25 YEARS AGO/1983

DoE tries to 'railroad' road plan

DESPITE strong objections, the Department of Environment is "attempting to hijack and railroad" its plans for the long- awaited Omagh throughpass road, a member of the local district council alleged.

Stephen McKenna made the allegation at a special meeting between the council and representatives from the department's Roads Service to discuss the first two stages of the proposed Omagh Distributor road.

However, following a one-hour talk with the representatives, the council decided to reserve judgement on the matter.

Plea for cardiac ambulance

A CONSULTANT physician at the Tyrone County Hospital has said that death from heart attacks was one of the biggest killers in the community. And he added that the number of cardiac deaths in the Omagh district was something that all doctors should be concerned about.

Dr Clive Russell made the comments to members of the Omagh district committee of the Western Health and Social Services at the monthly meeting.

Dr Russell, who was stressing the need for a cardiac ambulance unit in the Omagh area, stated that while it was not to be considered as a 'vehicle which went around saving lives miraculously,' the fact that it was staffed by a doctor and nurse meant that the suffering patient could be treated with drugs and oxygen to steady the heart condition until arrival in hospital.

50 YEARS AGO/1958

Customs hut wrecked

TWO children, sleeping in a house 30 yards away, escaped unhurt when two explosions wrecked Aughnacloy Customs posts in the early hours. The two children slept soundly through the explosions which blew a hole in the roof of the Fleming bungalow and smashed windows.

Heavy curtains protected the children from flying glass. The post, a caravan formerly owned by the local Methodist minister, had been used by the Custom authorities since the original brick building had been blown up on November 11, 1956.

Youth shot dead in gun battle

AN exchange of fire between a police patrol and a party of men within 300 yards of the Fermanagh-Monaghan border near Clones resulted in the death of a young Clones man, Aloysius Hand (19), whose body was later taken to the morgue at Fermanagh County Hospital, Enniskillen.

A young Monaghan Town man, Patrick Trainor (aged 19 or 20), also lies wounded in Fermanagh County Hospital under heavy police guard. He is stated to be suffering from a severe leg wound and is mostly unconscious.

The incident began when a small party of men walking along the railway line were challenged by a police patrol. It is stated that the men opened fire with a weapon of the machine-gun type. The police directed a heavy fusillade towards the party, which made off. Shots were exchanged between the patrol and another body of men on a hillock nearby. The dead youth, Hand, is believed to have been one of the party on the railway line, and Trainor one of the men on the hillock.

75 YEARS AGO/1933

Car somersaults

PASSENGERS in a motor car returning from Omagh greyhound racing had an exciting experience when, after descending Ballymackleroy Hill, the steering locked and the car somersaulted. Fortunately it landed on all four wheels down the embankment, and the driver, P. Campbell, Dungannon, escaped with a severe shaking.

T. Canning, Coalisland, with E. Lewis, who was following from the racing, conveyed the passengers to Dr J. J. Campbell's surgery, where they were treated for minor injuries.

Campbell's car was badly damaged.

Two lives for a cat

REMARKABLE evidence may be given at the inquest at Manchester on the police constable and porter who lost their lives in the effort to rescue a cat trapped on a ledge above the river Irwell.

The porter, William Burke, climbed down a rope, but when he was returning he slipped and fell into the water. A police constable went to his rescue, and had succeeded in bringing Burke close to the river edge when both disappeared and were drowned.

The police are believed to have copies of statements alleged to have been made by two men to a Sunday newspaper that when the attempt was to be made to rescue the cat, crowds would be induced by other men to gather on the bridge over the river and a collection be made on behalf of the rescuer.

The police hope that the two men will be present at the inquest in case the coroner should desire them to repeat the statement.

100 YEARS AGO/1908

Woman's suicidal outburst

BRIDGET Millar, Glenarb, was brought before Messrs. C. R. Hearne, JP, and William Mercer, JP, at Caledon, and charged with having attempted to commit suicide. Joseph Millar deposed that the defendant attempted to cut her throat with a knife. She afterwards threatened to drown herself in the River Blackwater, which runs adjacent to his house. She threatened to kill witness with a spade, and appeared to be out of her mind.

Dr Patterson, Caledon, having examined the defendant and certified that she was insane, their Worships made an order committing her to Omagh Asylum as a dangerous lunatic.

Driven to death by a witch

A RICH landowner, Tomasso Giordano, aged 30, committed suicide at Baronissi, a village near Salermo, under the strangest circumstances. One evening, on returning home, he was surprised to notice the door open and the window of his room lit up. Thinking thieves had entered the house, Giordano awoke the servants and proceeded to the room. The light was immediately extinguished, and a search was made, but nobody was found. Giordano went to bed, but towards morning awoke, and saw an old woman with the figure of a witch, who prophesied his violent death.

Since then the man has been constantly persecuted by the witch. He questioned the doctors, who certified him as of sound mind, and tried diversion by journeys. But the woman would sit near him in the train. One night he returned home, wrote letters to his friends, saying the witch had driven him to death, and then blew out his brains with a revolver.

– Kevin McAnena