One of three men who forced a porter to open up a bank at gun point telling him they had kidnapped his wife has been jailed for seven years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Since the start of 2006, 67 (check) people have met violent deaths — more than a killing every week.

The sharp increase in the murder rate for the first three months of this year is very disturbing, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said today.

SOME slight semblance of normality returned to the Killakee estate in Firhouse yesterday as local people tried to make sense of the tragedy that has struck their neighbourhood over the past few days.

IT was meant to be a day which would finish with one of the simple joys of family life for Brian and Mary Keegan and their two young sons.