Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he and his government must heed the "stinging criticisms" made by Commandant Barry about the state of the Defence Forces.

Joe Murphy was one of three IRA Volunteers who died on hunger strike in jails in 1920.

Plugging gaps with limited resources could lead to deaths in the Defence Forces and a worst-case scenario, as the number of officers quitting continues to rise.

Plugging gaps with limited resources could lead to deaths in the Defence Forces and a worst-case scenario, as the number of officers quitting continues to rise.

Officers in the Defence Forces feel betrayed by their employers, because military personnel were left out of “side deals” given to gardaí, prison officers, and firefighters as part of the latest Lansdowne Road pay agreements.

From deployment in The Congo in the 1960s to present day operations in the Golan Heights Irish soldiers have found themselves in combat situations. Ryle Dwyer reads Dan Harvey’s book on our Blue Berets.

Suspected jihadists in Mali's capital have attacked a resort that is popular with foreigners on the weekends, a security official says.

The safety of helicopter operations at Haulbowline Naval Base will not be curtailed, constrained or affected by the nearby construction of an incinerator, according to the company proposing to build it.

Des Breen reads an account of 156 Irish UN troops who battled impossible odds in the Congo, only for their courage to be airbrushed from history.

There were heartbreaking scenes as the young son of champion jockey John Thomas McNamara asked angels to look after his dad, who passed away last Tuesday from injuries sustained three years ago, in a horror fall at Cheltenham.

IRELAND’S National Day of Commemoration was held across the country yesterday to honour Irish military personnel who gave their lives in historic wars or on peacekeeping duties with the United Nations.

Indaver has rejected Air Corps safety fears over the proposed incinerator for Cork Harbour and said existing regulations and flying behaviours would mean little or no risk to aircraft.

THERE’S a charming quality to the opening scenes of Fantastic Four (12A), as child inventor Reed Richards (Miles Teller) bonds with bullied kid Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) as they attempt to build a machine capable of teleportation. 

Private companies, including discount giant Aldi, have been actively seeking senior defence force personnel at such a rate that top brass warn the military is at serious risk of “not being fit for purpose”.

An Air Corps officer has launched several High Court challenges aimed at preventing his court martial from going ahead.

A Meath garda station had to be evacuated on Thursday night after a woman handed in a 100-year-old explosive device she found during a clear-out of her garage.

The Defence Forces are on a mission to recruit more women with a number of new child-friendly initiatives and visits to schools and colleges aiming to sell a career in the military.

A relative of Protestant victims of a notorious War of Independence-era triple execution linked to a bloody massacre has issued an emotional appeal for help tracing the bodies of the victims.

When Christine Buckley’s older son, Darragh, came home from school one day, fresh from a teasing about his afro hair and frustrated that he didn’t look like everyone else, she told him never to be afraid of standing out from the crowd.

Two new stamps marking the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s historic visit to Ireland have been printed.

Considering the tragic nature of his death, the words of Fr Seamus Houlihan at last night’s removal of the late Shane McEntee were all the more poignant to those in attendance.

Four viable bombs found in Harold's Cross, Dublin, have been made safe this evening.

One of the country's finest sports writers Con Houlihan was remembered today as a gentleman who painted pictures with words.

An Air Corps officer who was dismissed from the Defence Forces for verbally abusing his superior has won an appeal against his dismissal.

At precisely 2.30pm yesterday, the national flag was lowered for the last time at Kickham Barracks in Clonmel, bringing a symbolic end to a military presence in the area which stretched back to the heyday of Oliver Cromwell.

DEFENCE Minister Alan Shatter has said it “was absolutely clear” the road where the men died should have been cleared of booby traps before being used to source stones to fortify bases.

ONE of the towns worst affected by November’s devastating floods yesterday moved a step closer to a full-scale flood relief scheme.

A man has been arrested after a small quantity of high-grade commercial explosives was found at an apartment in Dublin's Dorset St.

A young garda discovered his home had been ransacked, “covered in a blue powdery substance” and that the toilet was “stuffed” with torn garda notebooks, the Special Criminal Court has heard today.

The Army Bomb Disposal Unit have made safe a viable device in Dublin.

A viable improvised explosive device has been made safe by army bomb disposal experts in Dublin.

TDs from all parties are due to make statements in the Dáil today expressing their revulsion at the murder of Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last weekend.

A MAN was questioned by gardaí in Waterford in connection with a suspect device that was found and destroyed in the early hours of yesterday.

PANICKED motorists had to be rescued from waters up to four feet deep in parts of Dublin after the weekend’s record rainfall trapped them in flash floods.

NEIGHBOURING north Kerry and west Limerick parishes were last night trying to come to terms with tragedies that claimed the lives of a young solider and a schoolboy.

A jury in the Central Criminal Court has been hearing that the lethal toxin Ricin was found in the prison cell of a former Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring with a Clare woman to kill her partner and his two sons.

More than 160 troops bound for eastern Chad will depart Ireland tonight for one of their most dangerous and challenging missions to date.

A WOMAN of words could have wanted no better send-off than Nuala O’Faolain received.

ONE of the most ferocious civil war battles in Limerick is recalled in a new book.

GARDAÍ said last night it was a miracle that children didn’t start playing with a live grenade which was found on a sports field.

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