Prisoners had a 10% rise in pocket money last year, with over €2.8m given to inmates for discretionary items such as cigarettes and sweets.

Inmates have been given €498,708 in interest-free loans by the Irish Prison Service in the past three years.

Nearly 900 pints of homemade alcohol was confiscated from prisoners in Irish jails last year, new figures have revealed, writes Darragh McDonagh.

Nearly 900 pints of homemade alcohol was confiscated from prisoners in Irish jails last year, new figures have revealed.

Serial killer Mark Nash claims the delay in charging him with the murders of two women in Grangegorman had “locked him out” from applying for parole as early as he could have, the Supreme Court has heard.

The Sunday World has been given one month to pay €75,000 for contempt of court after it called serial killer Mark Nash a “psycho” and “Pulp Fiction-style killer” before he had gone on trial for a second double-murder charge.

The costs associated with the marathon Graham Dwyer murder trial has helped push the lawyer bill for the first six months of this year for the Director of Public Prosecutions to over €7.4m.

Retired detective said scene of murders carried out by Mark Nash will stay with him for the rest of his life

Convicted killer Mark Nash has lost his High Court bid to be returned from the Midlands Prison to Arbour Hill prison, Dublin, where he has spent the past 15 years.

Convicted murderer Mark Nash has complained about being jeered at in prison and says he has become distressed and depressed because he has no access to work or study.

The daughter of an Englishman convicted of murdering four people in separate incidents in Dublin and Roscommon in the 1990s has branded her father “a monster”.

Convicted double murderer Mark Nash has been found guilty of the “cold case” murder of two women, whose mutilated bodies were found in their sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman in Dublin nearly 20 years ago.

The jury is on its second day of deliberation in the trial of a man accused of a double murder in Grangegorman 18 years ago.

The prosecution counsel in the trial of a man accused of murdering two women 18 years ago has told the jury that if the accused is not guilty, there are a series of “truly amazing coincidences”.

A forensic scientist has told a murder trial he has discounted the fact that DNA profiles from two women killed nearly 20 years ago were found on the sleeve of a jacket belonging to the murder accused.

DNA profiles from two women killed in Grangegorman nearly 20 years ago were found on a jacket belonging to murder accused Mark Nash in 2009, a jury has heard.

A forensic scientist told a murder trial jury yesterday that a mark on lino in a house where two women were killed 18 years ago was likely to have been made by a Caterpillar brand boot.

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.

An ex-partner of a man on trial for a double murder has testified that he was a fantasist and “told a lot of lies”.

A former Assistant Garda Commissioner has told a jury how a man who was first charged with the 1997 murder of one woman, but later had the charge withdrawn, could not have "more accurately described" the carving knife blades found at the scene.

A man charged with a 1997 double murder said a confession made by him in relation to the killings was “produced” by gardaí, a jury has heard.

A jury has heard that a man on trial for a 1997 double murder gave a statement to gardaí, admitting he stabbed two women after breaking into a house .

The jury foreman in the trial of a man accused of murdering two women 18 years ago, has been excused.

The jury foreman in the trial of a man accused of murdering two women eighteen years ago, has been excused.

Garda outlines horrific scene at site of Grangegorman murders

“A spectacular breakthrough” led to the DNA of two women, found dead at their sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman 18 years ago, being found on the jacket of a man on trial accused of their murder, a trial has heard.

The prosecution has begun laying out its evidence in the trial of two women murdered in Dublin nearly 18 years ago.

A man has pleaded not guilty to murdering two women in sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman in Dublin, 18 years ago.

The High Court has granted permission to a man to bring proceedings aimed at preventing his trial for the murder of two women in Dublin 13 years ago in the well-known "Grangegorman murders" case.

A 36-year-old man has been charged with the 1997 Grangegorman murders in Dublin.

GARDAÍ did not attempt to frame Dean Lyons, the drug addict wrongly charged with a double murder in 1997, the deputy commissioner of the force has reiterated.

THE parents of drug addict Dean Lyons yesterday spoke of the “life sentence” they faced after their son was wrongly blamed for a double murder.

Inappropriate leading questions by investigating gardaí led homeless drug addict Dean Lyons to make a false confession to a double murder, an inquiry concluded today.

SENIOR gardaí criticised in a Government report into the Dean Lyons affair should be punished appropriately, a TD said last night.

Senior gardaí criticised in a Government report into the Dean Lyons affair should be be punished appropriately, a TD said tonight.

The Minister for Justice has received the final report from the Commission investigating the Dean Lyons case.

A REPORT of the investigation into the confession of drug addict Dean Lyons for a murder he did not commit is on schedule for delivery to Justice Minister Michael McDowell next month.

An independent inquiry is to be launched into how innocent drug addict Dean Lyons confessed to the brutal double murder of two women in their Dublin home, it emerged today.

A SENIOR counsel is to be appointed to head an inquiry into how a homeless drug addict came to be charged with the murders of two elderly women.

THE confession of a double murderer to the killing of two elderly women and the reasons why he was not prosecuted should be probed as part of an inquiry into the Dean Lyons affair, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said last night.

GARDAÍ conducting a forensic ‘cold case’ review of the 1997 Grangegorman murders, which were never solved, expect to have preliminary findings by the end of July.

The Garda has reportedly issued a public apology to the family of a man who was wrongly arrested and charged in connection with the 1997 Grangegorman murders.

Cormac O’Keeffe

An investigation should be launched into two unsolved murders in Grangegorman, Dublin on the grounds of “profound public interest”, it was claimed tonight.

SINCE it was established in 1974, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has been embroiled in many controversies, mainly when a decision is taken not to prosecute or when the prosecution goes wrong, as it did in yesterday’s Curtin case.

THE family of a deceased young man wrongly accused of a double murder yesterday joined calls for a public inquiry into the garda investigation of the case.

LATE on the evening of April 11, 1998, Aisling McCarthy, grieving over the sudden death of her mother hours earlier, was told the 47-year-old had been murdered.

LAWS relating to inquests are outmoded and inadequate, the Dublin City Coroner said after a jury returned an unlawful killing verdict in the case of two elderly women murdered in their sheltered homes.