Up to €1bn more is likely to be invested this year by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, the State-backed vehicle which has replaced the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

Shares in newly-formed Irish investment firm Malin closed up 6% at the end of its first day’s trading in Dublin yesterday.

The new €6.8bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund could effectively double in value with the addition of third party capital investment, its managers said yesterday.

Anger over Facebook comments prompted a man to put on a balaclava and carry a knife to the home of a neighbour he blamed for putting the remarks on the social network.

A district judge yesterday said he was tired of people carrying out public order offences on the streets of Cork as he sentenced a man to two months in jail for threatening behaviour towards gardaí.

ONCE AGAIN recently the spotlight was turned on independent, grass-roots food producers as the winners of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild Food Awards 2011 were unveiled.

GARDAI´ are still searching for a gang who held a family at gunpoint and fired a shot into a bedroom ceiling during a raid on a rural pub.