A prisoner went on hunger strike to secure a vegan diet in Northern Ireland, official files have revealed.

The DNA database has linked more than 530 crimes to particular individuals in its first year of operation, official figures show.

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald said that “no one wants gardaí to take strike action” and that she was doing “everything possible” to avert the crisis.

Gardaí have discovered two firearms and ammunition in County Wicklow.

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald is exploring funding options which could bring forward the construction of a new facility for the State’s forensic science service.

Fragments of glass found on the clothing of a man suspected of involvement in the armed robbery of a jewellers last year did not match glass samples taken from the store, a forensic scientist told a trial yesterday.

Ireland’s forensic science chief has warned the Government that the State faces the risk of “very large expense and untold reputational damage” from the collapse of a court case due to contamination of DNA samples caused by poor laboratory conditions.

Authorities cannot say they were unaware of the potential for catastrophe in forensic science as

The forensic evidence used against the Guildford Four was stronger than the evidence used against a Dublin man accused of a gang murder, a defence barrister told the Central Criminal Court today.

An extra €205m to equip the gardaí with modern technology is part of a €875m justice capital plan promised by the outgoing Government.

Just a day after she should have been celebrating her 19th birthday, Dublin teenager Ana Hick, who died after taking esctasy, was laid to rest following a packed funeral Mass.

Gardaí suspect that high-strength ecstasy pills — rather than contaminated ones —played a role in the death of an 18-year-old in Dublin at the weekend.

A Garda chief superintendent told a murder trial yesterday that he retrieved clothing from the home of a man accused of murdering two women 18 years ago.

A Toyota Land Cruiser suspected of being involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash almost three years ago, was registered in the name of a 22-year-old accused and he also had an insurance policy on the vehicle, a court heard yesterday.

A jury was yesterday shown how two sections of a vehicle bumper, found in separate locations near the scene of a fatal hit-and-run accident, joined together.

Graham Dwyer’s semen and Elaine O’Hara’s blood were found on her damaged mattress.

A DNA profile matching Graham Dwyer was found in stains on Elaine O'Hara's mattress, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

A landmark piece of research into Irish drug markets has revealed a trade more deeply entrenched than ever and delivers a sobering message that cannot be ignored, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

Police in Mauritius are expected to make arrests within the next week, saying that new DNA evidence has provided a breakthrough in the hunt for the killers of Michaela McAreavey.

A Circuit Court judge has said he is gobsmacked that a State witness went on holidays instead of attending a drugs trial earlier this year.

Firearms residue found on the tracksuit bottoms of one of the men accused of murdering a Limerick businessman supports the suggestion that he was at the shooting, his trial has heard.

Gardaí and health officials are scrambling for information on a new drug which has been linked with up to 19 deaths in the North in less than a year.

Long-awaited legislation establishing a DNA database is expected to be passed by the Oireachtas before the summer recess, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said.

Gardaí say they are following a “definite line inquiry” regarding a teenager found in a “distressed” state on Dublin’s O’Connell St last month.

The DNA testing process can typically take up to 48 hours, say the Forensic Science Laboratory — so it’s a safe bet there was some anxious pacing of corridors and hallways before the results in the Tallaght Roma case came in yesterday afternoon.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has insisted a new database of DNA samples from convicted criminals and suspects in serious crimes will respect human rights.

Twice the amount of cannabis plants, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy was seized last year compared with 2011, Garda figures show

Two mothers who suffered severe drug-induced reactions were last night out of danger and talking with their families.

Gardaí are trying to identify the organisers behind what is thought to be the biggest cannabis factory ever discovered in the country.

A Sligo man has been jailed for 15 years for the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his teenage daughter which led to him fathering her child.

There has been an explosion in cannabis cultivation in this country.

MANY unsuspecting neighbours are oblivious to what may be happening in the house next door to them.

The trial of a Limerick man accused of murder has heard evidence that a bullet recovered from the victim’s chest was fired from the weapon which was recovered from the home of the accused’s grandparents.

A Sligo man has today been convicted of the rape and sexual abuse of his then 13-year-old daughter, who claims he fathered her child.

An expert witness has told the trial of a man accused of raping his 14-year-old daughter that there is strong DNA evidence that the accused fathered her child.

An English man who drove a truck into Ireland carrying duvets stuffed with blocks of cocaine has been jailed for four years.

A rape trial has heard that the chances of DNA found at the scene not belonging to one of the three accused are “astronomical”.

Thirty-one Garda stations are to close, while a further 10 will operate on reduced opening hours, under cost-saving plans announced by Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

CANNABIS users are exposing themselves to “higher risks of psychosis” by smoking super-strong homegrown herbal cannabis.

Herbal cannabis cultivated in sophisticated grow houses across Ireland is more likely to cause psychosis than imported herb and resin, it has emerged.

A MAN has been found guilty of murdering a father of two while he was walking with his girlfriend and children in Dublin last year.

The jury in the trial of a Dublin man accused of the sexual assault and defilement of a child has heard DNA evidence linking the accused and the alleged victim to a blood stained bed sheet.

GARDA staff associations have made fresh demands for the establishment of a DNA database — almost 10 years since it was first promised by government.

MORE than 250 suspects were arrested last year in dedicated operations targeting organised crime gangs and dissident republicans.

CUSTOMS and gardaí have made the biggest haul of cannabis resin in more than a year-and-a-half.

THE police chief in Mauritius yesterday revealed they only had “circumstantial evidence” linking three local men with the murder of Michaela Harte.

THE police chief in Mauritius yesterday revealed they only had “circumstantial evidence” linking three local men with the murder of Michaela Harte.