From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 16, 1994

From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 16, 1994

14 February 2024

CROSSGAR – A Crossgar man has forsaken the comforts of home to help with an international mercy mission in war-torn Bosnia.

Gary Buchanan, who left last Wednesday for the former Yugoslavia via Dublin, London, Zurich and Zagreb, will be in the grief-stricken country for three months as part of a Red Cross mercy team.

His tour of the war-ravaged country began as the threat of air strikes was considered by the United Nations, but the local man had no fears about the task that lay ahead.

For the next three months he will be a driver in a number of aid convoys, delivering food and medical supplies to various locations which have been left isolated by months of shelling and bombing.

For the past few weeks Gary has been monitoring events in the once peaceful country on television, and despite the recent atrocity at a marketplace in Sarajevo, he was determined to see out the contract which he had signed.

The single mortar attack on the crowded central market which claimed almost 70 lives and wounded nearly 200 – some of them seriously – took place just before Gary left the country amid calls for tougher action against the Bosnia Serbs.

DOWNPATRICK – The campaign to have a public inquiry ordered into Downpatrick’s £1.7m link road was stepped up this week by two of the project’s most vociferous opponents.

Mr Jim Norwood and Mrs Elizabeth Peters, who both live at The Terrace, off Church Street, have called a public meeting in the Down Arts Centre next Monday evening at 7.30pm.

The duo went public with their opposition to the controversial Church Street / Scotch Street scheme two weeks ago and have been inundated with messages of support ever since.

They believe that the meeting will allow residents in the affected areas in Church Street, Scotch Street and parts of Saul Street to come forward and make their views known publicly.

The couple went public in response to claims by the Department of the Environment’s Roads Service that there were no major objections to the scheme going ahead.

A planning application has already been submitted and an environmental impact study has also been published into the effect the link road will have on the area.

PORTAFERRY – Portaferry’s £1.1m regeneration scheme took another major step forward on Monday morning when the contract for a £347,000 business park was signed and sealed.

Work will start immediately on creating 11 new business units and the project is scheduled to be completed by July, creating around 25 new jobs.

The “Brewery Yard” project forms an integral part of the village’s regeneration package and is being backed by the International Fund for Ireland and the Department of the Environment.

The other projects include a £410,000 self-catering accommodation block which is due to be completed by April, and a £580,000 visitor berthing facility.

Work on the village’s first mini-marina began last week when a floating drilling rig began an underwater survey of the seabed to determine which type of pontoons will be needed for the project.

ARDGLASS – One of Down District’s most picturesque villages came under the media spotlight this week when the Queen of the television travel presenters visited Ardglass.

Anne Gregg, who was filing the last of an eight series shoot for a BBC Northern Ireland series called “Places Apart”, spent three days in the fishing port, interviewing a cross section of the local community in a bid to find out exactly what makes the people in the area tick.

The programme, which was shot in blustery and ice-cold conditions, is scheduled to hit the screens at the end of the month and will be allocated a primetime viewing slot on Sunday afternoons.

A total of eight programmes will be broadcast, with Ardglass featuring in the seventh one, when viewers will be able to sample a taste of life in one of the Province’s busiest fishing villages.

PIKESONE – Work on a minor realignment scheme at the Pikestone, on the main Downpatrick to Killyleagh Road, re-commenced this week.

The contractor involved was forced to move off site during the recent wet spell but he was due to return at the start of the week to remove existing top soil.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said it was hoped to have the scheme completed by the end of this week.

News that work has started again has been welcomed by a number of local councillors, however, Mr Jack McIlheron, believes steps should be taken to improve a bad dip in a section of the busy road.

“The dip is just prior to where the new scheme has started and if drivers are not careful, they could easily lose control of their vehicles,” he said. “Hopefully, additional cash will be found to improve this section of the road as well.”

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that senior DoE chiefs are hoping to carry out major realignment work at one of the district’s most dangerous corners, also located on the main Downpatrick to Killyleagh Road.

A proposal to carry out improvement work to the notorious sweeping bend close to the Delamont Country Park, is being looked at closely, however, a number of factors are believed to require further investigation.

DOWNPATRICK – Major expansion plans for St Patrick’s High School in Downpatrick have been unveiled.

At a special launch in the school last Wednesday, the principal, Dr Fergus McArdle, and a development committee made up of staff members, revealed proposals to vastly increase the size of the school in preparation for the 21st century.

Among the new facilities planned are a sports hall, lecture theatre, technology suite, art and music specialist accommodation, changing facilities, general classrooms and a comprehensive landscaping of the Saul Street site.

PORTAFERRY – What promises to be one of Northern Ireland’s major tourist attractions opens its doors to the public next month.

The much-awaited opening of the £3.5m Exploris, the Province’s only public aquarium, takes place on Wednesday, March 23, and looks like breaking all tourist records.

Some of the largest fish tanks in Europe will be filled with many local and unusual fish, including the 250 toone Open Sea tank, complete with majestic skate, tope, smooth hound and other members of the shark family, lobsters, shoals of cod and hundreds of other animals.

The Shoaling Ring is one of the biggest ring tanks in Europe, with a diameter of 6 metres allowing visitors to stand in the middle of a ring surrounded by hundreds of fish.

DOWNPATRICK – A Downpatrick mother has vowed to return to her gutted home after a blaze last Friday left her with only the clothes she was wearing.

Rosanna Murphy and three of her five children narrowly escaped unhurt from the Colmcille Road house after she spent fifteen minutes checking it for a strong smell of smoke.

Firefighters later confirmed that the fire began in the roofspace beside a metal chimney flue.

Surveying her destroyed home just two hours later, Mrs Murphy told of how she plucked her sleeping youngest child to safety from a bedroom about to burst into flames.

“I was giving the two kids their lunch in the kitchen and I thought I smelled smoke, but I wasn’t too sure,” she said.

“I thought it was maybe a cigarette which I could have ped onto the carpet or something, so I went to have a look upstairs,” she said.