The Front Pages
The national broadsheets are dominated by the news that pharmaceutical firm Pfizer are set to close down at least three factories in Ireland which would see the loss of hundreds of jobs.
The Irish Independent simply reads – “Their Bitterest Pill.â€
The other main headlines on the front pages of some of the nationals:
“Man on 24-hour protection in jail after fatal crash†– The Irish Examiner.
“Cardinal mishandled abuse cases, says top church adviser†– The Irish Times.
They are one of the biggest employers of highly-skilled workers in the country and they want to cut jobs.
Pfizer, the US pharmaceutical giant, has been a leading player in the industry for 40 years in Ireland. However, plants in Cork and Dun Laoghaire are “earmarked for closure and sale†with 785 workers expected to be laid-off as detailed in The Irish Independent.
A plant in Newbridge, Co Kildare is also anticipated to dwindle with the loss of 275 jobs. A global restructuring has been underway since the company merged with rivals Wyeth last October.
A 40-year-old man is under round-the-clock protection at Cork Prison following his alleged involvement in a double fatal car crash.
Philip Murphy, from Knocknaheeny, is currently in 24-hour lock-up in jail due to fears for his safety from other inmates. Murphy is accused of false imprisonment and has not been charged with offences surrounding the car collision which ended the lives of CJ Dolan, 16, and Derry O’Callaghan, 19, in the early hours of last Friday morning, according to a report in The Irish Examiner.
Murphy’s solicitor, Joseph Cuddigan, asked a court yesterday to allow his client to transfer to Limerick prison. Judge Con O’Leary refused the application.
The church sex scandals have come to light once again in The Irish Times, and this time a child protection chief has said that Cardinal Primate Seán Brady “was wrong in his handling of the 1975 child sex abuse investigations.â€
Ian Elliott, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children, has criticized Cardinal Brady’s management of the child sex abuse case against Fr Brendan Smyth 35 years ago.
Cardinal Brady publically acknowledged himself as “a lame duck cardinal†after another report on Monday detailed 197 new allegations of child sex, physical and emotional abuse.
