A Kerry-based charity is to build a €10m respite care centre for sick children near Tralee after winning a four-year battle for planning permission for the facility.

As he thinks of the parents of Charlie Gard, Tony Heffernan, who lost both his children to Batten disease, says families need to have hope for their terminally ill child, and for themselves as they cope with their loss.

Plans to build a respite care centre for sick children near Tralee, to honour the memory of two Kerry children who died of an incurable degenerative condition, have been put on hold following objections from a GAA club.

A former director of a children’s charity has claimed CCTV footage he has given to gardaí will contradict a claim by the charity’s founder that a theft took place from its ambulance at last year’s National Ploughing Championships.

A charity set up by the father of two children who died of a rare and fatal disease is the subject of a preliminary review by the charities’ watchdog on foot of complaints about governance and an alleged theft.

The charity regulator’s lack of any real power has come to light following the resignation of four directors from a children’s charity over concerns about governance and financial irregularities.

The chief executive of a children’s charity from which four directors resigned last week citing governance concerns has rejected suggestions of financial impropriety or any attempt by him to block a governance review.

The head of a children’s charity and the manager of a Galway-based company have told of their encounters with conwoman Julia Holmes, who is believed to have been found dead with her partner Tom Ruttle in their home in Askeaton, Co Limerick, on Monday morning.

A con artist with a number of known aliases, Julia Holmes drew the attention of authorities here, in the North, and in the US where she perpetrated a number of frauds, duping people out of hundreds of thousands of euro.

Rory O’Neil (Panti Bliss) and Garda whistleblowers John Wilson and Maurice McCabe were both amongst the top winners at this year’s People of the Year awards.

It is unprecedented — but entirely fitting — that two individuals who triggered the resignations of a minister for justice and a Garda commissioner, while forcing a Taoiseach to change his tune, should be honoured among the recipients of the People of the Year awards. But that is precisely what happened at the weekend, bringing to a close, for now, a chapter of the saga surrounding garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson who have exposed wholesale corruption within the gardaí.

Whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson have been honoured for their efforts to expose corruption in An Garda Síochána at an awards ceremony at the weekend.

Health insurance provider Aviva is in hot water after sending insensitive material to the parents of two deceased children.

He’s the fearless adventurer and polar explorer, whose epic feats include crossing the almost-impenetrable North Patagonian ice cap and making history by becoming the first person to fly from Mizen Head to Malin Head by paramotor.

Broadcaster and journalist Matt Cooper has become a patron of the Saoirse Foundation, a charity for seriously ill children.

A dad whose son died two months ago helped health bosses launch Ireland’s first rare disease plan yesterday.

Scores of heartfelt tributes yesterday came through social media to a brave little boy who died from Battens Disease, which he had fought for four years.

The charity behind Ireland’s first interactive ambulance for children is stepping up its campaign to get a second vehicle on the road.

A leading children's charity says its donations have plummetted by 30% since the CRC and Rehab controversies.

It was a day she thought would never happen. But thanks to the generosity of the Irish public, her Christmas miracle has come true.

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has been signed — lining out this time for an Irish charity.

Laughter will be the best medicine on board the world’s first interactive children’s ambulance, which will travel the roads of Ireland taking the trauma out of a little one’s hospital visit.

It is unlikely that Tony and Mary Heffernan’s son, Liam, will live long enough to see the opening of Ireland’s first rare disease respite centre, that his loving parents have named after him.

The condition of a young boy who has a rare and usually fatal disease is deteriorating.

EVERY child loves balloons at a party and, today, hundreds of balloons will help mark the sixth birthday of one precious Kerry girl — Saoirse Heffernan.

A TWO-YEAR-OLD Kerry boy was undergoing brain surgery that may potentially save his life in a New York hospital last night.

AS if the weather wasn’t cold enough, two Co Kerry brothers last night forsook the comfort of their beds to sleep in an igloo.

THE heartbroken parents of five-year-old Saoirse Heffernan, who recently travelled to the US to undergo treatment for Batten’s Disease, have been told their little girl is “starting to grow her angel wings”.

IN the fight for his family’s survival no mountain is too high to climb for the man who has organised the world’s highest boxing match on top of Carrantuohill in an effort to finance potentially life-saving treatment for his children.