Galway Gardaí have vowed to strictly enforce the city's by-law that forbids street drinking as they take to the street in huge numbers today. As part of this strategic plan for St Patrick's Day, Gardaí will have a "substantial number of extra members on duty". A spokesperson for Mill Street Gardai confirmed to the Galway Independent that they will be strictly applying the letter of the law today.

Thousands of betting slips hit the floor in unison yesterday as the Galway-owned favourite 'Go Native' failed to make the grade at the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle. The horse, which would have been in line to win a £1 million bonus if it came home first, failed to provide any real threat to the eventual winner 'Binocular', who romped home at nine to one.

Chairman of 'Let's Do It Galway' John Killeen is hoping to secure enough sponsorship to enter two boats in the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race. According to Mr Killeen, almost €10 million needs to be secured to enter the Green Dragon in the race, but, should the organisational team manage to gather an additional €20 million, a second Irish boat could be entered.

Galway girl Orla Mellett will soon be back with her Cork Clipper team mates. The stricken yacht has been replaced and will re-enter the race in time to start the leg from Panama to Jamaica. Currently filling in on the Cape Breton Island team, Orla, whose weekly blog can be found in the Galway Independent, will be reunited with her team mates and their new skipper Hannah Jenner.

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities in Galway have hit out at cuts to the Brothers of Charity budget, saying the move will deprive parents of valuable respite. The Brothers of Charity is the largest provider of services for people with intellectual disability in Ireland, offering day services, residential and respite care. They are 100 per cent funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is to give Cheltenham race goers free tickets to the Galway Races in an effort to entice them West. The promotion forms part of HRI's bid to get British punters over for some of the country's most popular racing festivals as part of a massive tourism marketing drive taken in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland on St Patrick's Day.

Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan has invited representatives from every parish in the county to a Service of Reparation for survivors of abuse in the Cathedral on Palm Sunday at 3pm. In a letter sent to each priest in the Galway diocese, the Bishop has invited parishioners to the service where he says: "we'll be asking God's forgiveness for crimes of physical, sexual and emotional abuse that have brought shame on us all".

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has asked all the hospitals in Galway and in the HSE West region to provide head offices in Dublin with an update on radiology reporting in their facilities. The request comes in the aftermath of the revelation that up to 57,000 X-rays had gone un-reviewed by a consultant radiologist at Tallaght Hospital over a four year period.

A 52-year-old man who threatened to shoot and kill Brothers of Charity staff and cut their heads off, after calling to their private homes late at night, has been jailed for 18 months. Imposing the sentence at Galway District Court on Monday, Judge Mary Fahy said that failures by care staff to make complaints about the man's threatening behaviour over the years had been "counterproductive" and had led him to overstep boundaries and believe that he could seek out their private residences to threaten and intimidate them.

Galway-based Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has welcomed the news that an overcrowded school is to receive six new permanent classrooms, but has warned that serious issues still have to be addressed. Calasanctius College in Oranmore announced last week that it has been granted approval for six new classrooms and that the 23 'Category 1' students who had previously missed out on enrolment in the school could now be accommodated.