AN UPSURGE of interest in the outdoors is creating new opportunities for artists and authors of guidebooks on the Irish countryside.

FIRE services across the south-west are on high alert after a spate of fires on gorse and hills over the weekend.

A WARNING was given yesterday that fire services in Kerry could be delayed in getting to major incidents because of the large number of gorse fires they have to deal with.

A CORNER has told doctors to report cases where MRSA was a patient’s cause of death.