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	In Short The Irish Times February 6, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0206/1233867922848.html Man for court over death 21 years ago A MAN charged in connection with the death of Brian McGrath in Co Westmeath 21 years ago is due to appear before Athlone District Court today. The 46-year-old man was arrested at Dublin airport yesterday evening, following an investigation by local gardai and members of the Serious Crime Review Team. The last confirmed sighting of Mr McGrath, a father of four, was at Coole, near Castlepollard, in March 1987. Gardai were only made aware of his disappearance when a family member approached them in 1993. A body, believed to have been his, was later found. Reject proposals, says Trimble Lord Trimble has urged the British government to speedily reject proposals from the Eames/Bradley Consultative Group on the Past, which, he says, would result in “secret” trials without proper legal safeguards and in contravention of human rights laws, writes Frank Millar. The former Ulster Unionist leader, now a Conservative peer, made his intervention after Baroness Royall, the Leader of the Lords, told Lord Maginnis that the British government would be “taking time to reflect” on the Consultative Group’s 31 recommendations “and discussing them with a wide range of people before taking any decisions”. Lord Maginnis wondered if ministers would be taking time to consider the situation “if the proposed ?12,000 payment to the families of terrorists was extended to the London Underground suicide bombers?” Baroness Royall said the government had a responsibility to consider all the Eames/Bradley recommendations. Ferns newsletter to be handed out A newsletter which focuses on safeguarding children in the Diocese of Ferns will be distributed through the parishes of the diocese this weekend. The Bishop of Ferns, Dr Denis Brennan, has asked that parishioners take home the newsletter, which will be distributed by parish representatives, and read it closely. The newsletter gives an overview of where the diocese finds itself at present and what progress has been made since the last newsletter was issued in October 2005, at the time of the release of the Ferns Report, which identified more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse, made between 1962 and 2002, against 21 priests. Bishop Brennan has also confirmed that priests in the diocese had volunteered to be vetted by Garda. Bomb could have caused ‘carnage’ A bomb abandoned by dissident republicans near Castlewellan, Co Down, last weekend could have caused carnage on a scale comparable to the Omagh bombing of 1998, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde told the North’s Policing Board yesterday. The 140kg (300lb) device was abandoned close to a primary school at Burrenreagh, just south of Castlewellan. Police believe the intended target was a British army base at Ballykinlar, about eight miles away. The device was defused by British army technical experts on Saturday after a security operation lasting five days which caused severe disruption in the area. Record numbers join British army Record numbers of new recruits have joined the British army in Northern Ireland, figures released by the Ministry of Defence reveal, writes Dan Keenan. Statistics released by army recruitment show that an 18.5 per cent rise in successful applications, with recruits being attracted from all parts of Ireland. The army says this is because young people look to the British armed forces in a time of economic uncertainty.
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