This Christmas you might want to support a charity, but if you're finding it difficult to afford a donation there is another way you can make a difference.

Golf star Rory McIlroy has secured close to €1 million for three children’s charities on the back of the Irish Open tournament.

Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has announced that she is retiring from politics.

A man who broke into a Dublin church with a knife to steal items to feed his drug habit has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

One bucket wasn’t enough for Michael!

Patients, disability groups, and organisations looking after terminally ill children all welcomed the return of medical cards to 15,300 people who lost them since the controversial 2011 cull began — but warned the Government they are closely watching their next steps.

Former justice minister Alan Shatter fired a parting shot at ex-cabinet colleagues by donating his ministerial severance payment to a charity that has led the campaign against the Government’s medical card cuts.

The former Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said he will donate his €70,000 ministerial severance pay to charity.

The extent to which Michael “Fingers” Fingleton claimed expenses from his former employer to fund a lavish outlay on designer goods, exclusive hotels, and extravagant entertainment of developers was laid bare in court yesterday.

Forget about the wild life in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. This June bank holiday weekend, it’s all about the wild flowers — among other blossoms — at the annual Bloom Festival.

A Roscommon family is appealing to the HSE to give them the home support they need to allow them to care for their four-year-old son.

THE operators of Cork’s first ‘super’ bingo hall have defended their use of Longford rugby club’s lottery licence to stage bingo sessions on Leeside.

THE collapse in the price for second-hand mobile phones has hit the revenues of one children’s charity by between €200,000 and €300,000.

THE HSE is considering offering unpaid leave to staff, cutting all overtime payments and increasing the working hours of staff in a bid to break even this year.

THEY strip off at every match to don the black jersey but for these daring referees, it is a whole new ball game — so to speak.

THERE were shocked faces and screams of delight at St Colmcille’s National School, Knocklyon and Presentation Convent, Drogheda yesterday as X Factor double-act, Jedward, paid students a visit.

FURTHER to your report on the HSE spending €64m on mobility aids (August 17), the Jack & Jill Foundation has been retained by HSE to collect all the used crutches and Zimmer frames to be recycled for the benefit of the foundation and the 322 children currently under our wing.

LITTLE Jack Irwin’s short life inspired a new charity that is giving vital help to 220 families of children and babies with severe developmental delay.