The headstone on the grave of Ireland’s first head of the Free State, William T Cosgrave, has been smashed in two.

Gerry Adams has said the Northern Ireland political process faces its greatest challenge since the Good Friday Agreement negotiations.

Eamon Gilmore has announced his intention to step down as leader of the Labour Party this afternoon. His resignation will take effect as soon as a successor is chosen.

The young people’s parliament, Dáil na nÓg, has voted for a national mental health gathering for second-level students.

The international chemical weapons watchdog is meeting in the Netherlands to endorse a plan to destroy Syria’s deadly poison gas and nerve agent arsenal, most likely outside the country.

Fourteen children had to be evacuated from the paediatric unit of Limerick University Hospital after a fire broke out in the building.

Kennedy always got close to Irish crowds, writes Ray Ryan

Trade Unions are considering holding a major protest march in February to voice their anger at a failure by the Government to agree a deal on Ireland's debt.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has given his clearest signal to date that he is willing to meet the Queen.

Labour Senator James Heffernan ponders whether it was appropriate that the portraits of politicians who had been “found culpable of corruption, of abuse of power, abuses of privilege and, indeed perjury”, should still hang in Leinster House.

Two of the six people injured in this morning's Manx 2 airplane crash at Cork Airport are in a critical condition, the Irish Aviation Authority has confirmed.

Police manpower numbers in the North should be reviewed, the favourite for the justice ministry said today.

THE absence from the country of Health Minister Mary Harney is only “adding to the information vacuum” surrounding unread X-rays and GP referral letters in Tallaght, and possibly other hospitals.

Queen’s University Belfast today agreed a controversial plan to cut more than 100 academic and research jobs as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

There are grounds for optimism about the future for the Northern economy despite the credit crunch and global slowdown, the North's Economy Minister Nigel Dodds said today.

The Health Service Executive has imposed an immediate ban on recruitment in a bid to balance its budget.

PATIENTS must be told about the risk of acquiring the hospital super bug MRSA before consenting to surgery, a patients’ lobby group told a national conference on drug resistant infections yesterday.

PSYCHIATRIC patients detained in hospital against their will have a right to an independent review of their case after long-awaited new laws came into force.

The Ulster Unionists were today accused of being out of touch with the needs of working class Protestants after it called on the British government to boost loyalist confidence by ending concessions to republicans.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann who failed to declare a donation of IR£2,500 will be given community service to perform by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, subject to a report regarding his suitability for such work.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann who failed to declare donations exceeding IR£500 will be sentenced at 2pm by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

ONE of the last patients to be discharged from Monaghan General Hospital’s acute surgical ward at the weekend was the elderly mother of the head of the group campaigning against the continual downgrading of the hospital.

A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann who failed to declare donations exceeding IR£500 has been remanded on bail for sentence by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The British government should consider Australian-style reforms to enable hospitals to apologise for mistakes without fear of litigation, Northern Ireland’s Ombudsman Tom Frawley said today.

A silver box presented to one time Free State leader W. T. Cosgrave when he visited the PJ Carrolls factory in Dundalk in December 1926 is being handed over to the National Museum this evening.