Four of Cork’s female sports stars are encouraging women to bin their old bras to raise funds for a breast cancer charity.

In the early ’90s, her lone voice exposed a dark period in history, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

A French court imposed €10m in fines and damages on Ryanair for labour law breaches and the airline said it would appeal to European courts.

The Government has vowed to pursue religious orders for half the €1.46bn cost of compensating their victims.

A memorial to the victims of institutional child abuse is still in the planning process.

It was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the State and now a memorial called Journey of Light will be built to remember survivors and victims of clerical sex abuse.

THE Department of Health has drawn up a “risk register” of potential issues that could see legal action being taken over the state’s failure to inspect residential services for 9,000 adults and children with disabilities.

CYNICAL is the only word to describe the Health Service Executive strategy of telling social workers, consultants and other frontline personnel they have been successful at job interviews but then not proceeding to sign their employment contracts.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny today launched an unprecedented attack on the Vatican, accusing Catholic hierarchy of putting the preservation of the church's reputation ahead of child rape victims.

THE second progress update on implementing the Ryan report’s recommendations has been published by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald.

The Government is being urged to maintain its commitment to closing the gaps in the child welfare and protection system.

CHILDREN’S Minister Frances Fitzgerald has expressed concern about the “shortcomings and severe difficulties” experienced by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children as it tried to investigate child protection in the 26 dioceses.

NEARLY 800 children in the care of the Health Service Executive do not have an allocated social worker.

The Tánaiste has insisted that progress is being made in hiring more child protection social workers.

Religious orders named in the Ryan Report on clerical sex abuse are meeting the Taoiseach today to finalise a deal on compensation for victims.

Survivors of clerical abuse are calling on religious orders criticised in the Ryan report to waive their right to reclaim legal fees following an appearance before the inquiry

THE Sisters of Mercy have offered to contribute cash and properties worth over €127.5m in compensation to the victims of physical and sexual abuse in former industrial schools run by the order.

A leading order of Catholic nuns which ran one of the most notorious industrial schools in Ireland tonight offered €128m to compensate child abuse survivors.

A COUNSELLING service for survivors of sexual abuse is reporting a surge in calls which it links directly to the publication of the Ryan report earlier this year.

THE Ryan Report was published five months ago.

TWO high-profile members of Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) – Fr Sean Healy and Sr Brigid Reynolds – are to head a new organisation called Social Justice Ireland.

The Irish Association of Social Workers claims the Government needs to spell out in greater detail how the measures being put in place to provide an out-of-hours service for crisis cases will operate.

The 18 religious orders named in the Ryan report have moved to clarify reports that they have failed to disclose their financial details to the Government.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has struck the right note in representing the solidarity of the Irish people with the survivors of institutional abuse by giving them a truly warm welcome at Áras an Uachtaráin.

THE Ryan comission report on institutionalised child abuse makes very clear that the organisations in control of the remand schools, industrial schools and orphanages made a very substantial profit from their operation.

Meetings between the Catholic church hierarchy and the Pope in the Vatican reflected the seriousness of the Ryan report, the church said today.

THE Vatican should break its silence and come clean on what it knew about systemic clerical child abuse in Ireland, Labour foreign affairs spokesman Micheal D Higgins has demanded.

A second disgraced religious order involved in the clerical child abuse scandal agreed today to join the Christian Brothers in reviewing how it should make amends to victims.

PART of a land accumulation for a tourism development at Hangman’s Point in Kinsale, Co Cork has hit the market with joint agents, Anthony O’Regan of Keane Mahony Smith and Denis Ryan of Ryan and Co.

The ISEQ index of Irish shares was down again this morning, falling 52.85 points to 8424.35.

This week sees Shay Livingstone begin a new role as the general manager of the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork.

Stocks tumbled today as strength in the commodities market fed inflation fears and stifled investors’ enthusiasm over upbeat first-quarter earnings from Dow Jones industrial Alcoa Inc.

COMEDIAN Des Bishop has said the Southill area of Limerick was his toughest challenge while filming for his latest show - Joy in Da Hood.

SITES for new shops are being assembled quietly on and off Grand Parade in Cork.

GRESHAM HOTEL GROUP, currently in the grip of another round of takeover talks, has announced it has boosted pre-tax profits by 40% to €1.7 million before exceptionals for last year.

Stocks tumbled today for the third straight session as investors, increasingly adopting a defensive strategy, bailed out of technology and other higher-risk shares.

SHARES in the Gresham Hotels were flat yesterday ahead of today’s deadline for a mystery bidder to declare its intentions for the group.

The ISEQ index was down 0.78% to 4621.67 in Dublin this evening as markets here and abroad suffered in the wake of another terrorist attack in Turkey.

SHAREHOLDERS in Gresham Hotels will keep a close eye on trading patterns today, following the announcement of a takeover approach on Friday.

GRESHAM Hotels Group has endured another tough trading period, incurring losses short of €400,000 for the first six months’ trading period from January to June 2003.

Bargain hunters took charge of Wall Street today, halting the market’s protracted sell-off and giving stocks their first respectable advance in more than two weeks.

A tepid durable-goods report put pressure on Wall Street today, sending stocks modestly lower.

Wall Street barrelled higher today lifting the Dow Jones industrials more than 250 points, as investors celebrated a string of positive economic data.