Latest news with #Roscommon
Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Climate
- Irish Times
Ireland weather: Hottest day of the year recorded in Roscommon
The hottest day of the year so far has been recorded at Mount Dillion in Co Roscommon where temperatures peaked at 27C, according to provisional figures released by Met Éireann tonight. It surpassed the 25.9C that was measured in Athenry, Co Galway at the end of April. Several other stations including Athenry, Mullingar, Casement Aerodrome in Dublin and Shannon Airport all reached at least 26C over the course of the day which started off misty across much of the country followed by long spells of summer sunshine. It is likely to be more of the same of Friday with temperatures set to reach close to 29C in some parts of the country. It will be hottest in the north of the country and overall dry, although showers may break out locally. READ MORE There will be mostly moderate southeast breezes. UV levels will be high (6-7) in the coming days. Met Éireann advises a UV index of 3 or above calls for additional protection due to the potential for skin damage. Seeking shade during midday hours and using SFF are both strongly encouraged Plan your day to limit time in the sun when UV is strongest, typically between 11am and 3pm. High night-time temperatures in summer can be more impactful than high daytime temperatures, especially on the vulnerable, the forecaster warns. Saturday will see a continuation of the warm sunshine with a scattering of showers, some heavy and possibly thundery. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 25 degrees and it will be warmest across the eastern half of the country, with light to moderate southwesterly winds. Sunday looks fresher and breezier with highest temperatures of 15 to 20 degrees, according to Met Éireann. There will be some showery rain alongside the sunny spells, with brisk westerly winds. Looking ahead into the start of next week, similar conditions are likely to prevail with fresh westerly winds steering in a scattering of passing showers and sunshine at times in between.
BreakingNews.ie
11 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man (72) who died in Roscommon house fire planned to adapt home for partner
Tributes are being paid to a devoted partner who died in a Roscommon house fire overnight. The man who has been named locally as Des Deegan (72) died in a fire at a house in The Oaks housing estate, Frenchpark, Co Roscommon. Advertisement Emergency services were called to the house in an estate shortly before 7pm on Wednesday evening Locals said that Mr Deegan who was originally from Dublin was a devoted partner to Alice Hetherton (63). The couple had lived at French Park for the past 25 years having met in London and lived in Kerry for a number of years previously. Tragically Ms Hetherton suffered a serious bleed on the brain and an aneurysm in 2023 and as a result was admitted to a nursing home in the area in July 2024. Advertisement Mr Deegan had launched a campaign locally to adapt the house and bring her home and had set up a Go-fundme page in April of this year. Locals say he had spoken on local radio about his campaign on a number of occasions. Speaking at the time he said'' I've started this fundraiser on behalf of my partner Alice Hetherton, formerly of Oldcastle Co Meath. "Alice is 63 years old, she has worked all her life caring for others as a care worker in hospitals and nursing homes across the UK and Ireland. "Ironically Alice finds herself now in need of the support she has given to others''. To date the fundraiser has raised almost €7,000. In a statement gardaí said Fire services extinguished the blaze and the body of a man was recovered. His remains were removed from the scene to University Hospital Galway, where a post-mortem examination will be carried out. The scene remains sealed off for a technical examination. It is unclear what caused the fire, with witnesses reporting an explosion just before the blaze broke out. No funeral arrangements have been made as yet.
Irish Times
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Tactical analysis: Down will need to share scoring burden around more to knock out Galway
It can be difficult to get an accurate representation of a team's actual progress over a number of years. Often, we are blinded by landmark victories. The Gaelic Football ELO ratings, diligently kept on X/Twitter by Shane Mangan, are a manner to actually track a team's progression or regression. ELO ratings are essentially used as a way to rank a team based on their results, factoring in variables such as match importance, home advantage and standard of opposition. It is similar to the type of system used to determine world rankings by Fifa or World Rugby. In the past few years, there have been teams who have had large rises in the rankings in one season, such as Meath this year, with victories over higher ranked teams like Dublin and Kerry. READ MORE Roscommon are a good example of a team who have fluctuated in the rankings in recent years, from a high of 7th to their current position of 13th. The steady movers in the rankings are Down. Since the arrival of Conor Laverty in August 2022, Down have moved from 19th place to their current position of 12th. They have quietly risen, usually winning the games they should win and losing the games they are expected to lose. They now face Galway (Sunday, Pairc Esler, 1.45pm) who are ranked 2nd - could a major upset be on the cards? Down are not a team who have generated much media attention, as since Laverty's arrival they have mostly played off-Broadway. Yes, they have played in the Ulster championship, but they have yet to be a real contender in Laverty's three seasons. Their progress has been in promotion up to Division Two of the league, only to get narrowly relegated in 2025. They landed the Tailteann Cup in 2024, beating Laois in the final, having fallen at the final hurdle in 2023 to Meath. A favourable draw in this year's round robin saw them beat Clare and narrowly overcome neighbours Louth, before falling to Monaghan in the clash for top of the group in the final round. Down have been consistently, quietly building. What about their strengths and why do they have a chance of beating Galway? Well, it is in Newry and Laverty has tapped into Down football heritage by making it a fortress, but some of what they are doing on the field could make the difference. While Laverty may be a Kilcoo man, who are known for their restrictive style of football, he was often the forward who showed real creativity and this Down team shows that inventiveness within a structure. A lot of their attacking nous revolves around Danny Magill, Odhran Murdock and Pat Havern. At this current juncture, I believe Danny Magill is a nailed on All Star in terms of his explosiveness on the ball and his ability to beat men one-on-one, but also his foraging and defensive duties back the field. Down have relied heavily on Danny Magill, Odhran Murdock and Pat Havern for scores throughout the championship. To date in the Championship, these three men have scored 0-73, which represents 56% of their total scored (6-113). No other Down players have scored in every game, showing a lack of consistent support and a big dependency on the three attacking sparks. In the Donegal game, where the Down attack was so often stunted, there was particular attention paid to Murdock and how he looks to break a line. Michael Langan was detailed to mark the Burren man from the outset and never gave him any opportunity to break lines, leading to his one scoring blank this season. Donegal stopped Odhran Murdock getting on the scoresheet, with Michael Langan tagging him closely here. It is likely that Galway have identified these three men and they will have players working in a system to shut them down. Each of the three men offer different attributes meaning particular match-ups are required. Murdock has huge power and is hard to stop when running direct. He showed that against Louth after winning the throw-in, as he rampaged straight down the middle for a two-pointer. Magill has really been Down's go-to man this season, showcasing a wide variety of skills. He was a key man for kickouts against Donegal, showing for the ball for Ronan Burns, as well as winnings breaks off Donegal's restarts. Danny Magill bursts into a pocket of space to receive a short kickout against Donegal. He has carried the ball through the middle all season and is constantly looking to set up opportunities to run at men one-on-one using his blinding pace. Magill isolates his man to take him on one-on-one against Monaghan. Against Louth, Magill uses a stutter step to create a gap for a more direct route to goal. Havern has tended to operate as a distance shooter, hanging around outside the arc, picking off two-pointers and jinking inside to higher percentage shooting positions. Down are getting their shots off, as they outshot Donegal 26 shots to 25, but their shooting efficiency was only 54% on the day. They will need others to carry the load too against Galway. Pat Havern drifts into space, and has enough time to successfully kick a two-pointer. If Down are to take a scalp, they will need to eliminate basic errors. While Havern has been a maverick in scoring two-pointers and conjuring points from a standing start, he will need to be quicker in his use of possession. He fouled the ball technically twice against Donegal and was pulled up for a double bounce against Monaghan inside his own arc. What will annoy Laverty about this is that there was a longer kickout option for Burns and then an immediate kick pass option not seen by Havern, after he received the kickout. Either one of these would have put Down on the attack. Down had good options at this kickout, but Havern's double bounce led to a turnover. While much was made of Jack McCarron picking the ball up off the ground for his goal, the cause of the goal is of more importance. It was a basic skill execution error; a low handpass to feet, that led to the Monaghan turnover inside the Down 45m line. They cannot be turning ball over in this manner. A simple error led to Jack McCarron's second half goal for Monaghan. Equally they have been caught with three v three breaches in their last two games, resulting in 0-3 conceded. Small margins are crucial if they are to step up another level. Small margins are at play in their kickouts too. They have shown some innovation in the kickout zone, with a lot of high risk, high reward kickouts, eye of a needle stuff. In general it has worked well for them, but Monaghan managed to pick them off on a short kickout, leading to Mícheál Bannigan's goal. Down were caught out by Monaghan, as a short kickout was intercepted directly before Mícheál Bannigan's goal. Down are trying to get set up further out the field, often in a spine formation, and then break into pockets closer to their own goal. A couple of graphics emphasise this below. Down will need to be brave, but also smart, as they get ready for a Galway front eight who will look to punish anything that goes astray. Down setting up in a spine formation for a kickout against Donegal. They try the same kickout routine to go short against Louth here. Louth profited at times with their second half squeeze, not allowing Down out of their own half. Down will have to transition the ball faster into the safety of the Galway half this weekend. Louth also punished Down when short kickouts went astray. Steady progress has been made and Down can definitely take a scalp, but they will need their key men to fire, be decisive in possession and eliminate unforced errors across the field. Down have kicked the ball infrequently in games, but used it to good effect along with intelligent inside movement for John McGeough's goal against Monaghan. They will need to use all the tools at their disposal for a win against the Tribesmen. Down played more direct at times, with Jordan McGeough getting on the end of a kick pass and hitting the back of the net against Monaghan. Paul O'Brien is a performance analyst with The Performance Process.
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘It was the most horrific thing': Man who died in Roscommon explosion planned to adapt house for partner
The man who died in an explosion in Roscommon had planned to adapt the house for his partner who is in a nursing home. The man who was killed in the incident in Frenchpark on Wednesday evening has been named locally as Des Deegan (72), originally from Dublin. He moved into the house approximately a year ago to be close to his partner Alice Hetherton (63), formerly of Oldcastle, Co Meath who is now in a nursing home. It's understood that the couple hoped to retire to Frenchpark, when Alice suffered a bleed on her brain in 2023. Only six weeks ago he set up a GoFundMe to modify the house so his partner could live with him in the house in Frenchpark rather than in a nursing home. The detached house in Frenchpark has now been reduced to a pile of rubble. READ MORE Around it in the Oaks estate are damaged roofs and broken glass. Almost 24 hours after the explosion, the smell of burning debris remains in the air. The home where Des Deegan (72) died was reduced to rubble at the Oaks estate in Frenchpark Residents say the dreadful tragedy could have been so much worse. The explosion happened at 7.10pm when children would usually be out playing in the green in front of the house. The children who were out playing had left the area 10 minutes previously. The explosion was so violent that it blew the window sills from Mr Deegan's home all the way across the green and it hit the front windows of the house 50 metres away. Sinéad Doran was getting her two children ready for bed when she heard the explosion. Looking at the broken glass which peppered her driveway, she said: 'There was definitely a guardian angel looking after our family. It was the most horrific thing I ever witnessed in my whole life. 'It is the luck of God that the window did not come in on top of us. We thought it was our car that exploded. We couldn't hear the bang. We could actually feel it. Our whole house shook.' She said the horror of the explosion was compounded by the realisation that she had just seen Mr Deegan enter the house just minutes before. Her partner Bernard Finlay raced across the road after he heard the explosion and called out if there was anybody there. 'I was thinking of him, but there were people screaming at me to get away. I was thinking of my kids. I needed to move away before things got worse,' he said. It took fire fighters four hours to release the remains of Mr Deegan from the rubble. Parish priest Fr Michael Donnelly said local people are 'numb with shock' about what happened and traumatised about how close the estate came to total catastrophe. 'Why the children weren't there and the sun beating down nobody knows. There was someone looking over them. If the children were there when the house blew up, you are looking at multiple fatalities.' A technical examination of the scene is continuing and investigations are ongoing.
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man found dead following house fire in Co Roscommon
A man has been found dead following an extensive house fire in Co Roscommon. Emergency services were called to the scene in the Oaks housing estate in Frenchpark at about 7:15pm on Wednesday evening, and the blaze was brought under control. Advertisement The body of the man has been removed from the house, and taken to University Hospital Galway for post-mortem exam. The scene remains sealed off on Thursday morning for a technical examination, and gardaí say enquiries are ongoing.
