Christmas Day worshippers in a tiny church at the tip of a remote West Cork peninsula will this year be joined by more than 1,000 emigrants from all over the world.

Cardinal Sean Brady has said he hopes 2012 will bring a more caring and neighbourly society.

Hundreds of Christians, defying lashing rain and wind, filled the ancient Bethlehem church that marks Jesus’s traditional birthplace for Christmas Day Mass today.

The largest number of pilgrims in a decade have gathered in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas.

THERE were cameras and a full house at the final curtain call for Fair City star Joan Brosnan Walsh, whose funeral took place in Malahide, Co Dublin, yesterday.