A retired Mayo businessman and chairman of the Connacht Oil Promotion Federation who was involved in a west of Ireland home-heating fuel price-fixing scam has been given a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay a €15,000 fine.

The trial of a 38-year-old-father-of two accused of murder has heard there are "two verdicts open" to the jury; not guilty of murder or guilty of manslaughter, defence counsel said in his closing speech to the jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

A jury in the trial of a 23-year-old Tipperary man accused of murder has heard that a row allegedly broke out after a Halloween bonfire in 2002.

The Court of Criminal Appeal today dismissed an appeal by Real IRA member Liam Campbell for membership of an illegal organisation.

The Special Criminal Court has reserved judgment today in the trial of five Dublin men accused of IRA membership after their arrest in Bray in October 2002.

Gardaí recovered a large quantity of Sinn Féin posters, including election posters for Sinn Féin TD Aengus O' Snodaigh, from a car in which they also found a stun gun and CS gas canister, the trial of five men accused of IRA membership heard today.

A defence lawyer of one of two men accused of having a massive quantity of explosives near the border last year applied for a direction to acquit his client at the Special Criminal Court today.

A 28-year-old truck driver found in possession of almost €16m worth of cocaine and cannabis resin has been remanded in custody for sentence by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A Monaghan man who is being sued by relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing was jailed for three and a half years at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today for membership of an illegal organisation, namely the Real IRA.

A couple, who hid oil paintings worth over €18m stolen from Russborough House in the attic of their Clondalkin home, have been jailed, one for six months and one for a year.

A Belfast solicitor claimed he could not give his client advice over his arrest for suspected membership of the IRA because he got “absolutely no disclosure of information” from gardaí at Monaghan, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

A Mullingar businessman has told an alleged Ir£151,000 insurance fraud conspiracy trial that invoices purporting to come from him were spurious documents and had not been signed by him.

A consultant engineer has told a jury it would have taken up to seven hours to remove a Scania truck and its load from a ditch into which one allegedly fell after colliding with a Rover car.

MORE than 100 victims of clerical sex abuse are expected to take part in a new inquiry into the Church's handling of complaints against clerical paedophiles in Co Wexford.

A prison officer said a report described as "kosher" was shown to him which claimed the prisoner who allegedly had his jaw broken by a colleague had a knife in his cell.

The prisoner whose jaw was allegedly broken by a kick from a prison officer has identified the accused to a jury as the man who assaulted him.