The ‘Buddy Bears’ will be ready at a moment’s notice to help reduce the suffering of children caught up in traumatic incidents.

A jeep and a garda car have collided in Co. Cork.

Three staff from the Stryker Medical Devices plant at Carrigtwohill in Cork have been hospitalised and the plant has been evacuated after what is described as the escape of gas at around 1am today.

Cork man Padraig O’Reilly was named Irish Red Cross Volunteer of the Year 2018 this afternoon while 12-year-old Donegal native Sarah McConnellogue received the Irish Red Cross Young Volunteer of the Year Award.

An investigation is under way after fire broke out at a recycling plant in Cork — the second fire at the waste management facility in four years.

Five units of the Cork City Fire Brigade were needed to tackle a large blaze at the old St Kevin’s unit at the former Our Lady’s Hospital site in Shanakiel.

Fire crews have been praised for preventing a gorse fire in West Cork — described as the largest in the area for almost 26 years — from spreading to homes, a hotel, and forestry.

Two separate investigations are under way following the death of a man while laying pipes in a trench in a popular Co Cork caravan park.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

A coroner is to issue summonses for several key witnesses who failed to attend a joint inquest yesterday into the deaths of two men in a house fire.

Hoax calls make up one in four of the false alarms to which fire crews are dispatched in Cork City and county every year.

The head of a historic secondary school which was engulfed by fire said they hope to resume classes as planned within weeks.

Staff at a home and garden store in Co Cork yesterday recalled how the premises shook in the aftermath of an explosion that hospitalised two people at the café next door.

A young Cork woman raised the alarm to evacuate her family from their burning home before the smoke eventually overwhelmed her causing her to die .

One person has been killed and another seriously injured on Cork's roads this afternoon.

Hoax calls to Cork city fire brigade could have cost the city more than €4m over the last five years.

Two mechanics cheated death yesterday after a fire broke out in a garage as they worked.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a mother of three who was found at her burnt-out home yesterday morning. (UPDATED WITH VIDEO) 

Ray Ryan

An investigation is underway into the cause of the fire that swept through a chemical laboratory in the Ispat Steel Plant, killing one man and injuring three others.