The Year in Review: July
Almost a tonne of the class A drug, wrapped in 61 bales, was retrieved from Dunlough Bay, north of Mizen Head in west Cork, after a botched early-morning drugs run. The recovered drugs were valued at €107 million.
Customs officials believe two men set out early in the morning in a rigid inflatable boat to rendezvous with another vessel — possibly a yacht from the Caribbean — in a so-called coopering operation.
The drugs, which may have been bound for the European market, were loaded onto the rib.
The small rib was overloaded, however, and capsized in heavy seas on its way to shore, tossing the cocaine bales into the sea.
JULY 5
Two men were killed and at least 33 people injured after three shock accidents in Dublin and Galway saw a chartered plane crash, a museum staircase collapse and the dramatic rescue of 100 children from capsized boats off the Dublin coast.
The two men died after a plane crashed while landing at a small airport in Connemara and seven passengers were injured, including two seriously.
Meanwhile, emergency workers said it was “incredible” that nobody was killed when a 150-year-old limestone staircase collapsed at Dublin’s Natural History Museum at 11.30am.
Slabs weighing 50kg crashed to the ground from a height of three metres, along with four people standing on the staircase.
In Dún Laoghaire, a junior regatta nearly ended in tragedy when more than 100 teenagers had to be rescued after more than a dozen vessels capsized in sudden high seas and winds.
JULY 11
A judge sentenced four men to life in prison for attempting to bomb London’s transit system in July 2005, just two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in the city.
Judge Adrian Fulford said the men must spend at least 40 years in jail before becoming eligible for parole.
A jury found the four men guilty of conspiracy to murder in an al-Qaida-inspired plot to detonate explosives-filled knapsacks on three subway trains and a bus.
Prosecutors said the July 21 attacks were a deliberate mirror image of the July 7 transit bombings, though the planning started long beforehand.
JULY 12
Child protection expert Niall McElwee resigned from Athlone Institute of Technology after being forced to tell college authorities he was convicted in 2005 of attempting lewd assaults on three US tourists — one just 15 years old.
The director of the college’s centre for child and youth care learning, Dr Conor Niall McElwee, was on a work trip to Amsterdam in 2004 when he forced himself into a hotel bedroom shared by three American girls.
A garda who was present on the trip, and who was informed of the charges against Dr McElwee by the Dutch police, passed the information on to the Midlands Health Board but neither it nor the HSE, which replaced the health board structure, told the AIT.
It also emerged that McElwee, while a lecturer in WIT, showed inappropriate images of child sex abuse to some classes.
The lecturer was reprimanded after students became uncomfortable and reported him to college authorities.
JULY 13
A federal jury convicted fallen media tycoon Conrad Black and three of his former executives at Hollinger International of illegally pocketing money that should have gone to stockholders.
Black, 62, was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He faced a maximum of 35 years in prison for the offences, plus a maximum penalty of $1 million (about €685,000).
He was acquitted of nine other counts, including racketeering and misuse of corporate perks, such as taking the company plane on a vacation to Bora Bora and billing shareholders $40,000 for his wife’s birthday party.
JULY 14
Nollaig Owen, who was suffering from postnatal depression, drowns herself and her nine-month-old son Tadhg in the shallow Douglas River near Kilworth, north Cork.
Ms Owen and her son were found by people walking along the banks of the river.
Gardaí said that two hours earlier she had left her family home on Main Street, Kilworth, pushing her son in a buggy. It also emerged that Ms Owen had made an attempt on her life during the previous week, after which family members had urged her to seek professional help.
JULY 16
A middle-aged man shot dead his elderly parents before turning the gun on himself in the another murder-suicide to devastate a quiet rural community.
The bodies of 42-year-old metal sculptor Pat Sleator, his mother Mary, 82, and father John-Joe, 84, were found in the two-storey house in which they had lived, just outside the scenic village of Grangecon in Co Wicklow.
Two legally held firearms were found at the scene.
John-Joe drove into the village every morning at 9am to collect the paper, but failed to do so on the days before the discovery of the bodies.
The retired farmer and his wife, who had taught in the national school in nearby Dunlavin, were also weekly attendees of Mass at the local St Oliver Plunkett Church. They were often joined there by their son, but all three were absent on the Sunday, which led to the alarm being raised.
JULY 21
Joe O’Reilly is convicted of the brutal murder of his wife Rachel.
The cold-hearted killer was jailed for life for bludgeoning Rachel to death in their north Co Dublin home.
After 33 months, a four-week trial that gripped the nation and nine hours of deliberations, it resulted in Mr O’Reilly’s conviction. The trial was the most high-profile in recent years, which saw it almost collapse on day four after parts of the book of evidence were inadvertently left in the jury room.
The evidence in the case included:
* Mobile phone records placing Mr O’Reilly’s phone near the murder scene on the morning of Rachel’s death.
* Emails sent by Mr O’Reilly to his sister four months before Rachel’s murder reveals his hatred of his wife.
* Texts Mr O’Reilly sent to Niki Pelley, the woman he was having an affair with at the time of Rachel’s murder, in which he described her as his “bride to be” just six weeks after his wife was killed.
* A car believed to be Mr O’Reilly’s is caught on CCTV near the murder scene at time Mr O’Reilly claims he was in Broadstone, consistent with evidence of location of Mr O’Reilly’s mobile phone.
Upon hearing news of Mr O’Reilly’s conviction, Rachel’s mother Rose Callaly declares that “justice has been done”.
JULY 22
Pádraig Harrington becomes the first Irish British Open winner for 60 years.
In a nail-biting finale, Harrington beat Spaniard Sergio Garcia in a four-hole play-off after the two players were tied at the end of normal play.
However, it could all have been so different, as just an hour earlier, the 35-year-old put two shots into the water in front of the 18th en route to a double-bogey six to allow Garcia a par putt to win the Open.
One of the few Irish people at the Scottish course who took the whole victory in his stride was Pádraig’s son Paddy.
Before his father even got off the winning green, the youngster ran up for a second time, hugged his dad and eyeing the trophy said: “Can we put ladybirds in it?” “Indeed we can,” said his beaming father.
JULY 27
In a turbulent summer for global stock markets, close to €20 billion was wiped from Irish share values since they peaked in early June.
In the week ending July 27 alone, the ISEQ saw more than €8bn wiped off share values with the banks and building sector hardest hit.
On June 1, the ISEQ 100 was worth €118.4bn but that had fallen dramatically to €100bn by close of business, down a full 15%.
Losses of this magnitude had not been seen since the stock market crash of 2001 or prior to the Iraq invasion in 2003.
JULY 28
A Cork family win a record €16 million Lotto jackpot.
Helen Cunningham, her husband Paul and their five children — Shane, Stephen, Paul, Sarah and Amy — scooped the country’s largest Lotto jackpot with a €4 Quick Pick ticket.
The family are from Fairhill in the city where husband Paul manages the Berehaven Bar.
More than two million people had tickets for the draw.
