A prominent inter-county GAA footballer who failed a breath test the morning after a wedding was banned yesterday from driving for a year.

A sheep farmer was so enraged by a garda refusal to give him a gun licence that he drove a tractor at speed into the yard of a Garda station, causing a retired officer who was gardening there to leap onto a flower bed.

High Court proceedings challenging the validity of the controversial household charge have been initiated by a 70-year-old man.

Gardai in Co Mayo have arrested eight people for alleged public order offences connected with the Corrib gas project.