Eight people yesterday became the first trainees to be taken on by Waterford Crystal in almost 30 years in traditional disciplines of crystal-blowing, cutting, sculpting and engraving.

A judge has told man who tried to rob a pensioner on her way home from bingo that he "should have gone to Specsavers" after he paid a back-handed compliment to the woman by saying he thought she was 36 years old and not in her 80s.

A garda was bitten on the hand in the back of a patrol car by a man who had been arrested in Carrigaline for public order offences.