D Friday, December 4, 2009 METRO Phones subject to availability LG GB220Sony Ericsson W205 Nokia 2330 Only 59.99 Only 49.99 Only 49.99 Prepay Three Christmas stars from 49.99 Whatever makes your Christmas perfect Buy in store or at vodafone.ie Ireland swine flu death toll at 18 The hSe has confirmed a woman form the south of the country has died from swine flu, bringing to 18 the number of deaths from the h1N1 virus here. There are currently 181 people in hospital with the virus and 12 are in intensive care. The number of infections has fallen, with just under 11,000 new cases reported in the last week. The Department of health has expressed concern at the low uptake of the vaccine among children aged between six months and five years. It has sent letters to more than 250,000 parents offering the vaccine for children. Queen of the ice Diana Donnelly pictured under the Christmas Tree at the launch of the National Lotterys Christmas Calendar 2009 Picture: Mac Innes ice, ice baby Sisters of Mercy pledge 128m to abuse survivorsby eD CarTyA LEADING order of Catholic nuns which ran one of the most notorious industrial schools in Ireland last night offered 128million to compensate child abuse survivors. The Sisters of Mercy, who were in charge of Goldenbridge, Dublin, will donate 20m in cash and 108m in property to charities and the State. The money is intended to support counselling services. The congregation, exposed along with 17 other orders for imposing physically and psychologically abu- sive regimes in State-run institutions, said the offer was an attempt to be faithful to values of reparation, recon- ciliation, healing and responsibility. It is the sincere hope and desire of the Congregation that this contribu- tion will help towards the enhance- ment of the lives of former residents, the Sisters said. The Sisters of Mercy have already handed over 31million compensa- tion and 1.8million for counselling. Just over a week ago, the Christian Brothers offered 161million for abuse suffered at the hands of its priests. They will give the State money for counselling and school playing fields on top of 30million already handed over. Last May, 18 orders were criti- cised in the Ryan report for running abusive regimes in schools, reforma- tories, borstals, orphanages and con- vents.Thousands of youngsters passed through the system over several dec- ades. The Ryan inquiry is separate from the Murphy report exposing Church cover-ups of clerical child sex abuse. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html