Here are some things to look forward to in the week ahead.

Top artists have donated to Leeside’s first €50 anonymous sale for the Jack and Jill Foundation, writes Marjorie Brennan.

A 10-year-old schoolboy, who witnessed a horror attack on his toddler sister by a Brazilian tapir at Dublin Zoo and saw his parents injured in a bloody fight to save their daughter’s life, has been awarded €25,000 in the Circuit Civil Court.

Charities reckon that the Government’s new Vat compensation scheme will add up to more and better services for people in need.

Tax changes in the budget are “most unfair” with those on higher incomes benefiting the most, according to Social Justice Ireland.

The Government could be facing court action against the decision to press ahead with plans for the new National Children's Hospital.

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Five years ago, Kevin Shortall and his wife Tracy didn’t know if their daughter would be alive to make her Communion.

The creator of a YouTube cartoon sensation has admitted to toying with the idea of doing some comic sketches of new US President Donald Trump.

A six-year-old boy who is brain damaged and blind has settled his High Court action over the circumstances of his birth at Cork University Maternity Hospital with an interim payout of €1.35m.

The head of a charity that provides nursing care and support for children with severe neurological development issues has praised golf star Rory McIlroy for donating his Irish Open prize money to the cause.

An emotional Rory McIlroy said donating his €666,000 winner’s prize to charities made his first Dubai Duty Free Irish Open victory even more special.

Between the hailstones and rain drops came the tear drops of a champion.

A number of objectors to the children’s hospital being built on Dublin’s St James’s Hospital campus are “thinking very seriously” about seeking a judicial review of the planning decision, it has emerged.

Victor Beamish was born in Dunmanway in 1903 and was one of the most decorated RAF pilots in the Second World War before he was killed in action in 1942. A Spitfire flypast at the Listowel event will honour him, writes Noel Baker

The ladies of Innishannon ICA Guild get about. In the last decade, members have travelled the length and breath of Ireland by bus. 

More than €250,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on new velvet carpets for Leinster House after the improvements were “prioritised” over other services.

Plans for the new National Children’s Hospital on the St James’s Hospital campus in Dublin will be “vigorously opposed”, Jack and Jill Foundation founder and chief executive Jonathan Irwin said yesterday.

The first eight candidates to run for Renua Ireland in the upcoming general election have been confirmed.

Financial means tests carried out on the families of seriously ill children seeking medical cards could be scrapped under plans being discussed by Government.

There is no better testament to the Easter Rising than to begin building the new national children’s hospital next year on one of its most famous battle sites, the South Dublin Union, Health Minister Leo Varadkar said yesterday.

One of two patient representatives named on the HSE’s medical card clinical advisory group wants the body to agree and implement key issues to help families long before its three-month interim report deadline.

€5,000 payment to charities after normally docile animal mauls toddler in supervised ‘close encounter’

The chair of the expert panel behind the medical card reforms has rejected claims the changes do not go far enough and mean patients still have complicated "hoops to jump through".

Family doctors will be able to restore medical cards to patients for up to a year in rare cases if they believe the vital help has been wrongly withdrawn by the HSE.

Cancer patients have criticised the Government’s high-profile medical card system reform plan, warning the changes have failed to change the focus on an applicant’s income, have left people in the dark and effectively allow the Coalition to "put a plaster over a wound that needs urgent surgical attention".

Charity founder Jonathan Irwin will run in the next election because he thinks the Irish are ready to vote for an Etonian seeking change, says Arlene Harris

The founder of the Jack and Jill Foundation Jonathan Irwin has announced his intention to contest the next general election as an Independent.

Dublin Zoo has pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations after a two-year-old girl was mauled by a "chilled-out" Brazilian tapir which suddenly went on the attack.

Dublin Zoo has agreed to donate €5,000 to charity in lieu of a conviction over a tapir attack on a toddler and her mother.

The long-running national children’s hospital plan risks being delayed yet again, after it emerged the chosen site for the building is on the grounds of an ancient mass paupers’ grave.

A patient group representing children with life-limiting conditions has warned that Ireland is "back to where we were at the very start" of the medical card crisis due to the Government’s expert panel findings.

THERE are times when it feels we have a greater chance of sending a minister for health into space than successfully completing a new national children’s hospital.

Leo Varadkar, the health minister, has rejected claims that concerns over the new children’s hospital site are being "swept under the carpet".

It is being claimed that a senior consultant at St James' in Dublin has outlined serious concerns about the proposed new National Children's Hospital.

The Government’s expert report into how the medical card system can be reformed is set to be handed to Health Minister Leo Varadkar by the end of this month.

The head of the Jack and Jill Foundation has said he has been sent two anonymous letters which he says proves the site of the new National Children's Hospital is inappropriate.

Nearly €40m of taxpayers' money has been spent on the doomed bid to build the National Children's Hospital at the Mater in Dublin.