New Street, Longford

A MAN is fighting for life in hospital this morning after being stabbed during an attack by a gang of youths.

The attack took place on New Street in Longford town yesterday evening at around 8.30pm.

The victim suffered stab wounds during the assault and was rushed to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar in a critical condition.

An 18-year-old man and two juveniles were arrested in relation to the incident a short time later.

They are all currently detained at Longford Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

The scene has been preserved for technical examination.

Investigations are on-going.

Gardaí are appealing for witnesses and anyone one with information is asked to contact them at Longford Garda Station on 043 3350570, The Garda Confidential Line, 1800 666111 or any Garda station.

Elite cops enter Orly airport

File photo of the interior of Orly Airport in Paris

French officials have told the BBC that a man was shot dead after grabbing a soldier's gun at Orly Airport in Paris.

According to the BBC, the security operation is still ongoing, with bomb disposal experts now involved.

They report that witnesses heard shots and passengers have been evacuated from parts of the airport, the second largest in the French capital.

Police have advised people to stay away from the area.

The shooting on Saturday morning came after a similar incident last month at the Louvre Museum. France remains under a state of emergency.

Emergency vehicles surrounded the airport as confused passengers gathered in car parking areas, and the elite RAID police force worked to secure the site.

A national police official said it is unclear whether the attacker acted alone. No information about the dead man or any other injuries was available.

The Sentinel force includes 7,500 soldiers, half deployed in the Paris region and half in the provinces.

Orly is Paris's second-biggest airport behind Charles de Gaulle, serving domestic and international flights, notably to destinations in Europe and Africa.

'Significant' amount of cash found

Gardai are trying to find the owner of a large sum of cash after a woman in Meath handed in the notes she found to Navan Garda Station.

The Meath Chronicle reports on the incident, which began when a woman was out walking in the Kentstown area.

According to Superintendent Michael Devine of Navan Garda Station, the woman initially found a €50 note on the road and when she continued to look she found what has been described as a 'significant amount' of cash.

The money was handed in on March 8.

Supt Devine said that they will look at crimes in the area to see if the sum of cash could be linked to any recent robberies, but he added it could simply be the case that someone lost it on the way back from the bank.

Of course, the finder could end up the keeper if the money goes unclaimed by next year.

"It is wonderful to think in this day and age there are still people who would hand back a quantity of cash when they could have walked away with it," Supt Devine told the paper.

"This lady had the decency to hand it in," he added. "It could yet be hers in 12 months if no one comes forward."

Gardai have asked for anyone with any information on the money to contact Navan Garda Station on 046 907 9930.

Jonathan McSherry

SUPPORTERS of scumbag ex-soldier Jonathan McSherry waged a 12-month terror campaign against the mother of his child after she went to Gardaí over threats he made to kill her.

Woman-bashing thug McSherry (35), was this week sentenced to four-and-a-half years for threatening to kill his former girlfriend Nicola Nugent and her current partner.

McSherry is already serving a prison term for a sustained assault on another ex-partner, Jessica Bowes, who suffered fractures to her eyes, face and skull in a brutal attack in December 2015.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Pauline Codd suspended two years of a four-and-a-half year sentence for threats made to kill Nicola and her partner on the basis McSherry had turned his life around.

The court heard how McSherry had joined a Christian group and entered addiction rehabilitation.

But in spite of these claims, the Sunday World can today reveal that victim Nicola was being subjected to serious intimidation designed to force her to withdraw her statement against him.

Sources have confirmed that Nicola, her current partner and their child were forced to leave their Tallaght home last year after she was approached by a number of men and warned: “Withdraw your statement or someone is going to get hurt.”

After she fled to a relative’s house, that property was also targeted.

“Her relative’s car was burnt out and the house was targeted with graffiti, while her children, including McSherry’s son, were in the house,” a source confirmed to the Sunday World.

“The word ‘rats’ was spray painted on the front of the house.”

It is understood Gardaí in Tallaght were made aware of the incidents, but have so far failed to arrest anyone.

There is no evidence to suggest that McSherry had any role in orchestrating the campaign of intimidation against Nicola.

At Thursday’s hearing, the court heard how McSherry, of Monastery Gate Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin, had earlier pleaded guilty to making threats to kill or cause serious harm to Nicola Nugent and Barry Horan at The Belgard Inn car park, Tallaght, on March 19, 2013.

Judge Pauline Codd noted how the attack had left the victim suffering from sleeplessness and fear of McSherry.

“She said she feels that the panic would never go away,” Judge Codd said. 

She suspended the last two years of the sentence for two years on condition he keep the peace and attend anger management and addiction treatment with the Probation Services. 

Speaking with the Sunday World this week, Nicola told us her children are still too afraid to return home arising from the intimidation she suffered.

“I’m so relieved that it’s over,” she said. “People say the judge was too lenient, but it was never about jail time for me. It was more a case of standing up for myself.

“What he did was crazy. It was very dangerous and the fallout from it has ruined so many lives.

“I’ve had to leave my home and my children are too scared to go back.

“It’s very sad actually… the mess he made for both families. He has to live with this now and we don’t.

“We can finally put him behind us.”

This week’s sentencing came five months after Judge Melanie Greally jailed McSherry for repeatedly punching and kicking ex-partner Jessica Bowes in a sustained assault at Grange View Way, Clondalkin on December 20, 2015.

Jessica Bowes begged for her life during the “merciless” attack. 

McSherry claimed he was high on cocaine when he breached a barring order to wait at the victim’s home to assault her.

Last month McSherry was given a separate three month sentence for selling a mother-of-four an unsellable clocked car at Dublin District Court.

Robert Stanislaw Olszak

This is the Omagh man who was ‘nailed’ in court this week for nicking his neighbour’s fence – one plank at a time!

Robert Stanislaw Olszak (35) was ‘hammered’ by a judge who handed him a suspened jail term for what she described as a “serious of-fence”.

Judge Bernie Kelly paid little heed to the defence that Olszak had only been nicking planks to use as firewood because he’d spent all his money on booze.

The Sunday World caught up with Olszak on Friday and he told us he was going to pay for the damage he had caused.

Olszak had been pinching planks from his neighbour’s fence in the affluent Richmond Park area of Killyclogher, Omagh, where he had been renting a detached bungalow.

The bemused neighbour couldn’t figure out why sections of her wooden fence kept disappearing.

That was until she caught her sticky-fingered neighbour in the act!

Olszak, who moved to Northern Ireland from Poland 13 years ago, has since moved from Richmond Park where a neighbour told the Sunday World he had been “excluded” from the area for what he had done.

We spoke to Olszak at his new address in Strule Park where he said he was “sorry” but otherwise said he didn’t understand English.

During his court hearing at Omagh Magistrates Court this week – where he was convicted of criminal damage and theft – he spoke to the judge through an interpreter.

Judge Bernie Kelly remarked that it was rather strange he had been living in Omagh for 13 years but had very little grasp of the local language.

She sentenced the Polish national to three months in jail but suspended the term for two years and she ordered him to pay his neighbour £250 compensation.

Details of the incident were revealed in court.

On the night of January 27, police were called to an address by the woman who reported that planks from her fence had gone missing over the previous two weeks. 

She was in her front room when she saw the defendant take a plank from the fence that evening. She reported that she went out of the house and Olszak shouted at her in Polish.

The woman showed the police officers where he lived and they discovered a plank of wood in a basket next to the fire. In an interview he admitted taking the wood to burn.

Defence barrister Blaine Nugent, instructed by solicitor John McCaffrey, said the case “sent out a sad message”.

However, District Judge Bernie Kelly replied: “No, you can’t send out the message that you can steal with aplomb because of your social situation.”

Mr Nugent added: “It is not like stealing perfume which is not a necessity. The issue is alcoholism. 

“He is on benefits and spending the money on alcohol. It was out of necessity.”

Judge Kelly remarked: “I don‘t see alcohol as a necessity.”

Addressing Olszak through an interpreter, the judge said: “If you want something you pay for it. You do not steal other people’s property.”

The defendant then suggested he could apply to the Job Centre for the money to pay for the missing pieces of fence.

Judge Kelly stated: “I am tempted to adjourn this case to see which Job Centre will pay compensation. I know they give out a lot but is he aware the Job Centre does not pay compensation orders for court?”

She added: “Theft is a serious offence and he repeatedly stole from the same victim which is an aggravating feature.”

She gave Olszak 10 weeks to pay the fine and suggested she was doing him a favour as it would eat into his drinking money.

Handed a six month suspended sentence

A post office clerk stole nearly €6,000 of social welfare money from customers when they let payments "build up" and she told them they had less than they really did.

Imelda O'Hanlon (36) defrauded 22 people out of their payments over a three-year period, a court heard.

The mother-of-two suffered from anxiety and depression and lost her job as a result of the thefts.

Judge Anthony Halpin gave her a six-month suspended sentence.

O'Hanlon, of Oak Court Grove, Palmerstown, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of stealing cash by deception.

Dublin District Court heard the offences happened at North Strand Post Office on dates between April 2011 and February 2014.

The court heard there was a total of 29 transactions totalling €5,700, and the accused had paid the money back to An Post.

There were 22 victims in the case, and the victim was working as a teller in the branch.

The court heard the incidents happened when customers had let their social protection payments build up over a number of weeks without collecting them.

When asked how many payments there were, she would tell them they had one less than they had and the customer would sign for them.

O'Hanlon then kept the final payment.

She made a voluntary statement to gardai and had been "very sincere in her apologies", according to her solicitor, Eoin Lysaght.

The statement was made in 2015 and she was not charged until 2016.

She "put her hands up straight away" and had lost her job as a result of her actions.

The defendant had two young children and had been on anti-depressant medication for anxiety and depression since 2007.

O'Hanlon had not been able to get other employment since she lost her job. She realised she should not have done what she did and had made "bad errors".

O'Hanlon had no previous convictions, and Mr Lysaght asked the judge to leave her without a criminal record.

The judge suspended the six-month sentence for three years on the accused entering a €500 peace bond. O'Hanlon cried as her case was finalised.

Via Herald.ie

FILE PHOTO

A keen-nosed cabbie in the UK alerted police to a drugs package destined for Belfast, resulting in four kilos of cannabis being seized and two people being jailed.

The Newcastle Chronicle reports on the court case involving Lin Wang and Ming Xin Wu.

Both were sentenced for possessing cannabis with intent to supply at Newcastle Crown Court this week after taxi driver Grant Miller guessed they were up to no good.

The pair used the driver to bring them to a post office and they placed a package in the boot covered in stamps.

Miller thought he could smell cannabis and asked them what the smell was. 

They said it was just deodorant but Miller told the paper he was sure it was weed as he recognised the smell from his years working as a doorman.

“When the pair got into the car I could smell cannabis and I told them, but he said it was his deodorant. I’m not daft, I knew it was the smell of cannabis.”

After the pair went into the post office Miller flagged down a police car and told them his suspicions.

The duo attempted to post the package that contained four kilos of cannabis to an address in Belfast.

Wang was sentenced to seven months and Wu got six.

MIller was delighted at the outcome.

“I’m over the moon they have been jailed," he told the paper. "I’m anti drugs, I’ve seen enough of it on the streets of Newcastle and I’m chuffed to bits they got jailed.”

The big jackpot wasn't claimed but the EuroMillions Plus top prize of €500,000 was won by someone in Ireland. Now the search is on to find the winner.

The winning Quick Pick ticket was sold at O’Reilly Stores in Moffat Street in Hacketstown in Co. Carlow on the day of the draw.

The numbers in the main EuroMillions draw were 19, 29, 36, 6 and 10.

The Lucky Star numbers were 9 and 3.

The winning numbers in the EuroMillions Plus draw were 1, 4, 10, 20 and 28.

As always, 10 ticket holders also picked up €5,000 each in the Raffle.

The winning codes there were I-BSD-5678, I-BSK-67081, I-BSK-71389, I-BSL-52943, I-BSL-73537, I-BSM-40434, I-BSM-81856, I-BSN-81671, I-BSP-38848, I-BSP-67662 

Thomas Finnegan

THIS is the champion boxer and drug dealer who this month was ordered to pay more than €140,000 to the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Thomas ‘Victorious’ Finnegan (28), from Bawnlea Drive in Tallaght, south Dublin, has close links to a major crime gang from Tallaght and is on friendly terms with members of the Kinahan Cartel.

Finnegan has been in trouble with the law since he was a juvenile and was still a teenager a decade ago when he was one of 18 dealers targeted as part of Operation Fossil – where undercover gardaí targeted low-level street dealers.

He was charged with the sale and supply of cocaine as a result of the operation, but given the benefit of the probation act due to his youth and the relatively small amount of drugs he was dealing.

However, he has amassed dozens of criminal convictions since then for a variety of offences, including assault causing harm, criminal damage, public order, drugs and road traffic offences.

Officers from CAB have been targeting him for some time and on March 1, a judge ordered him to pay €140,959, which was understood to be the proceeds of crime.

Finnegan was caught up in a gang feud five years ago when rivals carried out two gun attacks in Tallaght. In one incident, shots were fired from a machine gun at a car and in another incident shots were fired at a person but missed their target.

No-one was injured in either attack, which were believed to have been carried out by gangland enforcer Andy Barry (30). Associates of Barry and Finnegan had been involved in a feud at the time.

Barry, a nephew of Troy Jordan, was later murdered in Kildare along with a Lithuanian man in an unrelated attack.  

Finnegan has close links to a major Tallaght drug dealer who cannot be named as he is currently before the courts.

The Tallaght drug dealer, who is aged in his 30s, has close links to Kinahan Cartel members including Liam Byrne.

As well as the Tallaght criminal, Finnegan is also pals with criminals from Ballyfermot and Clondalkin and several from south-central Dublin, including Gareth Chubb, who was recently charged with an attempted gun attack in Amsterdam.

Finnegan was a talented amateur boxer who won Dublin, Leinster and intermediate titles before winning a gold medal for Ireland in a European tournament in Poland.

He hoped to represent Ireland in the Olympics, but retired from boxing in 2009 after he was the victim of a frenzied stabbing, which left him with a punctured lung and slashed arteries in his right arm.

However, just days before this month’s CAB judgement, the super middleweight returned to the ring to make his professional debut against Spanish fighter Alejandro Mostazo.

While he hadn’t fought competitively for years until last month, Finnegan continued to use his fighting skills for the wrong reasons while on hiatus from boxing. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2015 for a “prolonged and vicious” attack on a tyre fitter.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Finnegan “thought he was in the ring” when he landed blow after blow on Mantis Viknius after a row over tyres at a garage in Cookstown Industrial Estate, Tallaght, on May 15, 2013.

His victim was left with a broken nose, a fractured eye socket, nerve damage and diminished memory following the brutal attack.

Finnegan said he developed drug and gambling addictions after winning money on a claim.

His finances came up in court as far back as 2009, when he applied for legal aid while up on a charge of possessing cocaine. 

The legal aid was refused after it was revealed that Finnegan was unemployed and on social welfare, but was driving a Skoda Octavia VRS which Gardaí said was worth €15,000. 

The court also heard he was paying €3,500 a year in insurance on the vehicle despite being jobless.

Finnegan’s barrister told the court that the Tallaght man came from a large extended family and he has a large number of siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, who all clubbed together to buy him the car for his 21st birthday.

Finnegan said the car cost “nothing like €13,000”, but said he didn’t know the exact cost because it was a birthday present

Two years later he was back in court again convicted for dangerous driving after gardaí spotted him doing handbrake turns in a luxury Range Rover. By that stage he was in the business of buying and selling cars.

Meanwhile, a traveller criminal who was a key player in a gang involved in robberies around the country has been ordered to pay €2m to CAB.

John Wall, from Fortunestown Lane in Tallaght, was part of the ‘Cock Wall’ gang, considered among the most prolific thieves in the country.

Huge crowds attended to funeral service today at St Patrick's Church, Glencullen

The captain of a Coast Guard helicopter that crashed into the Atlantic during a rescue mission was a brave hero, an adoring mother and a champion of the underdog, her funeral Mass has heard.

Mother-of-one Dara Fitzpatrick, 45, was among the four crew members of a Sikorsky S92 that disappeared without warning off Co Mayo on Tuesday.

Fr Andrew O' Sullivan told a packed St Patrick's Church, Glencullen, in the Dublin mountains, that few funerals were "as profoundly sad and sorrowful" as Ms Fitzpatrick's.

"We could scarcely believe it then, we can scarcely believe it now," he said.

"We have lost a talented young woman, who along with her colleagues lived good and generous lives and did so much in helping others in their time of need."

He added: "How these extraordinary people put their own lives at risk in order to save others - what bravery. And they truly are heroes."

Draped in an Irish tricolour, Ms Fitzpatrick's coffin was carried into the small granite church through a uniformed guard of honour amid hundreds of mourners who spilled out into the wet and windswept churchyard.

Fr O'Sullivan said everyone was praying the "nightmare of waiting may soon be over" for the families of the other crew members - Captain Mark Duffy, Winchman Ciaran Smith and Winch Operator Paul Ormsby - who remain missing.

Ms Fitzpatrick, who "adored" her three-year-old son, was remembered as an adventurer, great horsewoman and hillwalker who was "fiercely loyal" to her family. She had a "goofy" sense of humour, was fun-loving yet quite shy and loved to cook - being renowned for making "a mean chocolate roulade".

She also loved fashion, "most especially her Gucci boots and her Tom Ford perfume".

"She was kind to her core and a champion of the underdog," the parish priest told the service.

"The day Dara formally adopted Fionn was one of the happiest days of her life and that of her family.

"Fionn, now embodies Dara's characteristics of family - he loves to and often instigates the family group hug. Dara adored Fionn."

Uniformed Coast Guard officers, Naval Service and Air Corp staff, RNLI volunteers and other rescue workers from throughout the country travelled to bid their colleague a final farewell.

President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin were among the mourners.

Ms Fitzpatrick's family take consolation that she lived life to the full and packed a lot in, Fr O'Sullivan said.

He added: "When a life is torn away from us, then we see that our friends, people, life, are all that matter."

Ms Fitzpatrick is survived by son Fionn, parents John and Mary, sisters Niamh, Orla and Emer and brother Johnny.

A major search for her missing colleagues is focusing on a "three-hour window" to find the crashed helicopter amid fierce weather conditions.

Organisers hope a critically timed operation between low tides on Sunday will lead them to the aircraft and the bodies of the three men.

The search has been narrowed to a 100 metre by 80 metre section of the ocean around Blackrock lighthouse, around 13km offshore from Blacksod, where the aircraft was to land to refuel moments before it vanished.

The detection of a black box signal in that area has raised hopes that the bulk of the wreckage can be found along with the three remaining crew members.

The Dublin-based helicopter crew was providing cover for another Coast Guard helicopter involved in an early-morning evacuation of a crewman around 240km off the west coast.

It had flown directly to the scene from the Irish capital, travelled around 16km out to sea, then turned back towards land to refuel.

There was no indication of any danger moments before it vanished, with the crew's final transmission: "Shortly landing at Blacksod."

STOCK IMAGE

Police are investigating the case of a pregnant 11-year-old who is about to become Britain’s youngest mother.

The father of the baby is believed to be another minor just a few years older than the mother, police said.

Details of the pregnancy have been withheld due to legal restrictions, but the girl is expected to give birth soon, reported The Mirror.

The local authority is seeking strict reporting restraints in the High Court, according to the newspaper.

The number of teenagers giving birth is at its lowest level in almost 70 years.

The decline has been linked to improvements in contraception advice for young women and access to abortion services.

In 2014, a 12-year-old girl from London was reported to have given birth, making her the current youngest mother in Britain.

The father was 13 at the time.

And Tressa Middleton, who gave birth in 2006 aged 12 after she was raped by her brother, recently said she was expecting a second child, reported the Daily Mail.

Ms Middleton, now 23, said: “I just want things to be perfect this time around.”

Via Independent.ie

Gardai at the scene on Harmonstown Road

A man has appeared in court today charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of Mark Richardson in Artane on Thursday.

Paul Keating, of Harmonstown Road, Artane was formally arrested at Clontarf Garda Station last night 

Judge Kathryn Hutton remanded the man in custody until he appears in Cloverhill Court next Wednesday March 22.

An application for legal aid was accepted.

Richardson died in Beaumont Hospital after a stabbing incident at a house on Harmonstown Road in Artane on Thursday evening.

A picture of the queue outside GamerCon

The organisers of GamerCon Dublin have used Twitter to apologise after a flood of complaints about queues, overcrowding and ticket holders being turned away appeared online.

Apologies for severe delays, we are working through the Queue as quickly as poss. Refund requests processed here https://t.co/pUCXnbREjX

— GamerCon (@GamerCon_Europe) March 18, 2017

The event, due to take place today and tomorrow in Dublin's Convention Centre, was supposed to be a celebration of and showcase for video games and gamers of all sorts but shortly after the event began, complaints about overcrowding began to appear on social media.

Convention Centre staff saying @GamerCon_Europe won't allow any more people in. Very angry scenes at #gamerconDublin #GamerCon

— Brendan Hughes (@brendanhughes) March 18, 2017

#gamercondublin biggest shambles ever!! Drove from Belfast, vip tickets, queued for 90 mins, told the event is oversold & we should go home!

— Susan (@susanforsythe) March 18, 2017

#gamerconDublin @GamerCon_Europe complete FARCE!! 2 hour Q in rain to be told doors closed by security as too many people inside. JOKERS pic.twitter.com/XO30TkMk7i

— Andrew Dalton (@mr_13b) March 18, 2017

The size of the queue to enter the event was also a topic of frustration for many, with this video showing the extent of the line to get in on a wet day in the capital.

#gamercondublin slight view of the queuing, plus to top it up its spiralling back and forth! We still need to go around the building😩 pic.twitter.com/bE3Mt0XjU3

— Omer Ozdemir (@OmerOzdemir10) March 18, 2017

Footage also appeared online of frustrated ticket holders at the door of the event.

#GamerCon

Current scenes pic.twitter.com/aC22MppCdA

— Craig Jocelyn (@CraigOHoon) March 18, 2017

This afternoon organisers put details on their site on how ticket holders who failed to get in can obtain refunds.

A statement from the GamerCon organiser Ferdi Roberts, has appeared on Entertainment.ie

"GamerCon sincerely apologises for the significant delays that our attendees experienced this morning. As a first time event we underestimated the traffic flow that we forecast for the event and have very strict health and safety related capacities which we must adhere to. That temporarily impacted our ability to process the queue which resulted in longer than expected wait time for our attendees. We are managing this proactively and expect the situation to ease as the day progresses. We have offered full refunds to those affected and have communicated this to attendees via mobile app and all social media channels."

An updated version of the statement has appeared on The Journal which changes the final line to: "We have offered full refunds to those who decide not to attend and have communicated this to attendees via mobile app and all social media channels.”

Gardaí are appealing for information following an attempted robbery and a serious assault of a man at a newsagents in Finglas, Dublin 11.

The incident occurred at approximately 8.15am this morning on Fitzmaurice Rd when two men entered the premises and assaulted a male member of staff.

A man in his 40s received serious head injuries and has been taken to Beaumount Hospital.

The two men fled the scene in what is believed to be a white saloon type car heading in the direction of Glasilawn Rd. Nothing was stolen in the incident.

Gardaí are appealing for anyone who was in the area between 8am and 8.20am, or has any information, to contact them at the incident room in Finglas on 01-6667500, or the Garda confidential Line 1800-666-111 or any Garda station.

Geordie Gilmore Sr.

Two men have appeared in court in connection with the murder of loyalist Geordie Gilmore who was shot dead on Monday in Carrickfergus.

Brian Roy McLean, 35, of The Birches, Carrickfergus, and 28-year-old Samuel David McMaw of Starbog Road, Kilwaughter appeared at Laganside Court yesterday.

They are charged with the murder of Mr Gilmore as well as the attempted murder of two other people that day.

They are also charged with possessing a fire arm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Both men spoke only to confirm their names and that they understood the charges.

Neither applied for bail and they were remanded in custody to appear by video link next month.

Supporters of the pair who tried to hide their identity on their way into the court were present and cheered as the accused were led from the dock.

jamie.mcdowell@sundayworld.com

Footage shows two men entering the shop

Tansey's in Finglas

A MANHUNT was last night underway for two thugs seen fleeing a botched shop robbery in which an innocent newsagent had his skull fractured with a hammer.

CCTV images obtained by the Sunday World recorded the moment the pair entered Tansey’s Newsagents on Fitzmaurice Road in Finglas at 8.15am 
yesterday.

One of the cowardly pair, whose faces were covered, can be seen carrying a hammer while the other is carrying a bag,

Once inside, the pair are understood to have threatened hard-working shop owner Kevin Tansey with a hammer before one of the pair struck the 44-year-old in the head, inflicting serious head injuries.

A short time later the CCTV shows the pair running from the shop with a male carrying a bat in pursuit.

According to Gardaí, highly respected newsagent Kevin Tansey sustained suspected skull fractures. After being chased from the shop the thugs fled the scene in what is believed to be a white saloon type car. The car is believed to have fled in the direction of Glasilawn Road. 

Nothing was stolen in the incident. 

In the wake of the attack, Mr Tansey was rushed to Beaumont Hospital, where Gardaí last night described his condition as critical.

Speaking yesterday, TD Dessie Ellis called the attack an “appalling act perpetrated on a hard-working member of the local business community”.
“I have been in the shop many times and would know of Kevin as a hardworking and decent shop-owner.

“It is absolutely appalling that this could happen to any member of the business community as they are going about their business.”

Mr Ellis said he has been raising concerns with local gardaí about an increase in drug related crime in the Ballygall area that has been fuelling an increase in burglaries and robberies in recent times.

“There have been a huge number of cars broken into in the area and I have told everyone I can that we need to get more gardaí on the ground down there.

“There are people openly involved in the dealing of crack cocaine in the Ballygall area and that has knock-on effects in terms of an increase in this type of crime.”

Gardaí are now appealing for anyone who was in the area between 8am and 8.20am, or has any information, to contact them at the incident room in Finglas on 01-6667500, or the Garda confidential Line 1800-666-111 or any Garda station. 

Vikat Bhagat on his moped

Police Chief Sammy Tavares

Danielle McLaughlin

Tributes on the spot where Danielle was found

THE EVIL thug accused of the rape and murder of Danielle McLaughlin was on bail in connection with a brutal knuckle-duster assault when he allegedly killed the Co. Donegal backpacker, the chief investigator has revealed.

Just six weeks before allegedly killing Danielle (28), Vikat Bhagat was allowed back on the streets of Goa despite being charged with a vicious attack on a shop owner. 

FOR THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE...

Members of the Coast Guard await the arrival of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick at St Patrick's Church, Glencullen.

Capt. Dara Fitzpatrick

‘QUEEN of the Sky’ Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was hailed a hero as she was laid to rest amid an emotional funeral that saw a Coast Guard chopper perform a fitting aerial tribute.

The 45-year-old helicopter pilot was given a tear-filled farewell led by her family and President Michael D Higgins, as the search continued for her three missing crew members, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith.

FOR THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE...

Police were called to the house last night, Scotland Yard said

A major search for a "suspect" in a London park is under way after a one-year-old boy died and a girl of the same age was left in a critical condition.

Officers were called to two children injured in a flat in Wilberforce Road near Finsbury Park in north London at 11.10pm on Saturday, Scotland Yard said.

Both toddlers had critical injuries and were taken to an east London hospital where the boy died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The girl remains in a critical condition.

The Metropolitan Police said: "Next of kin are aware. Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course."

They added that inquiries were under way to "establish the full circumstances of the incident" and said that no arrests had been made.

The National Police Air Service helicopter tweeted that it was assisting "officers searching Finsbury Park for a suspect".

A police car was parked outside the white three-storey building where the children are believed to have been injured.

Police officers have been visiting and searching properties along the tree-lined street.

A woman living opposite the building, who gave her name as Gui Gui, said she heard a woman shouting late last night and opened the window to offer help.

"I was watching TV," she said. "I heard someone was shouting.

"She kept on shouting. I do not know what she was shouting.

"I opened the window and I asked her 'Can I help you, can I call the police for you?'

"She said, 'My kids'."

The neighbour said she later saw two young children being carried out of the building, with one being held very close to a member of the emergency services.

Eighty per cent of the flour used in the Republic for baked goods and other products comes from the UK

Brexit could put an extra 10 cents (8.7p) on the price of a loaf in Ireland, the milling industry warned.

Eighty per cent of the flour used in the Republic for baked goods and other products comes from the UK, and may face an inflation-busting tariff if a deal is not struck.

If Irish producers switched suppliers to those operating within the EU to avoid trade barriers, then jobs would be lost in the UK, according to the National Association of British and Irish Millers.

Director Alex Waugh said: "If tariffs were to be introduced the rate the EU normally charges those at would add eight to 10 cents to a loaf of bread in the Republic.

"It is pretty inflationary, assuming the flour continues to come from the same source as now.

"Once you introduce a tariff everything changes, so the likelihood is that the flour currently coming from the UK would come from somewhere else in the EU where there would not be a tariff."

He said the result would be jobs lost in the UK.

Flour is sent from the UK to Ireland to be refined into anything from bread and cakes to coating for chicken nuggets and battered fish.

It is often exported back to the UK as part of finished goods.

Over the last 20 years the UK has become the main supplier of milled flour to the Republic.

The only mill in the Republic is at Portarlington in Co Laois in the Midlands.

Half of the flour used by Irish bakers is milled on the island of Ireland, a significant proportion of that from Belfast, and the rest comes from England, Mr Waugh said.

He added: "What we are seeing is politicians trying to respond to different pressures in different places.

"From the point of view of our business, maintaining that tariff-free trade between the UK and Ireland is crucial."