Ikea is to temporarily close its stores in Ireland and the UK to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

The closure includes Ikea's flagship store in Ballymun and its Order and Collection Point in Carrickmines, Dublin.

Businessman Jim Kennedy and his company Jackson Way Properties (JWP) have lost a High Court challenge to a refusal to provide information about land in Carrickmines, south Dublin, which has been the subject of years of litigation.

Ikea says its store in Ballymun in Dublin posted a 12% increase in sales in its latest financial year and will focus on online investments as it tapped a huge growth in its online sales.

Local authorities could be given new powers to force developers to ring-fence a third of all homes for first-time buyers in a bid to stop “cuckoo fund” investment firms snapping up large chunks of the market.

Plans for more than 1,300 homes have been lodged with An Bord Pleanála.

Pre-tax profits at the Irish operation of Swedish furniture giant Ikea plummeted by more than 71%, to €2.53m, last year as rising investment costs ate into performance.

The British and German owners of the Dundrum Town Centre - the largest shopping and leisure development in the country - are leading the opposition against plans by property investment company IPUT for a new retail and residential development at Carrickmines in south Dublin.

The scheme involves an 84,000 square metre addition to the existing park.

Rob Ellis is Senior Designer at DFS. Here he speaks to Aileen Lee about his role.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Here's your morning bulletin.

What is it with Limerick musicians and their penchant for masks?

Update: Gardaí have released all three people without charge.

Gardaí are looking for help in finding a man missing from the Carrickmines area of Dublin since August 8.

Your lunchtime bulletin...

It’s a short commute from my home in Carrickmines to the hospice in Leopardstown.

Ikea said it still has no “confirmed” plans at the moment to open a second store in the Republic, although an opening in Cork remains on the cards.

Spanish police say they have “dismantled” a major Irish drug-trafficking gang after a joint operation with gardaí resulted in the seizure of 170kg of cannabis herb and the arrest of four Irish men.

A garda suffered swelling and bad bruising to his head, and had his left eye swollen shut, after being subjected to a ferocious beating with metal baseball bat.

Statements such as “What are you doing in my country?” and “What have you done to my fucking family?” were shouted at the three males.

The head of the Irish wing of Swedish furniture giant, Ikea, remained silent on its plans for a second store in Cork, but said that the firm has a “very strong growth agenda in Ireland”. It is enjoying a 10% rise in annual sales.

Cork-based Leanne McDonagh has brought an artist’s eye to her photographs of Travellers and their accommodation, writes Marjorie Brennan.

Here's your morning news bulletin...

Carrigtwohill in East Cork is being lined up by Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, for its second full retail store in the Republic of Ireland, with a promise of around 500 retail jobs locally.

Lovers of Swedish furniture behemoth IKEA across the country no longer have to plan a trip to Ballymun in Dublin in advance -- they can now shop from the comfort of their own home.

Gardaí have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the Carrickmines fire in South Dublin.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has moved to reassure homeowners in a southside development.

Local authorities are being accused of "Traveller prejudice" for failing to spend a total of more than €1.2m that had been earmarked for Traveller accommodation.

The McKenna family, which owns electric and electronic retailer Power City last year shared another €3m dividend windfall.

Through his grief, a father summoned his strength and made a pledge to his dead children, promising: “I will look after your mammy.”

The mother of two young children who died in a fire at a Dublin charity housing complex was still fighting for her life last night.

The manager of the Bray Travellers community Development group says the deaths of four people - including a mother and three young children - in a fire in Clondalkin, Dublin have devastated the Traveller community.

Gardaí suspect an electrical source, possibly involving a television, may have caused the fire at a charity housing complex in Dublin which claimed the lives of a pregnant woman and three children.

“Uncharted waters” is how one senior garda described the situation facing the authorities in responding to Tuam.

Swedish home furnishing giant Ikea posted annual sales of over €150m in the Republic, prompting fresh speculation that it may look to Cork to open a new store.

The Irish public’s love of the ‘Big Mac’ has shown no sign of abating as profits and revenues increased at the Irish arm of McDonald’s.

Teenager Ricky Osagie, who died trying to save two girls from drowning, was remembered yesterday as the National Bravery Awards were presented in Dublin.

Michael Fassbender’s words echo those spoken by Fr Dermot Lane two weeks ago. He asked if anything had changed in wider society’s relationship with the Traveller community since the Carrickmines fire, writes Clodagh Finn

Masses will be held today to mark the first anniversary of a fire which killed 11 people in Dublin.

THE question mark says it all in Ireland Shed a Tear?, Michael Collins’s dramatic response to the Carrickmines fire last year, in which 10 people, including five children, lost their lives, writes Alan O’Riordan

An audit of Traveller accommodation in the wake of the Carrickmines tragedy has found a litany of potentially lethal safety hazards in the homes across the country.

Furniture giant IKEA is currently seeking a location for a Cork store, according to The Evening Echo.

Schoolboy, Paddy Flynn, has brought Traveller issues very much to the fore in recent weeks. In this edited extract from his PhD project, Trinity student and author Frankie Gaffney, argues the Irish 'state' has and continues to be a 'cold house' for Irish Travellers and it is time to remedy that before making any exhortations to pride in our nation. 

The father of a 17-year-old boy who died after he fell from a bridge claims his son was bullied because he was gay.