In this week’s Manx Independent: We report on the fire at the Ballacallin pub and a police investigation.

On page 11 we talk to a landlady of the pub in its heyday.

In the paper:

A court report on a man who’s been sent to jail for a second time for breaking Covid-19 regulations. His comments to magistrates might surprise you.

A group is calling for gas customers to be compensated after the government and Manx Gas failed to agree a new regulation deal.

A 100m section of defective horse tram track has been removed from Central Promenade after it failed quality control tests.

For a 10th consecutive year, the number of babies being born has fallen in the island. The number in 2020 was one a week fewer than in 2019.

The island has received further international media attention for the easing of lockdown, this time in the Canadian press.

People are to be given coronavirus jabs in Ramsey at the weekend.

How you can study football for two years at the Isle of Man’s college.

The millionaire owner of Castletown Golf Links has put in an offer to buy the derelict hotel next door.

Eight-year-old boy Alfie McDowell is aiming to raise £1,000 for a local children’s charity.

Gardener David Fowler has declared his intention to stand in September’s general election.

A Manx law firm’s name has been used in a ’fraudulent correspondence’.

Local charity Love Tech has launched a new initiative which will donate educational STEM [Science, technology, engineering and maths] books to primary schools.

Douglas Council leader David Christian has branded a leak that led to article in last week’s Manx Independent as ’despicable’.

Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Wallis have closed.

Drug dealer Daniel Jonathan Fick has been sentenced to 210 hours of community service.

An advocate defended his client, a serial offender who punched, kicked and stamped on his victim, by saying: ’He wasn’t wearing shoes at the time so it was not as bad as it could have been.’

The Manx Independent is the home of Island Life, your guide to leisure and pleasure.

This week we look forward to a production of Aladdin, which was postponed by lockdown.

Tribes of strange, shrieking little creatures will be seen running around the floors of the Manx Museum this coming half term, causing mischief and mayhem wherever they go. We explain why.

A fascinating chapter in the island’s wartime history has been told in a new film, ’Mooragh: Beyond the Barbed Wire’, released this week.

The return of fell running is the main story on the back page as sport gets back to normal after lockdown.

There is also plenty of community news, your letters, our new puzzles pages and a seven-day television guide.

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Local sport edged back into life this week after a near-four-week halt brought about by the precautionary circuit-breaker lockdown .