A former traffic warden fought back tears when she claimed her successor tried to intimidate motorists at her mother’s funeral.

A 22-year-old man appeared at a special court sitting yesterday charged with the murder of 28-year-old Sarah Staunton at her home near Balla, Co Mayo over the weekend.

A father is to stand trial on charges of murdering his two sons.

A 43-year-old man appeared in court last night charged with the murder of his two schoolboy sons.

A 26-year-old man from the Ballina area has been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of two elderly brothers at their home in Castlebar on Wednesday.

A sheep farmer was so enraged by a garda refusal to give him a gun licence that he drove a tractor at speed into the yard of a Garda station, causing a retired officer who was gardening there to leap onto a flower bed.

The Taoiseach’s nephew has been sentenced to seven months in prison for a crime spree that included burglary, car theft and driving while intoxicated.

July

Opposition TDs have named Judge Mary Devins as one of the high-profile people who had penalty points wiped from their licences by gardaí.

THE CASUAL ignorance of the remark was jaw-droppingly offensive; the so-called apology, if anything, even more damning — and the fact both were uttered by a judge was deeply worrying.

The judge who likened the social welfare system to a “Polish charity” yesterday issued a full apology after one group threatened to lodge an official complaint with gardaí.

Judge Mary Devins’ conditional apology for her bizarre remarks in court does not sit well with me.

The Integration Centre is withdrawing its plan to complain to the Gardaí about comments made by a District Court judge.

Judge Mary Devins has today offered a new appolgy 'unreservedly and without qualification' following her recent comments about social welfare.

A formal complaint is being lodged with gardaí over comments by a judge comparing social welfare to a "Polish charity".

The Integration Centre has said it will make a formal complaint to the Gardaí after a District Court judge commented that the social welfare system is a "Polish charity".

There has been a furious reaction from the Polish community to a Mayo judge’s comment, made in court, that the social welfare system is a “Polish charity”.

The Chairperson of the Irish Polish Society has said that she is outraged at comments made by a District Court Judge about Polish people.

A District Court Judge has apologised for likening Social Welfare to charity for Polish people.

Jimmy Devins has become the latest Fianna Fáil TD to announce he will not be contesting the next General Election.

HOSPITALS could yet save the Government from death or send it to an early grave.

THE High Court has reserved judgment on whether a District Court judge was correct to find Shell & acted in contempt of court orders when it went onto commonage lands at Rossport, Co Mayo, two years ago to carry out site investigations. The commonage is on the modified route for the Corrib gas onshore pipeline.

A CONCILIATORY Taoiseach Brian Cowen has invited four renegade TDs who left his Government in protest at policy decisions to come back to the fold.

WHEN Brian Cowen became Taoiseach just 15 months ago there was, for a time at least, a sense of optimism that the new brush might sweep clean. There was a feeling that the staleness of the discredited, stultifying Ahern leadership might be replaced with something vigorous and uplifting.

BRIAN Cowen faced a deepening leadership crisis last night as Fianna Fáil TDs expressed despair at his failure to hold the party together.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has lost his outright Dáil majority and his fate now rests on the whim of renegade Fianna Fáil deputies.

THE resignation of two Fianna Fáil TDs from the Parliamentary Party has brought Taoiseach Brian Cowen within a vote of having to dissolve the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil’s grip on the Dáil loosened tonight after two TDs stood down from the parliamentary party over the withdrawal of cancer services in their constituency.

A Fianna Fáil back-bencher has resigned the party whip in a row over cancer services at Sligo General Hospital.

A 29-year-old man is to be put in psychiatric care after being charged with murdering his mother.

A RETIRED school principal who is one of the most recognised of the Shell to Sea campaigners has been sent to jail.

THEY might look like small birdhouses, but the small wooden boxes are more likely to contain CPUs than cuckoos.

SCIENCE researchers were yesterday encouraged to push the parameters of possibility in their everyday research.

Some 35 jobs are to be created at a cosmetics company in north Wicklow, it was announced today.

ANOTHER minister was slammed over planned class size increases after claiming the Government will help maintain the country’s reputation as a science leader.

THE TCD Entrepreneurship Training Programme for students, researchers and entrepreneurs cuts to the heart of the Government’s goals for creating a modern, dynamic knowledge economy.

DUBLIN is bidding to host one of the world’s largest science events that would raise the country’s profile internationally.

Dublin is set to launch an official bid to become the European City of Science for 2012.

The Junior Health Minister has said the Government is facing a real challenge to maintain high standards in the health service.

Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Jimmy Devins today awarded certificates to secondary teachers who participated in the 2008 Secondary Teacher Assistant Researchers programme.

The Junior Minister with responsibility for science and innovation says universities will have to come up with solutions to declining interest in engineering and maths-based courses.

Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Jimmy Devins, today launched on behalf of Science Foundation Ireland its Annual Report 2007 and announced new funding of over €23m for 143 projects, under the SFI Research Frontiers Programme (RFP) for 2008.

A SLIGO woman, whose cancer was diagnosed by Fianna Fáil TD Dr Jimmy Devins, said she and other patients are “terribly let down” by the junior minister’s support for plans to downgrade cancer services in the north-west.

IT WAS the banner that read “Death by Geography” that best summed up how about 250 people from the north-west of the country felt yesterday when they protested outside Leinster House against the planned downgrading of cancer treatment services at Sligo General Hospital.