Man arrested on suspicion of farmer Mike Gaine's murder continues to be held
A man arrested on suspicion of the murder of Michael 'Mike' Gaine continues to be held in custody.
Mr Gaine, a 56-year-old sheep farmer with land near Kenmare in Co Kerry, was reported missing from his home more than eight weeks ago.
On Saturday, partial remains were found at Mr Gaine's farm in Carrig East and a crime scene was declared as gardai searched for further remains.
On Sunday, a man aged in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of Mr Gaine's murder.
He continues to be held in custody for questioning.
The search and examination of Mr Gaine's farmland continued on Monday, with fire services and soldiers supporting Garda efforts.
The Defence Forces said members of its Engineer Specialist Search Team were assisting gardai in Kenmare but would not comment further while the operation was ongoing.
Several personnel were seen digging lands near a barn on Monday afternoon.
Flowers, candles and notes offering condolences to the Gaine family have been left around a wooden post at the entrance to the farm, with a grey woollen cap left on top.
Mr Gaine was last seen on the morning of March 20 in Kenmare town buying phone credit in the Centra shop.
Several appeals were issued and extensive searches involving Irish soldiers, the Garda water unit and road checkpoints were held to try to find the missing man.
Around 2,200 hours of CCTV and dashcam footage and 130 witness statements were taken by the end of April.
Mr Gaine's wife Janice and sister Noreen O'Regan issued a plea at that time, via the gardai, saying his disappearance was out of character and they wanted to know what happened to him.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Why Rosie O'Donnell fled to Dublin after Trump feud
'No one ever invited me to a sex party. Not that they're sitting home going, 'Well, my choice for the sex party is Rosie O'Donnell.'' O'Donnell, 63, is settling into her new life in Ireland. The actress, stand-up comedian and former talk show host has bought a house in Dublin and is waiting for her Irish citizenship to be approved. The star tells The Sunday Times how she once lived next door in Florida to Sean 'Diddy' Combs, the rap mogul on trial in the US over charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The trial has pushed the music mogul's infamous 'freak-off' parties into the spotlight, with witnesses divulging graphic details of the alleged sex and drug-fuelled parties.
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
Why did Ballymena become the latest site of anti-immigration riots?
There have now been five consecutive nights of ongoing violence and disorder on the streets of Northern Ireland, with Ballymena at the focus of the unrest following a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town on 7 June. Two 14-year-old boys were arrested and charged after the incident, and police in Northern Ireland said the pair used a Romanian interpreter to plead not guilty in court. After that, calls for "peaceful protest" from the victim's father were amplified online. Those protests took on an anti-immigration angle and erupted into riots and clashes with police. Analysis of social media messaging has shown there were already rising tensions in the town before the latest incident, following a decade of rapid demographic change. Before the protests On 30 May, eight days before the 7 June incident in the Clonavon Terrace area that triggered this week's violence, police released a statement regarding a different sexual assault in Ballymena, this time of a 13-year-old girl. The offence was alleged to have taken place on a public footpath near the Ballykeel housing estates, during daylight hours on Saturday 24 May. Local media at the time reported the suspect as having "dark-coloured skin, dark brown eyes, and speaking in a foreign language". On 31 May, a far-right news aggregator on messaging platform Telegram was already sharing information related to this incident, saying "Ballymena said to be at boiling point". But the online chatter remained relatively contained until after the police announcement on the evening of Sunday 8 June, that they had arrested the two 14-year-olds charged with the Clonavon Terrace incident. Analysis of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows that there were 114 mentions of Ballymena per day from 3-7 June. It was mentioned 142 times on 8 June, then surged up to 10,300 on 9 June and 78,300 the following day. The majority of posts originated outside of Northern Ireland. Rapid demographic change The descriptions of the alleged perpetrators of the two incidents have contributed to the anti-immigrant sentiment of the violence. Sky News has seen Union flags and signs saying "British household" or "Locals live here" left outside homes of people keen to avoid being targeted, and has also spoken to Bulgarian nationals in Ballymena who say that they are "terrified" and "scared to get out of the house". Speaking in the House of Commons, Jim Allister, MP for North Antrim, which includes Ballymena, said he was "appalled" by the violence. "However", he said, "the government must be aware of underlying tensions produced by uncontrolled and often undocumented immigration. "None of that excuses violence, but it is a matter of concern to many." Analysis of census data shows there has been rapid demographic change in the town since 2011. No other part of Northern Ireland has seen a bigger increase in people who don't speak English/Irish as a first language. At the time of the 2021 census, three in 10 residents of central Ballymena said their first language was something other than English or Irish. One in eight listed Romanian, with a similar number listing other Eastern European languages like Bulgarian, Polish and Slovak. That figure is almost seven times higher than the average across Northern Ireland, and amounts to a trebling over the course of the decade. Almost three-quarters of the total foreign-born population of central Ballymena arrived in the country since 2011. The average is significantly lower for Northern Ireland as a whole, and England and Wales, where the rate of change has been more gradual. Of 621 primary schools in Northern Ireland where data is available, Ballymena Primary and Harryville Primary, both in central Ballymena, had the 7th and 8th highest share of "newcomer pupils". "Newcomer" is the term used by the Northern Irish Department for Education to refer to pupils who don't have satisfactory language skills to participate fully in the school curriculum. How, and when, will the violence end? Sky's Connor Gillies, who has been in Ballymena reporting on the violence and talking to locals for the past few days, said on Wednesday that " the talk here is that this unrest is only just beginning," adding that "it could go on for weeks". Meanwhile, locals have expressed that they don't like the talk from police and politicians that taking to the streets following an alleged sex attack on a teenage girl equates to them being "racist thugs". Police have responded to rioters' petrol bombs and bricks with rubber bullets and water cannon onslaughts of their own. There have been tens of arrests, as well as injuries to more than 50 police officers since Monday evening. Violence and disorder in Ballymena raged across Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, appearing to have largely abated in the town by Thursday. However, the unrest has spread to other areas including Larne, Coleraine, Portadown and Belfast. A senior police officer insisted to Sky News that he did have "a grip" on the unravelling situation when questioned by Sky News, but officers from Scotland, Wales and England have been sent to bolster the forces of their Northern Irish colleagues. Anti-migrant rhetoric From 7-12 June, 39,000 Ballymena-related posts on X mentioned "migrants", with around 95% of them deemed to be negative by social media analysis tool Talkwalker. Well-known far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who thanked X-owner Elon Musk for his support when he was released from prison four months early on 27 May, was the most influential poster. His 14 X posts about Ballymena between 7-12 June reached an average of 1.3 million accounts each.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Teens on the run after a series of shocking attacks
Police are hunting for a pair of teenagers who were allegedly involved in two serious attacks overnight. Victorian Police are currently investigating a series of assaults by the two boys in Melbourne 's south-eastern suburbs which began at 5pm on Friday evening. A 70-year-old man was first allegedly assaulted by the pair in a chemist at a Keysborough shopping centre in Dandenong North. The elderly man had attempted to stop the boys from leaving the store with items which he suspected they were trying to steal. Following the assault the man was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Just hours later a 16-year-old boy was allegedly attacked by the teenagers while waiting for a bus in Dingley Village at 7pm. The victim was approached and stabbed in what police called an unprovoked attack. As he attempted to flee, the two teens continued their assault, police said. The 16-year-old was also taken to hospital with serious injuries. Police are now on the lookout for the two teens responsible for the attacks. They fled the scene after assaulting their second victim and detectives have dispatched dog squads to aid local police in their hunt. The boys have yet to be located and an investigation into the assaults has been launched by the local Dandenong and Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit.
