A jury hearing the trial of a man charged with murdering a Kilkenny postmaster were told this morning the accused had no previous convictions and Gardai had checked his record with Chinese authorities.

The prosecution has closed its case in the trial of a Chinese national who killed a Kilkenny postmaster following a raid on a post office which netted him more than €13,000.

A Chinese national who killed a Kilkenny postmaster following a post office raid is an asylum seeker who said he had no money, could not get a work visa and was suffering from depression, the Central Criminal Court at Dublin has heard.

Witnesses who saw a Kilkenny postmaster being shot say they saw a man stopping and waving a gun at the postmaster as he chased the man along Kilkenny’s Wolfe Tone Street.

A man who is on trial for the murder of a Kilkenny postmaster, who he shot following a raid that netted him about €15,000, told postal clerks "thanks" as he left, a court has heard.

A Chinese national has gone on trial in the Central Criminal Court at Dublin for the murder of a Kilkenny postmaster who he shot after stealing €13,000 from a post office on John’s Green in the city.

A jury of six men and six women have been selected to hear the trial of a man charged with murdering a postmaster in Kilkenny on December 8, 2006.

SENIOR gardaí yesterday demanded the functions of the Special Criminal Court are extended to tackle “extreme gangland crime”.

AFTER a vicious gun crime spate that has seen five people murdered in six days, Tánaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday vowed that he would make sure that the country’s tough bail laws were fully implemented.

THE family of Anthony Campbell said it all. They do not expect the killers of the apprentice plumber to be brought to justice.

Every arm of the State must pull together to ensure the rule of law prevails against spiralling gun crime, the Minister for Justice said today.

A man has been shot dead in Dublin in the latest of a series of gangland killings that is piling pressure on the Government.

Passengers on a Bus Éireann bus could hold vital clues to the murder of Kilkenny postmaster Alan Cunniffe, it emerged today.

THEY were the symbols of his life. Personal reminders of a life cut so cruelly short.

Exactly how many more people have to be gunned down before the Government realises that the battle against serious crime is in danger of being totally lost?

Hundreds of mourners have turned out in Kilkenny today for the funeral of the postal worker shot dead last week after tackling an armed raider.

Large crowds of mourners are expected to turn out in Kilkenny today for the funeral of the postal worker shot dead last week after tackling an armed raider.

POST officers throughout the country will close for one hour today in memory of a slain colleague.

A man in his 20's has been charged with the murder of Kilkenny Postmaster Alan Cunniffe.

A man in his twenties is to appear at a special sitting of Kilkenny District Court this morning, charged in connection with the armed robbery of a post office in the city, and the fatal shooting of a Post Master.

A man in his 20s is still being questioned today in connection with the fatal shooting of a 31-year-old postmaster in Kilkenny yesterday.

THE pre-Christmas excitement surrounding Kilkenny on one of the year’s busiest shopping days was shattered in cruel and brutal fashion with the killing of local postmaster Alan Cunniffe, a single man in his 30s, seconds after an armed robbery yesterday afternoon.

A post office worker has died after being been shot during an armed robbery at his workplace in Kilkenny city today.