A man found floating in the ocean next to 65 bales of cocaine has had his 30-year prison sentence for one of the State’s largest ever drugs haul cut to 23 years by the Court of Appeal.

A son had taken over the cannabis operation set up by his late father to pay the mortgage, in what the Circuit Criminal Court heard was “a bizarre case”.

A judge excluded the public from a courtroom at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee today because the details in a child pornography case were so "gross".

A 40-year old man who sued the State after an unmarked garda car involved in the pursuit of another driver crashed into him is facing a large legal costs bill after he lost his High Court action for damages.

The state's corporate law watchdog has spent more than half a million euro on court-appointed inspectors to further its inquiry into Independent News and Media.

The middle-aged man who claimed he was only having banter with four 15-year-old girls on the back of a bus was found guilty yesterday of harassing the schoolgirls and sexually assaulting one of them.

A 65-year-old man accused of indecently assaulting a younger female relative has launched a challenge aimed at halting his trial before the Circuit Criminal Court.

A taxi driver who sexually assaulted three young women within two weeks has been jailed for five years.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris was questioned on the Margiotta case that collapsed at trial earlier this year. His answers to the PAC left a lot to be desired, writes Michael Clifford

A vital piece of evidence in the controversial prosecution of a Garda employee and her GP brother was not given to the defendants when they were being offered the option of pleading guilty, the Irish Examiner has learned.

The Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional a law requiring that a mandatory five-year minimum sentence be imposed on some persons convicted under a section of the Firearms Act.

A man confessed yesterday to assault causing harm to a young woman in Cork, and threatening to kill her.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has provided the Policing Authority with a report into the collapsed prosecution against Garda employee Lynn Margiotta over the production of sick notes.

Many curious features exist in the investigation of Lynn Margiotta for suspected fraud in connection with how she obtained medical certs for days she was absent from work, writes Special Correspondent Michael Clifford

Four people from the same family have been sent forward to the Circuit Criminal Court for trial on charges under the money-laundering and terrorist-financing legislation.

A man facing dozens of charges of indecent assaults allegedly committed more than 30 years ago has brought a High Court challenge aimed at preventing his trial from proceeding.

City councils and tourism authorities like to talk about what they call the “night-time economy”, by which they mean businesses that supply alcohol, food, and entertainment in pubs, restaurants, and nightclubs. It plays an important part in the life of a developed nation, which is why it’s an aspect of Cork highlighted, rightly, by Tourism Ireland: “Cork is a bustling collection of cool coffee shops, vibrant art galleries, unusual museums, and seriously good pubs.”

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

We had a back-to-the-future event last Tuesday when Michael Lowry emerged from a building claiming vindication and victimhood. He had just been convicted of tax offences, escaped jail and declared that he had been hounded and vilified.

Five young men were arrested and charged yesterday with engaging in violent disorder at Skehard Rd in Cork just over a year ago.

A woman has been found guilty by unanimous verdict of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to an American tourist near Tralee in August 2013.

The former head of group finance at Anglo Irish Bank said he was not aware that €7.2bn transactions with Irish Life and Permanent were “a straight exchange of cash with no underlying security” until after they had taken place.

A three-year jail term was imposed on a Corkman who was found guilty of sexually assaulting his ex-partner’s daughter on occasions when she was only 12 to 13 years old.

Slagging between neighbouring apartment dwellers got so out of hand that one of the young men came out of his home with a large butcher’s knife to threaten two others.

A man has been sent forward for trial, on a plea of guilty, for trying to escape garda custody in a courthouse, and on a charge of assault, relating to the same incident.

A Polish national caught cultivating cannabis in a Cavan grow house has had the balance of his sentence suspended following a successful appeal.

A couple have been sent forward for trial accused of the genital mutilation of their daughter.

A woman who gave a detailed account of a rape in what later transpired to be consensual sex, after becoming separated from friends on the night of the 2014 All-Ireland Football final, will be sentenced in January, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee was told.

A homeless man has been sentenced to five years in prison for robbing an elderly Dublin couple of cash that they had just withdrawn to pay for a family holiday.

The trial of a 24-year-old woman for careless driving causing the death of her younger friend more than three years ago on the Cork/Kerry border has collapsed after the jury received a prosecution exhibit document, part of which they should not have seen.

A teenager who died when she was ejected from a car as it plunged into a low-lying field on the Cork-Kerry border had not been wearing a seatbelt.

A 14-year-old girl was thrown through the front window of a car and found dead around 5m-10m away in a field in Kerry.

A personal assistant who stole more than €1m from her employers over a 14-year period has been jailed for four years.

Fatal and serious injury road traffic cases are set to dominate criminal sessions at the Circuit Criminal Courts in the south-west in the coming months, a court heard yesterday.

Garda bosses are to be questioned by the Policing Authority about the failed Jobstown prosecution and the review set up by commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

A shop assistant who became addicted to playing the Lotto and stole at least €19,000 worth of tickets from the small shop in Cwhere she worked has been given a suspended sentence.

A man was ordered to do anger management as he was given a suspended 18-month term yesterday for harassing his wife in 2015.

A Castletownbere man who volunteered in a community tidy-up was strolling back to his car when he was struck from behind with a glass cider bottle.

A 71-year-old Englishman set fire to a neighbour’s van, endangering the life of a family with a newborn baby, because he believed he was being spied on by MI5.

The man accused of having a sexual relationship with his 12-year-old niece said that not alone did he not do it but he could not have done so as he suffered from erectile dysfunction.

No one was sober on the night of an alleged sexual assault by a 53-year-old man on another male, aged 44, a female witness, one of the three people in the bed, told the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee yesterday.

It is important that we commit to law reform and allocate resources to ensure effective investigation and prosecution, says Shane Kilcommins.

It follows yesterday’s decision by Judge John Aylmer to direct the jury to acquit.

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has said it fully accepts a judge's criticism of its investigation into the former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank after he was acquitted of misleading auditors.