Irish Bank Resolution Corporation has secured a High Court order allowing it to bring forward proceedings aimed at having businessman Sean Quinn declared bankrupt in the Republic of Ireland.

Former tycoon Sean Quinn could be effectively barred from relaunching his business career after a Belfast court ruled today that his bankruptcy should be dealt with in Dublin.

Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man, has declared himself bankrupt in a Belfast court over debts of €2bn to the former Anglo Irish Bank, the former tycoon has confirmed.

In the North, two men are due before Belfast Magistrates Court this morning charged in connection with dissident republican activity.

A former IRA man who attempted to murder a soldier in a 1981 ambush has been jailed for 20 years.

A Co Armagh farmer who gave evidence by video link from Belfast was described by a judge at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today as "terrified'' when he repeatedly said he could not remember working for Colm Murphy, the man accused of conspiracy in relation to the 1998 Omagh bombing.

SINN Féin president Gerry Adams has offered to meet the parents of children who came into contact with his suspected paedophile brother when he was employed as a youth worker in Belfast.

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has welcomed the landmark ruling and a £1.6 million (€1.84m) compensation award in the Omagh bombing civil action against former Real IRA leader Michael Mc-Kevitt and three other men.

A Belfast dissident republican became the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court today for the murder of a man in Belfast last year.

The verdict will be delivered today in the trial of a man accused of murdering 29 people in the North's worst ever terrorist atrocity.

The High Court in Belfast has frozen £700,000 (€1m) worth of assets belonging to two alleged fuel smugglers from south Armagh.

THOUGH an extreme case by any measure, that of serial offender Robert Howard, convicted of murder and rape, holds valuable lessons for all those agencies involved directly, or indirectly, in the criminal justice system.

Two men are due in court in the North this morning in connection with an investigation into extortion in the construction industry.

A Belfast court has rejected a defence bid to have murder charges relating to the Omagh bombing dismissed.

RELATIVES of the Omagh bomb victims are confident a Belfast court will order the handover of documents relating to the trials of four men suspected of carrying out the atrocity.

The families of Omagh bomb victims tonight vowed to press on with a civil action against those they believe to be behind the atrocity.

A man found drunk in front of a computer where he had downloaded child porn movie files walked free from a Belfast court today.

Two women in the North have been charged with possession of firearms and intent to endanger life.

Three former employees of Ulster Bank are due before a Belfast court today charged with the theft of stg£750,000.

A 54-year-old man is due to appear before Belfast magistrates court on Monday charged in connection with an arms’ find in the North.

The Taoiseach is to meet the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in Dublin later today.

Two men will appear before Belfast Magistrates Court this morning charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of David Finn at a McDonalds restaurant last Friday.

A Belfast woman who has admitted helping her lover to kill his 48-year-old wife in 1999 has walked free from court in the North.