With the incumbent President Michael D Higgins so far ahead in the race, it was only a matter of time before things became somewhat farcical.

I am a lifelong hurling fan, the finest game ever invented, as well as a supporter of our gardaí, and proud of my several relations who served in it, including my late father.

House prices have increased by more than half since they bottomed out in early 2013, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

JP O’ Malley speaks with Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran about the increasing dangers in Turkish society.

Ireland is towards the top of the EU table for shootings and firearms seizures, according to one of the first studies of its type in Europe.

A Frenchman has been arrested in the “advanced stages” of a plot to attack the country.

The Irish economy will face down a slew of threats facing the world economy and continue to post strong growth through 2017, the ESRI think tank has predicted.

Building more permanent camps, together with the provision of work for migrants is an idea that’s going in the right direction, writes John Lloyd

AS Irish hotel sales inch up to an end-of-year €500m tally, more hotels, north and south of the Border, have found new owners in the past week, in Wexford, Galway and Fermanagh.

Islamic State fighters are poised to capture a strategic Syrian border town, Turkey’s president has warned, even as Kurdish forces battled to expel the extremists from their footholds on the outskirts.

Islamic State fighters backed by tanks and artillery have pushed into an embattled Syrian town on the border with Turkey, sparking heavy street battles with the town’s Kurdish defenders.

Petro Poroshenko has taken the oath of office as Ukraine’s president, assuming leadership of a country mired in a violent uprising and economic troubles.

The economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on the west of Ireland, with the value of its economic activity plunging from the EU average to being close to debt-ridden Greece.

A father and one of his children died when a family was forced to jump 160 feet into the sea after being trapped by a wildfire.

BORDER farmers have been feeling the worst effects of a very volatile euro-sterling exchange rate.

GRANTS totalling €28 million from the European Regional Development Fund have been approved for transport and regeneration projects for designated towns throughout the country.

Police held back protesters with tear gas and detained two dozen people in a pre-dawn clash before a summit of leaders of 28 Nato nations today on the French-German border.

Israel sent more troops to the Gaza border, rapidly moving forward with preparations for a possible ground offensive as the next stage of its military assault on the coastal territory’s Hamas rulers.

A man shot in the neck last month at his home on the Border has escaped a firebomb attack on his home, gardaí said today.

A suicide bomber on a motorbike has attacked an Afghan border police convoy, killing three police and three civilians, a police official said.

A HACKNEY driver is recovering from a terrifying ordeal when two passengers forced him to flee from gardaí at gunpoint.

Failure to transfer policing and justice powers to Stormont is creating a window of opportunity for republican dissidents, Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward has warned.

Detectives investigating the attempted murder of two police officers in a landmine attack near the Border arrested three men today.

The family of a man murdered along the Border two months ago are to raise directly with the Irish Government allegations that IRA members were involved.

GARDAÍ who investigated the 1998 Real IRA bombing in Omagh will not testify in a civil action by relatives of those who died.

FEWER Irish students crossed the Border or the Irish Sea to take college courses last year because of the introduction of college fees in Britain, a report has found.

OVER budget, over deadline but with not a leak in sight, the Dublin Port Tunnel (DPT) was finally opened yesterday with the promise of dramatically alleviating traffic congestion in the city.

NEGOTIATIONS on the farming agenda in the social partnership talks continued at Government Buildings in Dublin yesterday for the second successive day.

SOME of the cost and time overruns on major road works have been blamed on inadequate compensation being offered for land acquired by the National Roads Authority (NRA) through compulsory purchase orders (CPOs).

The US ambassador in charge of counterterrorism said today that parts of Pakistan are a “safe haven” for militants and that Osama bin Laden was more likely to be hiding there than in Afghanistan.

THE home of top republican Thomas “Slab” Murphy was searched yesterday as part of a massive security operation to smash a multi-million euro smuggling racket on both sides of the Border.

CROCODILES which can grow up to three metres long were among a haul of deadly reptiles destined for sale here, it emerged last night.

Fear stalked the Border area and bodies were regularly dumped along roadsides in the mid 1970s, an Oireachtas all-party body heard today.

Jordan’s military court today sentenced al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and two other militants to death for a failed suicide bombing on the Jordanian-Iraqi border a year ago.

Palestinian forces sealed off five major breaches along Gaza’s porous southern border, fired warning shots in the air and clashed with stone-throwing crowds today, in their strongest effort yet to halt the chaotic flood of people in and out of Egypt since Israel’s withdrawal from the area.

SEAN and Emma are the most popular Irish babies names for the second year in a row. There were 928 boys named Sean in the last year, 93 more than the second-most-popular name, Jack.

THERE was a 30.6% increase in the number of planning permissions granted last year as people attempted to cash in on lucrative tax incentive schemes ahead of the December deadline, it emerged yesterday.

THE IRA has forged an alliance with a network of criminal gangs in Britain in a multi-million euro cigarette and fuel smuggling racket, a former head of the Special Branch in Belfast claimed yesterday.

IT was only a matter of time before ‘tiger kidnappings’ crossed the Border, garda and security sources said yesterday.

CROSS-BORDER police operations have intercepted criminal activity worth hundreds of millions of euro in recent years, according to a new report.

POLICE were continuing to question a 42-year-old man in connection with the murder of a mother-of-four yesterday as mourners began to gather for her funeral.

A major new adventure park planned for Co Roscommon could attract thousands of visitors into the region each year, the tourism minister said today.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the average rent in Ireland is now €177.55, with Dublin and the Mid-East the most expensive.

Expenditure on major road construction projects in the Border, Midlands and West region will be up 62% to €300m in 2004, compared to last year's spend.

The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) has challenged the Government to show tangible success in its efforts towards developing the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region.

PEOPLE in Dublin have on average €3,000 more to spend a year than those living outside the capital.