Four men charged with offences arising out of the discovery of two mortars in Co Louth last year have received sentences totalling 21½ years at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

Four men today received sentences totalling 31-and-a-half years for offences including violent disorder and demanding money with menaces, in the largest tranche of Limerick gangland cases to come before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Two men were jailed today for five years in the first Limerick gangland cases to come before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

The Special Criminal Court has found today that the trial of a Dublin man accused of membership of the IRA can continue despite a challenge to the belief evidence proffered by a Garda Chief Superintendant.

The trial of a Dublin man accused of membership of an illegal organisation has been adjourned after a Garda Chief Superintendant failed to affirm whether he believed the man was a member of the IRA within the State.

Closing speeches have been heard in the Special Criminal Court trial of three Northern Ireland men charged with membership of the IRA.

A Garda Chief Superintendant has told the Special Criminal Court that he will not disclose the name of an informant who provided intelligence implicating three Northern Ireland men in IRA activities for fear they will end up “in a shallow grave”.

The 21-year-old man who died after a stabbing incident at a Dublin Hotel in the early hours of the New Year has been named.

THE baby boy found buried in a plastic bag in Co Mayo was 7lbs in weight and born around the middle of last week, a post mortem yesterday revealed.