Gardaí and community volunteers are holding special patrols of a children’s playground in Cork after human excrement was spread all over play equipment, resulting in some children getting smeared with it.

The owner of Blarney Castle wanted a €5,000 down payment, and a cut of traders’ profits, before he would sanction a St Patrick’s Day street market on the local village green, it was claimed last night.

The owner of Blarney Castle is standing over his decision to pull the plug on a key element of the Cork village’s St Patrick’s Day festival.