2022 Dundalk news in review - April

5th April 2022

Louth County Council spent just under €14,000 on purchasing advertisements in awards issues of Public Sector Magazine over the last six years, the Dundalk Democrat exclusively revealed.

The magazine had recently come under the spotlight, featuring on several episodes of Liveline with Joe Duffy, with several business owners claiming on the programme that they were asked to pay for adverts in exchange for getting an award from Public Sector Magazine.

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Louth County Council will be allowed to use CCTV to catch people fly tipping as part of new legislation being brought in by the Government.

A man who punched a Dundalk father-of-four once, leading to a fall that resulted in fatal head injuries was jailed for two years.

There was a 54 per cent increase in the number of fraud, deception and related offences recorded in Dundalk Garda Station last year, figures revealed.

Paula Lavin organised a climb of Slieve Foy which raised over €22,000 for Research Motor Neurone.

12th April 2022

The number of dentists in Louth operating the medical card scheme has fallen by nearly half since 2012, with just 21 dentists contracted to the scheme this year, new figures reveal.

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The open space at the Dundalk library and museum quarter in town is getting an outdoor learning pod, urban green learning and sensory garden and an upgraded bicycle station.

Lisa Smith's lawyers have made a fresh bid to have the charges against her of funding terrorism and membership of Isis dismissed.

Dunleer couple, Kelly Gaffney and her husband Paddy Connor, featured in Sunday 10 April's The Great House Revival on RTE 1.

19th April 2022

Forty-one ambulances dispatched to non-cardiac life-threatening emergencies in Louth in 2021 took longer than one hour, shocking figures revealed.

The 27 Infantry Battalion based in Aiken Barracks Dundalk officially marked the Centenary of the Handover of Dundalk Military Barracks (Aiken) on Wednesday 13April.

The ceremony commemorated the troops of the Fourth Northern Division, under the command of Commandant General Frank Aiken, who took the surrender of Dundalk Military Barracks on behalf of General Headquarters of the Free State Army at 1400Hrs on 13 April 1922.

€98,333 in grant funding was allocated to five mental health initiatives based in Louth. The once off grants for the mental health sector in the county range from just over €12,000 to €30,000.

Ahead of their upcoming 40th anniversary concert in the Fairways Hotel the Democrat chatted to Aslan frontman Christy Dignam about music, covid grants and forty years on stage. Aslan are no strangers to playing in Dundalk and it’s a place Christy says he always enjoys performing in the town: “I always love playing in Dundalk, the crowds are always very good”, he said.

26th April 2022

The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) Branch Committee at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) says it has “little enough confidence” that the current leadership at DkIT could deliver on achieving Technological University status for the institute and says that “this institute needs new leaderhship to take us forward.”

The DkIT TUI branch was responding to comments made to the Dundalk Democrat by a spokesperson at DkIT, where it said they are “confident we are progressing in the right direction” in their progress on seeking TU status.

The Dundalk Democrat raised the matter with DkIT after concerns were raised by the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) at its annual conference about the lack of progress being made in seeking TU status.

There was shock at the grim discovery of at least 10 dead lambs unceremoniously dumped over the bridge onto land in the middle of the river Dee near Dunleer.

Dundalk Tidy Towns held their Spring Clean on the last weekend in April.

Louth County Council said they were preparing the old Marist building on Nicholas Street in Dundalk, and St Mary's in Drumcar, to accommodate refugees escaping the war in Ukraine.