From defending crime bosses in the real world to writing about them in a fictional one, Michael O’Higgins gives us an authentic take on policing and the law, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

A retired garda is likely to have “removed and disturbed human remains” when he damaged a Bronze Age burial mound in County Wicklow, a court has heard.

Ten heads of state or government and 100 ministers sharpened their political teeth in the European Parliament, giving them an advantage in EU politics, but it is a trend Ireland has not followed.

Staff who began a sit-in at a popular Waterford City pub when they were given the shocking news it was closing with immediate effect have vowed to remain on the premises until they receive their entitlements.

In 1943, the MV Kerlogue, carrying a cargo of oranges, defied the barbarity of war and risked being attacked to rescue 168 German survivors of a naval battle in Bay of Biscay, says Richard Fitzpatrick.

Only four out of 43 former government ministers have declined to accept an allowance, saving taxpayers over €250,000, new figures reveal.

Residents, businesses, and a third-level college are among the objectors to plans for a waste facility on the edge of Waterford City.

IT snatched defeat from the mouth of apathy, did the no side in the referendum.

HOW can we be expected to believe Micheál Martin can root out corruption in the Fianna Fáil party when he can’t even identify the ministers who, according to the Mahon Report, launched a “sustained and virulent attack” on the tribunal and questioned “the legality of its inquiries as well as the integrity of its members” when it was investigating Bertie Ahern in 2007 and 2008?

MICHEÁL MARTIN is forging a new way forward for his party, but embers of old still burn from a few short years ago when he and others rushed forward to attack the Mahon Tribunal for its enquiries into Bertie Ahern’s mysterious £215,000.

Bertie Ahern faces a humiliating political end – expulsion from the party he once led along with corrupt former representatives Padraig Flynn and three ex-councillors.

The cost reflected the manner in which the state has been run for decades, writes Michael Clifford.

Fianna Fáil does not plan any action against frontbench spokespeople who are former ministers following findings by the Mahon Tribunal that members of Bertie Ahern’s cabinet tried to collapse the inquiry.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he accepts the findings of the Mahon Tribunal and that they have serious implications for those involved.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has insisted that there is no fault line in the party's ranks.

An acrimonious general election recount in the Laois-Offaly constituency cost taxpayers €36,273, but the recount only added four votes to the total of Liam Quinn, the unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate who demanded the recount.

HE was a man with towering intellect, who believed in duty, honour to his country and devotion to his family.

GREATEST misnomer of the election was of any outright winner.

JOSTLING for ministerial positions in the new government has begun with Fine Gael’s Andrew Doyle making his pitch for the agriculture portfolio.

FIANNA FÁIL’S outgoing junior minister Dick Roche finally conceded defeat in Wicklow last night after a full day of rechecking of votes failed to save his seat.

It's reported that outgoing Minister Dick Roche is not ruling out a further challenge to the election results, after he was eliminated from the Wicklow count in the last hour.

Outgoing Minister Dick Roche has been eliminated following a full recount in the Wicklow constituency.

Counts are underway in three constituencies this afternoon, where 12 seats are empty.

The recount in the Laois-Offaly constituency has been completed and a result is expected shortly.

Counts are underway in all three constituencies where seats remain to be filled.

A full recount is getting underway in Wicklow after a request from Fianna Fáil's Dick Roche who, it seemed, would be eliminated after the 13th count.

The counting of votes in General Election 2011 is nearly at an end with just 12 more seats left to fill.

TWO constituencies were still undergoing recounts last night, with a third beginning this morning, as the wait goes on to see the full make-up of the next Dáil.

Fianna Fáil's Dick Roche has been eliminated in Wicklow and requested a recount, to start tomorrow morning at 9am.

Fianna Fáil has only managed to get 14 seats so far, but the party's Dick Roche is refusing to concede defeat in the Wicklow constituency.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan denied she has been “hidden away” by Fianna Fáil during the election campaign in case she causes further damage to the party’s reputation.

Double Crossed: IT’S not like Dick Roche to second guess a member of the public trying to have their say.

MICHAEL NOONAN dismissed claims by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that Fine Gael was being dishonest in claims about renegotiating the terms of the IMF bailout deal.

SOME Adoption Board members attended just a fraction of board meetings between 2005 and 2009, a period in which the organisation was embroiled in high-profile scandals.

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen is set to undertake a major Cabinet reshuffle after four ministers who are retiring at the next election resigned from Cabinet.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen will today travel to Brussels to face his EU counterparts and discuss the economic crisis.

GARDAÍ were last night continuing to investigate an attack on the constituency office of Minister Noel Dempsey in which the building was daubed with a misspelling of word “traitors”.

REMEMBER that moment when you accepted the EU/IMF bailout was an absolute certainty, and only a matter of time?