Special deliveries ring in new year

ABOVE the giddy jingling of New Year’s bells rose the noisy jangle of newborn howls as maternity hospitals around the country kick-started the business of delivering babies in 2008.

Kerry General had a head start when 20-year-old Amanda O’Connell from Tralee gave birth to 6lb 13oz Kaitlyn at a second past midnight.

Cork University Maternity Hospital chimed in next with 6lb 15oz baby Tomas Kowalczyka, followed by the National Maternity Hospital in Holles St, Dublin, where Catherine Magee from Cabra, and partner Donnacha O’Brien gave birth to an 8lb 30z, as yet unnamed, baby boy.