal local customers and a lot of new ones too.”

Under the offer for Donegal residents, guests can effectively stay one night and get a second free on deals up to October 16th when restrictions are due to end.

“We’ve been humbled and very emotional too because of the support we have received here in Donegal,” said Carolynne.

“We’ve adhered to all the health and safety guidelines since we re-opened at the end of June and gone further in many instances.

“The thought of closing again would have broken our hearts. No business wants to lay off 130 hard-working staff members in any circumstances.

“So we’re here, we are being extremely vigilant about Covid-19 and we are helping people get the break they need. That’s our job satisfaction every day.”

The Spa is open with great availability due to cancellations from those not residing in Donegal. The Leisure Centre remains open from 8am until 12noon daily. Food service in bar & restaurant is limited to residents of the hotel & spa.

Donegal residents can get the half-price code only on the www.shandonhotelspa.com hotel website, entering the promo code LOCOESCAPE.

THE RNLI lifeboat on Arranmore is back on service – a week after a positive Covid-19 case was detected among the team.

The volunteers have announced a full return to service as of 9pm tonight (Wednesday).

The team was stood down last Tuesday after a member tested positive for the virus after taking part in an exercise. The rest of the crew went into self-isolation before being tested for Covid-19. The lifeboat was given a deep clean, as well as all crew kit and the station.

Other local RNLI stations in Donegal were on stand-by for search and rescue cover for the past week.

A statement from Arranmore RNLI tonight confirmed that the station is operational again and said: “The RNLI is grateful to the lifeboat crew and station management on Arranmore Island and to the public and sea-faring community for their support during this time.”

RTE’s documentary series on Wild Ireland will come to an end tonight with a behind the scenes look at some of the biggest moments for the sanctuary family.

The finale of Return of the Wild: The Bearman of Buncrana airs this Thursday 1st October at 8.30pm.

The episode will follow the emotional and the frantic moments leading up to the park gates opening in October 2019.

Viewers will see Wild Ireland founder Killian McLaughlin getting the three resident bears, wolves and Naoise the lynx settled to their new habitats.

The series so far has followed the many ups and downs faced by Killian and his wife Katy in their mission to set up the sanctuary, but this episode will feature a very special family moment when the couple discover they are expecting. As if things weren’t hectic enough!

Tonight’s programme will chart the stress and exhaustion endured by the team as they put the finishing touches to Wild Ireland before opening. The park soon proves to be a hit with the public and when all Killian’s work seems to have paid off, a stormy winter hits… followed by Covid-19.

There are rays of hope though, and viewers will get to witness the park’s first ever birth when six wild boars arrived in April. More new residents are welcomed to Wild Ireland during lockdown, but an extra special arrival is still on the way.

Wild Ireland may have made it through the lockdown, but it seems many obstacles are coming its way in the future, from council issues and unhappy locals to the effects of Brexit, the McLaughlins learn it is an ongoing project that will never end.

Nonetheless, Killian and Katie, now joined by their newborn son Rigan, are confident and enthusiastic about overcoming everything life has to throw at them.

Return of the Wild: The Bearman of Buncrana, by Moondance Productions for RTE, airs at 8.30pm Thursday 1st October on RTE One.

It’s that time for me again when phone contract ends and I get that itching for a new phone.

So on Saturday morning recently I headed to the phone shop to see what was available.

To to make a long story short I found myself heading back to the iPhone range after spending two years working with my first Android Phone.

It was a Huawei or a ‘how-ya’ as someone called it and in a nutshell it had everything that an iPhone hadn’t. Two years ago it had a long battery life, bigger storage and a great set of camera phone lenses developed by one of the best camera makers in the world, Lecia.

I suppose the biggest reason I changed from an iPhone to a Huawei was a bit of local pride of all things.

Fellow Glencar man Joseph Kelly from Wolfe Tone Place in Letterkenny who went for the Post & Telegraphs in Letterkenny went on to one of the top posts on this latest in phone technology Huawei.

Joe Kelly from Glencar pictured in his days in the post office in Letterkenny , now one of the top men with Huawei

Joseph worked in the post office in Letterkenny before heading off on a journey in the ever changing technology world and ending up as the vice president of Huawei.

After two years with an Android phone which I thought was great and did everything it said it would do, I wanted a change.

It’s me that’s not up on technology and working with Apple computers since we left the days of film and changes over to digital for photography I find that over the two years I have decided to head back in search of the Apple phone which operating system I find a bit easier to get around.

6210 nokia

Gone are the days of the old Nokia 6210, which in my view was one of the best phones ever made. Bob Geldof, who once described it as the AK-47 of mobile phones, was still using it over a decade after it was released in 2000.

I had one myself and couldn’t even see the numbers on the keypad at the end but it just went on and on. So Apple had big shoes to fill when the iPhone made its way onto the stage, and being a creature of habit and not like change the iPhone pulled me into the digital age of smartphones.

By way of preparing for my change over and doing a bit of research, I realised that the new phone I was getting would have a smaller storage space than the one it was replacing so I thought I would take a small external hard drive with me to the store to avoid that moment of panic when sales assistant asks you if there’s anything you would like to keep before the swap over. As things turned out in these Covid-19 times, handling of my old phone was very limited by the sales team and before I knew it my new phone was in a bag and I was on my way.

Still have the old battered up Nokia 6210 which looks so small along side the Huawei Pro 30. Photo Brian McDaid.

Now I had two phones and one sim and all of my limited IT knowledge to make the change over and I thought to myself what could possibly go wrong? Opening the box on a new phone is just one of those joys in life and Apple seems to have it made this into to a fine art.

Everything from how well the box is made that the phone is packed into the way that the phone charger is neatly wrapped up even down to the way the earphones were presented, which at a glance looked like Airpods until I saw the leads at the back of them.

Charging up

Preparing for the changeover I plug in the new phone to give it a good charge as I started to prepare to download all the photos on the old phone, and that’s where things started to go downhill for me.

Firstly my laptop flashed up a message that it didn’t have enough space to download all the pictures on the old phone and at the same time the new iPhone came to life giving me at least ten different translations of the word Hello such as CIAO, HOLA, BONJOUR, OLÁ, HALLO.

Beside all that, the old phone wouldn’t let me transfer the photos on it to the new location I made for it on a hard drive which I called “Huawei 1” so I go back to the start and create another folder called “Huawei 2”. Aaaaaagh! Still no good then I try to transfer the photo library as it is called on the phone itself, but no.

I was also having trouble transferring my phone contacts out of the phone as well and ended up with a new copy of the old contacts on the old phone itself. And then as if by magic the picture starts to transfer across to the external hard drive. This happens very slowly and a thumbnail of each is popping up like a trip down memory lane. Happy that something is happening, I’m happy to sit and watch this working as I gather my thoughts on what I need to do next.

The pictures from these last two years are from very different journeys from happy images such as the seasons changes to immense sadness, right through to trying to build positivity in the lockdown in the early part of the year when the lockdown was at its highest.

They included of pictures that you didn’t want to let go of, to small video clips that had everything wrong with them until the person in them was no longer here, then that clip took on a different meaning. The sound of someone’s voice all became part of a journey. Then I have offbeat video clips like one of me dialling up on an old phone that I have, the sound of it dialling out the numbers the old way, right through to a video of the Irish Army marching down the Main Street in Letterkenny to head off on peace-keeping duties.

Meanwhile, the new phone had lit up a few times and I’m not ready yet to remove the sim from the old phone and transfer it to the new one. I also remembered at this stage that I had forgotten my Apple ID which is not good news, I know this new phone is going to ask me for it at some stage and I well could be locked out before I ever even get in. Now the old phone has all the pictures and videos transferred.

Using the small tool provided with the phone I start to attempt to remove the sim from the old phone but the door will not open on it. Trying a bit more pressure I try again still no good. So to do what everyone does in these situations I go online on the computer nearby and type in “how to remove the sim on a Huawei phone”.

I really only want to know how to get the door opened and I soon realise that I wasn’t using enough pressure so back with the information to ‘take three’ and the door pops open and the sim carrier falls the table and what looks like the smaller sim I have ever seen bounces on the table before falling to the floor.

I freeze and slowly look down to see where it has gone but it has disappeared! I carefully reach for the old phone and go to switch on the torch on it but now the phone has locked closed possibly because the sim door is lying on the table beside it.

IT department in action Photo Brian McDaid.

I look around the floor again, still no sign of this nano sim. I’m afraid to even stand up in case I stand on the sim that I cannot see. So I take one big step away from the area that I think it should be and return on my knees.

I’m fearing the worst as this is old wooden floorboards and this sim might have gone down into the tunnelling grove or worst still went through them. My search is not now from Google but to St. Anthony looking along every floorboard and as if by magic its the reflection of the printed circuit on sim card that shows it sitting on its edge in the grove of the timber. Carefully I praise it out and thank God and St. Anthony for its recovery.

So now it’s back up on the table and I go to place it into the carrier of the new phone but it won’t fit so I turn it upside down and that even worse. The thought crossed my mind that it might have damaged but on closer examination I find that it’s the small break off points on the plastic that are preventing it from fitting into a tighter made carrier on the new phone complained to the old phone it came out of.

So now I have to cut a bit more of this already thin sim card before I can get it to fit in. Then a double check online to see which way is the right way up, the sim fits into the carrier and it slides into the new phone and powers up again.

The carrier of the SIM card and minus the sim. Photo Brian McDaid.

My new phone is all up and running now and it’s the best of friends with my apple computer. It’s even talking to Siri who doesn’t understand a word I am saying. My phone contacts are still in a new folder on my old phone which now is unlocked again so every so often I have to switch on my old phone to find the number of someone to dial it on my new phone.

Happy phoning Folks!

ORDINARILY, it should have been one of the biggest weeks of Leah Gallen’s young life.

The recently-turned 18-year-old boxer was due to punch in her first day as a quantity surveying student on Monday at Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

This weekend, Gallen was due to begin her quest to win a seventh Irish title.

However, the Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions that came into place in Dublin saw the Open Youth Championships postponed.

The Raphoe ABC star still hopes to get to the European Championships in Montenegro later in the year, but it is a time of uncertainty for the six-time Irish champion.

“I was supposed to have the Championships this week, but they got cancelled when Dublin locked down again,” Gallen says.

“It was so disappointing for me. I was training flat out building my fitness and sharpness. I had myself built up again and it’s a big let down.

“Hopefully I’ll still get the Europeans in November. Time will tell. We don’t know if we are taking a team out or if we can take a team out.

“I have to train as if they’re on now.”

Earlier this year, Gallen defeated Crumlin’s Shelby Myers in the Irish Under-18 decider.

Last September, she won a European Youth bronze in Bulgaria.

There, she defeated Annemarie Schierle and Gulcan Arga before losing out to Csulla Ambrus in a semi-final.

In 2018, Gallen won bronze at the European Junior Championships in Russia.

She also has her eyes on bigger things, too.

She says: “The Worlds are supposed to be coming at the start of 2021 too and they have to be a target for me.”

The Third Level Championships and Under-22s would have been on the bill in normal times.

But in these strange days, Gallen still has to put in the hard yards with big days remaining possible.

She says: “With boxing, a lot of the stuff involves training by yourself so it’s not too much of a change.

“Even though we don’t know, I just have to stay on my ‘A’ game now and keep going. I have to be ready.”

Daniel O’Donnell has demanded support for the struggling Irish music industry.

The Kincasslagh man said that while he misses performing live, he feels most concern for younger performers, bands and crew members who have been denied a pay day for their work since March.

He said “It would be nice for the musicians and all that to be able to get the payment until they’re able get back to work.

“I feel more for the younger singers who are just getting their feet on the ground.

“I think a lot of the time people don’t see musicians and the music business as a real job but that’s their job. I’ve never seen it as a job because I love it so much but that’s how they survive. That’s how they raise their families.

“During the pandemic they were the first to stop and the last to recover so I feel for all these people who have no chance of an income. It’s very difficult. I feel for them.”

The 58-year-old singer, who has sold over 10 million records since launching his career in the early eighties, had to cancel his Australian and New Zealand tour in August and a date in Killarney last weekend.

He told RTE “Where is the money going to come from? It’s very hard to do what needs to be done. As long as people would be able to manage and get some money that would be the important thing.”
He was also due to start a UK tour in late October and then head over to the US in November, before returning to Dublin in December.

“The first live we have back is in Killarney next year and we don’t know if that will happen,” he says. “We have to hope that by then we will be able to go back doing the shows, but we don’t know.”

35,000 people in Ireland, from musicians to crew to venue workers, depend on the music industry for their livelihoods and Daniel has added his voice to a growing clamour for government to help the music and arts sector as it struggles during the Covid restrictions

“Because that business has no chance of recovering it would be nice for the musicians and all that to be able to get the payment until they’re able get back to work,” he says.

“But then there’s a lot of people in the same position in hotels whose jobs are stopped. And how is the government going to manage?

Daniel will play his first ever live-streamed show at Derry’s Millennium Forum Theatre on November 1

“Where is the money going to come from? It’s very hard to do what needs to be done. As long as people would be able to manage and get some money that would be the important thing.”

As he says the only difference between the Derry gig and a normal Daniel show is that fans will be watching it in their own homes and not in a theatre. “We will have to imagine applause.” he says.

A Dáil motion led by Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD to reverse a controversial penalty points system for fishers has been voted down.

The Sinn Féin Private Members Bill sought to annul a new system of penalty points for Ireland’s offshore fishing fleet.

The bill received 61 votes in favour and 78 votes against.

Donegal Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn, who is the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Fisheries, has said he will continue to fight against the “unfair and unjust” scheme.

Speaking before the vote, MacLochlainn TD said: “This scheme, as with the last one that Fianna Fáil annulled, accepts a ‘balance of probability’ position for prosecution and allows a situation where applied penalty points remain on a licence even after a court of law may deem after a court appeal that a fisher did not commit an offence.

“It also allows allocated points to transfer and multiply with the sale of a quota even though the purchaser will not have committed any offence and furthermore allows the nominated authority by Government to oversee the penalty points system to essentially be judge, jury and executioner.”

Job Vacancy: A Letterkenny-based Solicitors Practice is currently recruiting: 

Position available in Liddy Scollan Solicitors, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal for a Legal Secretary.

Office experience essential.

This is a full time position in a busy practice for a minimum of 6 months.

To apply for this role, please email a CV, with LEGALSECRETARY7 in the subject line, to donegaldailyjobs@gmail.com

Closing date for applications: 5pm, 9th October 2020

A Judge has ordered that a special court date be set to hear the separate cases of a former Senator charged with a hit and run and a priest charged with drink driving.

The cases are amongst a number which have been constantly adjourned at Falcarragh District Court.

Solicitor Sean Cannon has asked that the cases be heard in Irish and arrangements are now being made to hear the cases.

Judge Paul Kelly said he was adjourning the cases, five in all, until November 5th to name a date for their hearings.

He said the cases need to go ahead.

He said “We do need to get these cases on. They have been around for a long, long time.”

Garda Inspector Seamus McGonigle said he understood and said he accepted that it has taken a long time to make arrangements for the cases.

Brian O Domhnaill

The cases include that of former Senator Brian O Domhnaill, of Killult, Falcarragh, who is charged with a number of offences including drunk driving and hit and run.

The offences are alleged to have happened at Tullygay outside Letterkenny on September 2nd, 2013.

The cases also include Fr Denis Quinn of the Parochial House in Falcarragh.

Fr Quinn is charged with drink driving at Letterkenny’s Main Street on March 29th, 2014.

The number of Covid-19 positive patients at Letterkenny University Hospital has risen to seven in the past day.

The figure increased from three since Tuesday night.

At 8pm Wednesday, the hospital reported seven Covid-19 patients onsite and a further five patients awaiting Covid-19 test results. A double-test approach is being taken at LUH during the pandemic.

There were no Covid-19 patients in ICU in Letterkenny at the time of the report.

A further 31 cases of the virus were detected in Donegal on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the county since the outbreak began to 949. Donegal has recorded 336 cases of Covid-19 in the past 14 days.

Nationally, 121 patients with the virus were recorded in Irish hospitals on Wednesday.

A man who brutally assaulted his girlfriend after downing a dozen pints of Guinness has been jailed for 18 months after he originally walked free from court.

Stephen Connor treated the woman to a brutal onslaught during which he repeatedly punched her in the face and threatened her with knives.

However, despite being sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail, Judge John Aylmer decided to suspend the sentence a Letterkenny Circuit Court in Donegal in July, 2019.

Judge Aylmer said 43 year old Connor seemed genuinely remorseful and that the incident was completely out of character for him.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, represented by barrister Fiona Crawford, then decided to appeal what it called the undue leniency of the sentence.

And Connor was this week the Court of Appeal decided that Connor should serve 18 months in prison.

Judges Birmingham, McCarthy and Ni Raifeartaigh said there was an error in principle insofar as the sentencing judge placed too much weight on the mitigating factors leading him to fully suspend the sentence and that the sentence crossed the border from lenient to ‘unduly lenient’.

They specifically referred to the fact that a knife was used in the attack and had also pleaded guilty to three very serious offences of assault, false imprisonment and the production of  knife.

Connor, of Tuam, Kilrooskey, Roscommon had pleading guilty to all charges when he attacked Brid Pierce at Fortwell, Letterkenny on May 5, 2018.

Ms Pierce was found ‘visibly dishevelled with blood pouring down her’ by Gardaí, while knives were scattered on the floor and a clump of her hair found in a ziploc bag.

Connor had been in a relationship with Ms Pierce from November 2017-March 2018, but he continued to reside at the address as a Tennant. However, after Connor failed to meet rent and food payments, Ms Pierce evicted him from the property.

The Court heard that Connor returned to the house, picked up a small knife, saying ‘this isn’t a knife’ as he threw it into the sink. Connor then picked up another knife from a knife block, telling Ms Pierce, ’this is a knife’.

Connor knocked the knife block to the floor and pushed Ms Pierce against the cooker. As the victim reached for her phone, Connor kicked it away, saying ‘go on, call the guards, you don’t know who I am’.

Connor held Ms Pierce against the cooker with his forearm, making ‘threatening stabbing actions to her head’ before throwing her head against the press.

Connor cut Ms Pierce’s face and head. The victim, who told Gardaí that she could ‘feel blood all over my face’ attempted to bolt for the door.

Connor caught up with her, punching her to the back of the head. Connor repeatedly punched Ms Pierce, striking his victim so hard at one stage that he lost his own balance.

Ms Pierce told of her experience in a victim impact statement, in which she told how she now lives ‘off the euphoria of having escaped’.

“He did not say one word, it was silent, relentless battering while I shouted in vain for help,” she said.

In a single-page letter to the victim and her two sons, Connor said he was unable to forgive himself for what happened.

Judge Aylmer said Ms Pierce suffered a ‘very violent assault over a protracted period’.

“This is a case of fairly extreme domestic violence,” Judge Aylmer said.

“Ms Pierce was exposed to a protracted and fairly brutal onslaught during which she was repeatedly punched.”

In mitigation, Judge Aylmer said, Connor had presented himself immediately to Letterkenny Garda Station and appeared ‘genuinely remorseful’.

“It was a single, isolated incident of violence and appears to have been completely out of character,” Judge Aylmer said.

The only explanation, Judge Aylmer said, for Connor’s action was his highly-intoxicated state. Connor admitted that he had drank 12 pints of Guinness prior to the attack.

Judge Aylmer said Connor was class as a low risk of reoffending.

“His difficulties are with alcohol, related to significant psychological difficulties,” Judge Aylmer said.

The Judge said it was ‘an exceptional case of serious crime’.

He sentenced Connor to two and a half years in prison on the charge of assault causing harm. On the charges of making a threat to kill and falsely imprisoning Ms Pierce, Connor was sentenced to 18 months on each.

Judge Aylmer suspended the entirety of all sentences.

Connor entered into a bond of €100 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of two and a half years, during which time he is to refrain completely from alcohol and engage in addiction counselling.

However, that decision was overturned and the Court of Appeal ordered Connor to serve two and a half years but suspended the last year of that sentence.

New car registrations are picking up speed in Donegal, with an increase of 150% this September compared to 2019.

Donegal’s motor sales industry is reporting a September surge after a lockdown slump.

Car sales in the county are down 10% overall this year, but a late summer increase has seen 128 new vehicles registered in September compared to 52 last year.

A total of 2,044 new cars have been registered in Donegal so far in 2020, compared with 2,283 in the same period last year.

The county recorded declining sales from January-May before a catch-up was recorded from June. At the worst of the crisis, just 14 new cars were registered in Donegal in April 2020 – down 91% from the 152 registered in April 2019.

Light Commercials vehicles (LCV) are up 11% (388) in Donegal this year so far. HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) registrations are down 53% (28 registrations) in the county compared to January-September 2019 (60).

Motor industry representatives have urged the government to slash vehicle registration tax to protect the struggling sector.

Despite the surge, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) warned that 2020 sales figures represent the fourth year of decline in a row with new car sales.

Ahead of Budget 2021, SIMI is warning that any increase in VRT would have dire consequences for the sector as it faces both Covid and Brexit. January 2021 will see a new taxation system for new cars tested under WLTP (new testing system) and SIMI warns it would make new cars considerably more expensive. 

“A reduction in VRT would protect the 40,000 people employed in the Industry, sustain business, stimulate new car sales while helping to decrease emissions from transport and protect Exchequer Revenues,” said SIMI.

Used car imports for September (9,522) have seen a decrease of 6.8% on September 2019 (10,221). While year to date imports are down 40.3% (49,190) on 2019 (82,435).

Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General commented: “September represents the first month this year to see an increase for new vehicle registrations, which can be attributed to catch up from the previous eight months of declining sales. Year to date, a far more accurate barometer, sees a reduction for the fourth consecutive year leaving new car sales at recessionary levels, merely 50% of what we should be achieving in a normal functioning new car market.

“January 2021 will see a taxation change for our Industry, the biggest change to VRT and Road Tax since 2008. The 2008 change coincided with the recession, causing a collapse in the new and used car market with close to 15,000 jobs lost. With the duel threat arising from COVID and BREXIT, we simply cannot have the same destabilisation of the car market again.

“A more burdensome VRT regime will undermine both the new and used car markets, making new cars more expensive, impacting on used car values and slowing our fleet renewal. This will inevitably lead to a fall in employment and undermine viable family businesses.

“What we need to see in the Budget is a taxation reduction that will support the new car market and which will be environmentally positive. This will protect jobs, businesses, renew our fleet and reduce emissions.”

A fascinating exploration of art and history in the Donegal Gaeltacht will be unveiled in a documentary on TG4 this month.

Ar Lorg Annie, which will air on TG4 on Wednesday 7th October at 9:30pm, will follow investigative journalist Kevin Magee in search of the lost Irish paintings of controversial American artist Rockwell Kent.

Driven by his curiosity about a reproduction picture hanging in a pub in Glencolmcille, Co Donegal, Magee set out to uncover a tale of romance and political intrigue, and reveal how iconic Donegal images became scattered across the globe. 

Ar Lorg Annie is a Macha Media Production made with the support of Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund. The documentary originally aired in 2018, but this week will be a special chance for viewers who missed out.

In 1926, Rockwell Kent spent four months in the Donegal Gaeltacht, but he painted 36 paintings there and made lifelong friends, including Annie McGinley (the subject of the pub picture), her family and their nearest neighbour, sheep farmer Dan Ward.

Rockwell Kent’s ‘Annie’

In the 1950s, Kent wanted to return to Ireland, to buy 1000 acres of mountain land and work from there part of the year. But international politics, in particular the anti-communist campaign of US Senator Joseph McCarthy (Kent was often denounced for having voted as a socialist and being affiliated with many causes espoused by communists), prevented him returning to Ireland for many years. By then it was too late.

An investigations correspondent with BBC News NI, Kevin used his journalistic skills to uncover the whereabouts of the paintings, and travelled to New York and St Petersburg to find the most famous works from Kent’s Irish collection, such as Annie McGinley and Dan Ward’s Stack. 

Dan Ward’s Stack by Rockwell Kent

He said: “The instant I saw copies of some of Rockwell Kent’s Irish paintings I was hooked. At one time Kent was a household name in the United States but very little was known about the time he spent working in the Donegal Gaeltacht and I wanted to change that, and uncover and tell his story.  

“His Donegal paintings are spectacular, and in the film they are brought to a local audience for the first time. When I started out I didn’t realise my search would bring me to galleries and private collections across the world.”

In the programme, Kevin discovers that the people and landscape of Glencolmcille, Glenlough and Port, made a deep impression on the American artist, and like Kent himself, he returns to the Donegal Gaeltacht to find out what happened to the people Kent painted and hear accounts from their living relatives.

In particular, he goes in search of Annie McGinley, whom Kent painted on the cliffs of Donegal. Who was she? Does she have any family alive today? What can they tell us about the relationship between Annie and the artist?  

While ostensibly looking for the lost Irish paintings, Kevin finds much more than beautiful images of the rugged Irish landscape. He discovers lifelong friendships and a love affair with Donegal and its people that survived international intrigue and the Cold War.

Kevin adds: “As well as finding the paintings, I wanted to tell the stories of the local native Irish speakers who appeared in his pictures. 

“In spite of everything that happened to Kent, he never forgot Donegal or its people, and more than 30 years after his first visit he returned there searching for Annie. 

“It’s an extraordinary true life story that often reads like fiction.”

Plans to hold Halloween firework displays in Derry have been scrapped to help curb the Coronavirus surge in the north west.

Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) announced in June the annual Halloween festival would not go ahead because of the pandemic.

Revised plans included a number of smaller firework displays in the city.

Those plans have now been cancelled to prevent public gatherings in the city, the council said.

Derry’s Halloween festival usually draws thousands to the city, including from across Donegal and is billed as the biggest Halloween party in Europe.

In 2015, the city was named “best Halloween destination in the world” by a USA Today readers’ poll.

A number of planned online Halloween events will go ahead this year, the council confirmed.

There have been 1,030 confirmed cases in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area – 487 diagnosed in the past seven days.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Robin Swann said additional restrictions are “inevitable” in the area to tackle the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

Dr Tony Holohan is expected to return to his post as Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer next week.

Dr Holohan, who led Ireland’s response in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, took leave in July for family reasons.

He is expected to return to his role next Monday, the Irish Times reports.

Dr Holohan was the leading figure of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) during nightly updates on the Covid-19 crisis in Ireland and the national lockdown in March.

He temporarily stepped aside in July to care for his wife who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is receiving palliative care.

Dr Ronan Glynn has been serving as acting Chief Medical Officer over the last few months.

While Donegal remains under Level 3 restrictions until 16th October and Dublin’s Level 3 in in place until 9th October, NPHET will meet today to discuss rising Covid-19 cases on other counties. Concerns have been raised about Cork, Galway, Roscommon and Monaghan this week.

Donegal Gardai have issued a warning over a scam doing the rounds involving a bogus message from DHL couriers.

Gardai say they are aware of local people who have fallen victim to the hoax already.

They are advising people never to click on a link and NEVER provide any financial details online.

A spokesperson said “We all receive text messages and emails that we should be wary of. #ThinkB4UClick is key to all of this.

“Do you really need to supply the information being requested of you in the message and is a payment really required to unlock or progress the matter? Be very alert when it comes to unsolicited emails and text messages.”

Gardai say this scam email (pictured below) has been on the go now for a while but it can and does appear fairly genuine to the person in receipt if it especially as so many of us are shopping online these days.

The Garda spokesperson added “Never click on any link contained within these scam emails or text messages.

“Never provide banking/financial details or any other personal details. If you are in doubt, please contact the named company in question before doing anything else. Check the advice provided by service providers.”

Featured image: Harvey’s Point Hotel, Co. Donegal

The government’s Stay and Spend Scheme begins today, 1st October, offering money back on your bill in restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses.

Taxpayers can claim back 20% of their food and accommodation bills in registered locations. A maximum of  €125 in income tax credits will be given to tax-payers who spend up to €625.

The scheme is open from today, 1 October until 30 April 2021, including over the Christmas period.

However many Donegal residents and businesses will not be able to reap the full benefits of the scheme until Level 3 restrictions are lifted.

Heightened restrictions have impacted the majority of Donegal’s hospitality businesses again this month. Donegal residents have been told they should not leave or enter the county unless for work, education or other essential purposes. People living outside of Donegal have also been told not travel into the county.

Furthermore, the Stay and Spend scheme does not apply to take-away food orders, and current restrictions in Donegal allow restaurants and cafes to only open for take-away and delivery and outdoor dining.

Tourism Minister Catherine Martin TD said: “It is unfortunate that currently our tourism industry in Dublin and Donegal is hugely restricted, and businesses throughout the country are impacted by the restrictions on movement to and from Dublin. However if anything it reinforces the need to provide what supports we can to tourism businesses. In this context, the Stay and Spend initiative will assist businesses throughout what will be a challenging winter season.

“While people may be restricted in their ability to move around the country, the initiative can of course be used for expenditure locally in cafes and restaurants, and I would encourage people to avail of the scheme to support our tourism and hospitality sector.”

The government's Stay and Spend scheme launches today.

The scheme will provide a maximum of €125 in income tax credits to tax-payers who spend up to €625 in restaurants, pubs, hotels and B&Bs.

For more visit: https://t.co/nNztX3qFSM pic.twitter.com/kHiNymYnlI

— Fianna Fáil (@fiannafailparty) October 1, 2020

How does Stay and Spend work?

Tax-payers can, from today, upload their receipts for qualifying expenditure to the Revenue Receipts Tracker mobile app, to avail of the tax relief. You can continue to submit receipts until the cap on expenditure of €625 is reached.

You must spend at least €25 in each transaction to qualify for a tax credit. The relief does not include takeaway food, alcoholic drinks or drinks ordered without food.

Revenue will provide an income tax credit of up to €125 (€625 @20%) per taxpayer (up to €250 in the case of a married couple, jointly assessed) in end of year balancing statement.  The taxpayer will get the benefit of the credit in the year after the expenditure is incurred.

In order to qualify for participation in the scheme, businesses will need to adhere to criteria and be accredited/registered with Fáilte Ireland and the HSE Environmental Health Service. 1,600 businesses are already registered in Ireland. Customers can look out for the Stay and Spend promotional material to see if a business is taking part.

There have been a further 259 cases of Covid in Northern and two more deaths from the virus.

There have now been 11,952 cases as the numbers continue to rise each week.

New restrictions are due to be introduced later today.

New nationwide restrictions on household visitors are set to be considered by the Government this week.

Gatherings may be limited to six people from one visiting household only. This rule is currently in effect in Donegal and Dublin under Level 3 restrictions.

The National Public Health Emergency Team made the recommendation today amid rising cases of Covid-19 in other counties. The team said no other counties are expected to move to a higher level of restrictions, but gatherings in homes should be limited. It comes after a number of outbreaks have been traced back to Communion celebrations, birthdays, meals and other home gatherings.

Meanwhile, today’s NPHET meeting showed no sign of Level 3 restrictions being eased early in Donegal and Dublin, where Covid-19 incidence rates continue to be the highest in the country.

The incidence rate of Covid-19 cases in Donegal, as of midnight, is 211.1/100,000.

A new report has ranked Letterkenny University Hospital in joint-last place for maternity experiences.

The first National Maternity Experience Survey, published today, found that the majority of women who gave birth in Letterkenny had a positive experience of maternity care, but 26% of women gave a ‘fair or poor’ rating of their care at LUH.

122 women who gave birth in October and November 2019 shared their views for the survey. 51% of respondents gave the hospital a 51% ‘very good’ rating and 23% gave a ‘good’ rating.

Letterkenny University Hospital Survey Results – yourexperience.ie

Across each stage of care, from antenatal care through to postnatal care at home, women rated their care at LUH as similar to the national average.

The findings show room for improvement, according to Independent TD for Donegal Thomas Pringle, who has called on the Saolta University Health Care Group to listen to the concerns of pregnant people.

Deputy Pringle said: “Maternity services must put pregnant people at the heart of decision-making. This survey raises many issues that Saolta and hospitals and hospital groups across the country must act on.”

Letterkenny was tied with Mayo University Hospital, also under the Saolta umbrella, which also saw 26 per cent of respondents give a “fair to poor” rating for their overall experience.

Deputy Pringle said: “This survey shows where maternity services need improvement and comes from the users of the services themselves. We can see where the problems are. It is now up to the hospitals to address these issues.

“I welcome this survey and thank all the people who shared their experiences for this study. Our hospitals need to take the lessons learned in this survey and apply them to the maternity services they offer.”

The findings of the National Maternity Experience Survey will be used by Letterkenny University Hospital and community maternity care providers in the area to improve the maternity experiences of women who give birth in the hospital.

Read the findings of the report on Letterkenny University Hospital here.