IN one of the most heartbreaking days in recent Irish history, seven people — including four children under the age of six — died tragically at their homes in East Cork and Limerick.

A GARDA helicopter is expected to join in the search for a missing man who is believed to be wandering around in a disorientated state in an isolated part of north-east Cork.

GARDAÍ along with the Heath & Safety Authority are investigating the death of a 48-year-old man who was found crushed under a car at a scrap yard in east Cork.

A DAUGHTER of a murdered woman made an emotional farewell to her mother, who should have been celebrating her 58th birthday next Wednesday.

A LARGE crowd of mourners attended the removal last night of murder victim Catherine Smart, whose body was found in her home in east Cork last Sunday morning.

A MAN is being questioned in connection with the murder of a woman in Cork at the weekend.

A TOWN is in shock following the murder of a 57-year-old mother of three who was found beaten to death in the sitting room of her bungalow.

GARDAÍ have launched three pub watch schemes in an area of Co Cork, in a bid to cut down drink and drug-fuelled violence.

TWO men in their 20s were released without charge last night after being arrested in connection with an attack on a soldier who remains in a critical condition in hospital.

A young soldier remains in a critical condition in Cork University Hospital after being attacked in Youghal over the weekend.

A YOUNG soldier is fighting for his life after being attacked in the smoking room of a pub.

A YOUNG soldier is fighting for his life after being attacked in the smoking room of a pub.

PRAYERS were said at Masses in Waterford city yesterday for two young men who were killed instantly when the Volkswagen Polo they were travelling in was involved in a head-on crash with a Ford Mondeo.

A TRIP to Cork Airport by two couples heading off on holidays ended in tragedy when two men died and two women were injured in a collision.

GARDAÍ and the Health & Safety Authority (HSA) are carrying out separate investigations after a 26-year-old man was killed in a work-related accident.

A FILE is being prepared for the DPP after two men and a woman were stopped in a car which was found to contain a sawn-off shotgun, ammunition and balaclavas.

GARDAÍ are searching for arsonists who destroyed two buses, thought to be worth more than €300,000.

GARDAÍ are to send a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) following the death of an 86-year-old former nurse in a hit and run accident.

A MAN was arrested yesterday in connection with a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a woman aged 86.

GARDAÍ say they have questioned a suspect in an alleged sexual assault which is said to have taken place in Co Cork.

GARDAÍ are now certain that a mother and her two grown-up children drowned in a north Cork river last Sunday, and not on Monday as first thought.

A SOLITARY bouquet of flowers lay at the waters edge yesterday as disbelieving neighbours prayed at the spot where the bodies of a mother and her two children were taken from a river in north Cork.

Moving tributes were paid today to a mum and her two children who died in a tragic swimming accident in Castletownroche yesterday.

A WOMAN in her 30s died yesterday after her car crashed into an entrance pillar to Michael Flatley’s Castlehyde estate in Cork.

GARDAÍ were last night hunting for a lone gunman after a leading boxing official was shot dead in front of his girlfriend following a row with another man.

GARDAÍ are appealing for witnesses to an horrific head-on-crash which claimed the life of a 46-year-old soldier yesterday morning.

A teenager who believed he was going to be killed said Hail Marys when he was kidnapped and driven up a mountain road on a foggy night by two men who were both given four-year suspended jail sentences today.

GARDAÍ are continuing to question a farmer following the discovery of 60 dead cattle on his land.