The Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht has rebuffed claims from Unesco that it should have been consulted in advance over the filming of scenes for the latest Star Wars movie on Skellig Michael — a World Heritage site.

LAST month, during a walking tour of Béthune in northern France, our guide recalled the work of a Cork woman, Kate McCarthy, who nursed wounded soldiers during both world wars. Her niece, Sr Breda McCarthy of the Loreto Convent in Bray, told me this extraordinary woman’s story.

Emergency crews rushed to clean up an oil spill off Australia’s east coast today, following a collision between a ship and a tugboat.

In less that 20 years, rising sea temperatures caused by global warming could kill Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest chain of living coral, an expert said today.

Koguryo – an ancient kingdom that straddled parts of Korea and northeastern China – has been included among nine new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List of natural and cultural wonders ranging from the Arctic Circle to tropical rainforests.