IT is a source of great consolation to see the defence of the Bastille that is Mallow General Hospital once again led by a Sherlock.

WHETHER real or perceived, the threat to Mallow General Hospital on foot of an investigation into standards of care announced this week is causing anger and fear in the Co Cork town and its surrounding rural population.

IT will be the first time in 40 years that the name Sherlock hasn’t appeared on a local election ballot paper in Mallow.

JOE SHERLOCK took five years off his age to have a better chance of winning a Dáil seat in the 2002 general election.

The first TD to represent the Workers’ Party in the Dáil was buried today.

TRIBUTES poured in yesterday as news emerged of the death of former Labour TD Joe Sherlock, aged 71.

Tributes are today being paid to former Labour TD Joe Sherlock, who died this morning after an illness.

ON THE WAY IN: 10 tipped to win

TWO significant retirements from Dáil Éireann were marked this week one political dynasty continues while another Cork family severed links with Leinster House.

A LINK with the long campaign that succeeded in having Mallow Hospital upgraded to double consultant status has been severed with the death of a woman who was centrally involved.

SUPPORTERS of a major regional hospital threatened legal action yesterday to safeguard its services.

DONAL LEHANE has worked for BUPA for 10 years, as has his wife, but now the couple, like so many others in the Fermoy headquarters, must plan new ways to support their two young children.

FEARS the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department at Mallow General Hospital could be downgraded or closed have been allayed with news that a dedicated casualty officer is to be appointed there.

HUNDREDS of people are to march through the streets of Mallow on September 23 to protest at the way one of the town’s biggest former employers has handled the redundancy package for its workers.

GREENCORE workers are owed a better redundancy package than the company has given them and the Agriculture Minister gave a clear backing to their claim when she announced the allocation of the restructuring package for the Irish sugar industry.

A DISPUTE over redundancy payments for many of the former Greencore Sugar workers in Mallow remains unresolved nearly two months after the closure of the factory.

AN organisation yesterday claimed that an A&E department in Co Cork is set to close as part of a centralisation of services to larger urban centres, a move first mooted in the controversial Hanly Report.

THE 80-year-old Irish sugar industry was brought to an end yesterday when Greencore closed the country’s last remaining processing plant in Mallow, Co Cork.

LABOUR leader Pat Rabbitte has joined with local Labour deputy Joe Sherlock in calling on the management of Greencore to outline their intentions regarding the future of the site at their Irish Sugar plant in Mallow, Co Cork.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has announced a reshuffle of his party's front bench, with Brendan Howlin and Ruairí Quinn both moving to key new positions.

THE decision to close Mallow Sugar Factory with the loss of 324 jobs was described last night as a major blow to the town and its hinterland.

The demise of the Irish sugar industry was tonight condemned as a catastrophe by unions and as a devastating body blow by beet growers.

BEET growers will decide at a series of meetings over the next week if they will accept a price offer from Greencore to produce a crop for one further year of sugar processing in Ireland.

THE production of ethanol from sugar beet is a possible alternative outlet for farmers, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan told the Dáil.

PAT Rabbitte has developed temporary amnesia.

Veteran Labour Party TD Joe Sherlock will not be standing in the next General Election, it emerged tonight.

THE Government has staked a major claim with the UN over Atlantic Ocean seabed rights to offshore oil, gas and minerals covering an area equivalent to almost half the size of the country.

Allegations of widespread bullying in the Defence Forces are over-exaggerated, TDs were told today.

THE use of charter flights for deportations increased dramatically last year, costing the taxpayer €775,000, according to new figures.

NO firm commitment was given by the Taoiseach yesterday on providing capital funding for flood relief works in the cities of Cork and Dublin.

BUSINESSES will not be entitled to humanitarian aid for damage inflicted by last week’s floods under a Government package agreed yesterday.

PROFESSOR Muiris Fitzgerald’s contention that the Hanly proposals, if implemented, would lead to greater efficiencies and effectiveness in the delivery of healthcare defies logic.

IRELAND does not have one paramedic working in the ambulance or fire services. There are too many unnecessary deaths and I blame the policies of the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Finance.

MALLOW General Hospital is being downgraded to local hospital status as the Hanley Report is being implemented by stealth, it was claimed yesterday.