The woman got stranded on a ridge earlier this evening.

A German woman who became stranded while walking in west Galway has been rescued and brought to University Hospital Galway.

Members of the Galway Mountain Rescue Team located a walker who got lost in fog in the Inagh Valley, RTÉ reported.

The woman was showing signs of hypothermia.

Casualty transported to hospital for treatment of hypothermia by Rescue118. Team standing down #Galway #MountainRescue #SAR pic.twitter.com/JkuyQEhvzW

— Galway MRT (@GalwayMRT) 12 September 2017

Two teams were deployed when the woman, who was walking on her own, got stranded on a ridge.

The volunteers successfully located the woman just after 7.30pm.

The Sligo-based Coast Guard Rescue helicopter carried out the successful rescue.

Mountain Rescue personnel have now been stood down.

An old-fashioned data breach.

AIB today confirmed that they have mislaid a number of customers’ data in Galway and the West.

The bank has said that information relating to banking facilities was lost on Thursday 31st August.

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta reported that up to 550 customers have been affected by the breach in Salthill and An Spidéal.

In a letter ciculated to potential affcted customers, Tony O’Donnell, relationship manager, explained the details which were mislaid.

“The information included in this documentation was your name, loan & deposit balances, account turnover and annual fees, plus a number of internal Bank related codes,” the letter said.

However, the mislaid information did not include address or other contact details.

“We would like to apologise that this incident occurred and want to assure you that we take our Data protection obligations very seriously,” O’ Donnell added.

Questions are being asked about the circumstances of this breach of data, and the likelyhood of it occurring again, however, the bank’s transparency on this issue has been noted and praised.

Tiny particles of plastic is causing the problems.

An increase in pollution may have “significant risks” for seacreatures, including the Galway Bay prawn, researchers have found.

Researchers from the School of Geography and Archaeology at NUI Galway have conducted the first study that investigates microplastic pollution of marine sediments on the Irish continental shelf.

Its aim was to discover the presenceand distribution of microplastics – plastics smaller than 0.5mm- which are widely dispersed throughout the marine environment.

More specifically, this study investigated the history of microplastic deposition on the seafloor and examined how sedimentation regimes, proximity to densely populated areas, and maritime activities may impact microplastic pollution and deposition in marine sediments.

The results demonstrate that contamination is present along the western Irish coast.

The study found that a shallow layer of microplastics has formed along the Irish seafloor within marine sediments and their overlaying bottom waters.

And this could be detrimental to fish, and especially prawns.

Dr Audrey Morley, senior author of the study and lecturer in Physical Geography at NUI Galway, said: “The pervasive presence of microplastics on the Irish Sea floor bares significant risks for economically important Irish fisheries, for example the Galway Bay Prawn (Nephrops Norvegicus).

“A previous study from Scottish fisheries has shown that prawns tend to ingest high concentrations of microplastic fibres when exposed to this type of pollution.

“Our results show that the Galway Bay Prawn fishery may be experiencing high exposure to this form of pollution with potential detrimental repercussions for this species, including reduced fitness and potential reproductive failure.

“However, more research is needed to understand the mechanisms influencing interactions of microplastics with individual species and ecosystems.”

This research was an NUI Galway student-led investigation by Mr Jake Martin, a graduate of the Masters Programme in Marine and Coastal Environments: Policy and Practice within the Discipline of Geography. For his achievements he has received the Professor Micheál Ó Cinnéide Award for Academic Excellence and is the lead-author of this publication.

This research was funded by a GSI Short Call from the Geological Survey of Ireland and a grant-in-aid for Ship-time on the RV Celtic Voyager from the Marine Institute of Ireland.

To read the full paper in Scientific Reports, visit: http://rdcu.be/vECw

It’s not an easy job.

Dónall Ó Cualáin will become Acting Garda Commissioner from midnight tonight, following the resignation of Nóirín O’Sullivan.

The Galway native will replace Ms O’Sullivan until a new Garda Commissioner is chosen.

Nóirín O’ Sullivan informed the government this afternoon of her intention to retire as of today.

“The support for me to continue in the role is evident.

“However, I devoted much of my summer break to considering if continuing would be the right thing to do.

“It has become clear, over the last year, that the core of my job is now about responding to an unending cycle of requests, questions, instructions and public hearings involving various agencies including the Public Accounts Committee, the Justice and Equality Committee, the Policing Authority, and various other inquiries, and dealing with inaccurate commentary surrounding all of these matters.

“They are all part of a new – and necessary – system of public accountability.

“But when a Commissioner is trying – as I’ve been trying – to implement the deep cultural and structural reform that is necessary to modernise and reform an organisation of 16,000 people and rectify the failures and mistakes of the past, the difficulty is that the vast majority of her time goes, not to implementing the necessary reforms and meeting the obvious policing and security challenges, but to dealing with this unending cycle,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

Would you live in a corridor?

Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh today hit out at ‘greedy landlords’ advertising a hallway for €640 per month and called for further resources to inspect private rented accommodation in Galway City and County.

The Galway West – South Mayo Senator made the comments after Estate Management Agencies advertised a flat which he said was actually a ‘glorified corridor’.

The corridor is located in Ballybane, Co. Galway.

Ó Clochartaigh described the €640 hallway as ‘disgraceful’.

“It is absolutely disgraceful that Estate Management Companies are advertising properties for greedy landlords who are in breach of standards for rented accommodation and Galway City and County Council must fulfil their duties to stop it.

“I have been shown a property advertised recently by a prominent local property management company for letting in Rahylin Glebe in the east of Galway City, which is nothing more than a dressed up corridor and is almost certainly in breach of the standards laid down in regulations by the Department of the Housing, Planning and Local Government.

“These outline the minimum standards that must be complied with in relation to health and safety for tenants,” he said.

He also labelled Galway City and Council’s record as ‘abysmal’, when it comes to inspecting private rented accommodation.

“According to a report published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in October 2016, Galway City Council had the lowest inspection rate in the country at 1.3% and Galway County Council was third worst in the country.

“Of the 1.3% of private rented premises inspected in Galway City in 2014, 74% failed inspection. Only 1% of private rented premises in in Galway County were inspected, with a 100% failure rate.

“The only properties inspected in Galway City and County were ones being assessed for HAP or RAS payments.

“None of the others on the open market were inspected. Galway City Council also had the lowest staff complement in the country allocated for inspections of properties in the private rented sector,” the Sinn Féin senator said.

Rights activists were quick to attack…

The Radisson Blu Hotel has dismissed a claim made by animal rights activists on Twitter that the Galway branch of the hotel chain was promoting animal cruelty.

Pet Levrieri, an anti-racing group, accused the Radisson Hotel of “offering its services to relax” after a day at the Greyhound track.

The group describes itself as an anti-racing and anti-hunting association, and its goal is the “end of both greyhound racing and hunting with galgos.”

Others piped in with images of abused dogs.

But the Radisson Blu’s own official Twitter oage dismissed the claims, saying: “Radisson Blu does not condone animal cruelty. Our Galway location merely referenced the track as an area destination.”

A NEW “state of the art” fire station will be built on the Milltown Road in Tuam.

The tender valuation process is now complete for the new fire station, which was welcomed by Deputy Seán Canney today.

The tenders have been evaluated and the tender report has been sent to the Department for approval, the Galway East TD revealed.

The next phase in this project will be to appoint a contractor.

The new fire station will be located on a site the County Council previously purchased.

The project, which will cost approximately €1.5 million, will see the new fire service located in a new state-of-the-art facility.

Twenty-six fire stations will be refurbished across the country as part of the government’s 40 million euro construction programme.

A new fire station is also planned for Loughrea.

Ballinasloe fire station will also be refurbished as part of the programme.

Let’s fly, let’s fly away.

Ireland West Airport (Knock as it is known as, by almost everyone except themselves) has announced its winter schedule.

And there will be a 3% increase in seat capacity. Which is around 7,000 extra seats.

Granted, the majority of these seats will be to the UK, with flights to eight different UK airports providing flexible travel options for business, leisure and more opportunities to see your Premier League team in action.

But for those looking for some winter sun, Ryanair will continue to operate a weekly service to Lanzarote, where temperatures average 25 degrees C during the winter season.

In addition Ryanair will operate up to 32 weekly services to and from East-Midlands Nottingham, Liverpool and London Luton airports.

This will provide the only connectivity to these key markets from Galway and Mayo.

Ryanair will increase capacity on its London Stansted service by 7%, offering over 20 weekly return services providing flexible daily return options in particular for the business and commuter passenger.

Flybe, Europes largest regional airline, will operate up to 24 weekly services to and from Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester this winter, increasing the range of options for travelers both in the UK and this region.

Speaking at the launch of the winter schedule, Joe Gilmore, Managing Director, Ireland West Airport, said: “We are pleased to launch our 2017/18 winter schedule with our airline partners Aer Lingus, Flybe and Ryanair.

“Almost 250,000 passengers will use the airport this winter and with capacity increases in the London market we expect it to be one of our busiest winter seasons in recent times.

“Passenger numbers at the airport have increased by almost 5% so far this year, with close to 500,000 passengers using the airport year to date which has a significant spin off for the local economies through tourist spend, job creation and local bed nights.

“In addition the commencement of a major airport transformation programme will see a major investment in new facilities and upgrading existing critical operational infrastructure ensuring we have the infrastructure needed to handle more passengers and provide them with an enhanced experience.”

The good news keeps on coming for NUI Galway

The university has retained its position as a top 250 Global University in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2017-18, remaining within the 201-250 range.

The college also impoved its scores in four of the five main pillars categorised – international outlook, research, citation impact and industry income.

This comes the day after Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh was named as NUI Galway President Jim Browne’s successor.

Dr Jim Browne explained that remaining a top 250 university is “ultimately important for our students”.

“Rankings can’t measure culture or what makes a University a great place to learn, but the fact that we have risen from the Top 500 in 2007 to the Top 250 now is testament to the vision and hard work of our staff and students,” he said.

“We have been fortunate that a combination of philanthropic and exchequer funding has enabled us to transform our campus in recent years, and we’re now starting the see how this is enabling great strides to be made in our teaching and research.

“Ultimately this is important for our students. In an international jobs market, rankings matter. Our students will be the future leaders and innovators and when we look at economic development, we need to make sure we have the supports in place to help our students to dream big and reach their potential,” Dr Browne added.

The Times Higher league table of the world’s top universities is based on 13 separate performance indicators covering all of the core missions of a world class university; teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The survey also includes one of the world’s largest academic reputation survey, with more than 10,000 academics asked to rate the world’s best universities for the 2017/18 ranking.

White smoke over NUI Galway…

The university today announced that Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh has been appointed its 13^th President with effect from January 2018, with Ó hÓgartaigh saying that he is “honoured” to be given the role.

Professor Ó hÓgartaigh will succeed Dr Jim Browne at the conclusion of his ten year term.

Professor Ó hÓgartaigh has served as Principal and Dean of UCD College of Business since 2011, leading its schools in Dublin (UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and UCD Smurfit Executive Development) and its overseas programmes in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Ciarán has also worked in academic leadership roles in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and in Dublin City University.

Speaking about the appointment, Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness, Chair of NUI Galway’s Governing Authority said: “At the outset, we sought a leader who can build on the significant achievements during Dr Jim Browne’s tenure and inspire NUI Galway’s staff and students to take this remarkable University to new heights.

“With a track record of leadership and achievement nationally and internationally, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh brings both the necessary experience and vision to this role and I look forward to working with him as we chart the next stage in the University’s journey.”

Current President of NUI Galway, Dr Jim Browne,  said that Professor Ó hÓgartaigh will bring a “wealth of academic leadership experience” as well as a proven track record in internationalisation.

“I welcome Ciarán to NUI Galway and wish him the very best in leading our terrific staff and students into a bright future where they can fully realise their ambitions,” Dr Browne said.

Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: “I am honoured to be appointed President of my alma mater, NUI Galway.

“Given its unique heritage and hinterland, the quality of its people, and the strength and depth of its research and student experience, NUI Galway is exceptionally well-placed to further enhance its reputation and reach both nationally and internationally.

“I look forward to coming home to the ‘town and gown’ which shaped me and to working together with my new colleagues in the best interests of our students and our society.”

Michael Fitzmaurice TD has described as “actually laughable” the suggestion that farmers will require a Public Service card when applying for EU grants from next year.

The Galway-Roscommon Independent TD is the latest in a line of TDs and senators who have criticised the government’s decision to roll out the new ID card.

“A farmer can’t be a farmer if they do not have land and herd/ flock number so it’s hard to see how the new card is needed as you get paid on the land you have and if there’s a double claim it’s picked up straight away.

“This new ID card is being introduced in connection with online applications and Minister Creed and the Government are showing no regard for elderly people some of whom never opened a computer in their lives and always farmed their land quietly and effectively,” Michael Fitzmaurice said.

He stated that the Minister and the Department are trying to “force everybody into dealing online” but points out that adequate broadband is lacking in many rural areas and that many farmers are without even a phone line.

“I’m writing to Europe today to see are they going to be that heartless to force elderly farmers especially those who don’t own a computer or have any broadband service to have to either travel long distances to get their applications in or maybe it will force them out of applying for grants altogether and I feel the latter would suit the Government and Brussels.

“Farming organisations need to wake up now and stand up for the farmers they represent and take on this Government and the bureaucrats in Brussels. If they stand back and do nothing this will happen gradually. The Department should be able to cater with 20% paper applications which is the trend at the moment. Surely that is not too much to ask,” he added.