I think it was the forlorn tweet from Garryspillane GAA that put it into my head.

Eastern European gangs are becoming “prominent” traffickers of drugs into Ireland, according to a report.

The Census 2011 details published yesterday revealed a changed and changing Ireland. There are more of us — 4.58m, up 8.2% since 2006 — than at any time since just after the Great Famine.

A SERIES of operations by customs officers in the south-west in recent days have netted tens of thousands of euro worth of contraband cigarettes, alcohol and drugs as well as a number of vehicles.

The number of eastern Europeans living in Ireland may decline in the coming months as work restrictions on immigrants from eight EU states will be lifted.

Police in the North have launched a murder inquiry after a man blasted in the chest with a shotgun died in hospital.

THE feared “surge” in homelessness arising from the collapse of the economy has begun, a leading charity has warned.

RUSSIA were indebted to Pavel Pogrebniak as the striker’s double got their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign off to a 2-0 winning start in Andorra last night.

A VICAR was yesterday found guilty of conducting sham marriages to allow illegal immigrants to stay in Britain.

CIGARETTE smuggling is costing the state hundreds of millions of euro in lost levies.

A 19-year-old man has been arrested by detectives investigating racist attacks on more than 100 Romanians.

THERE is a truly international makeup to the nationalities involved in trafficking cocaine into Ireland.

LONG-TERM vacant properties should be made available for homeless people seeking shelter during cold snaps and bad weather, the director of a homeless charity has urged.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a packed concert hall tonight that “Africa is rising”.

A COUNTY council chairman has been strongly criticised for suggesting that unskilled migrant workers should not necessarily be paid the same wage as their Irish counterparts and their wage should reflect the lower cost of living in their home countries.

SERVICES should be set up across the country to provide clean needles to problem drug users, according to the nation’s biggest voluntary drug treatment centre.

THERE are 2,143 Asians and 1,543 people of African descent living in Cork city, while Midleton has the largest number of foreign nationals of any town in the county.

ONE wonders at the necessity of conducting a census, especially as it appears there were only 63,090 Polish nationals in the country on ‘census night’.

The EU Parliament is coming under pressure to standardise disability legislation from Down Syndrome Ireland.

WEST AFRICAN drug trafficking gangs are using Eastern European nationals to smuggle cocaine into Ireland, it has emerged.

The number of migrant workers living in Ireland has reached a record level.

Northern Ireland’s political parties were today urged to strike a devolution deal in a bid to halt a developing race hate threat.

Two men were rescued from a burning flat today in Co Derry.

GARDAÍ were yesterday trying to establish the identity of two Lithuanian men injured in a shooting over the weekend.

The Mayor of Buncrana is calling for an inquiry into the car crash that killed five eastern Europeans over the weekend.

THIRTEEN Eastern European migrant winkle pickers were rescued from an exposed island off Skerries in North County Dublin where they were left abandoned in severe weather conditions.

Six eastern Europeans were arrested in a series of raids in Leinster today as part of a major garda investigation into ATM fraud.

A Moldovan and nine Romanian nationals were arrested today in a swoop by officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau.

Police in the North are investigating a suspected racist attack in Armagh last night.

Two Eastern European men were in a critical condition in hospital today following attacks in Dublin and Limerick.

DIRECT evidence of "citizenship tourism" is revealed in documentation obtained by the Irish Examiner.

IT was cold in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday. Not only was the temperature way down, but there was a biting north-east wind. That was the first thing that made the sight of three men in T-shirts and jeans unusual.