MOST people attending the three-day ploughing championships, which begin in Ratheniska, Co Laois, tomorrow, will be interested primarily in the machinery.

The world is a cruel place.

Yesterday’s result at White Hart Lane suggests there is more to come.

RTÉ’s latest online offering is a bit like the Eurovision: a cynical mix of talent and trash where the thrill is all in the voting.

SOCIAL workers have been urged to become more resilient to foul smelling and filthy homes, dangerous animals, hostile and violent receptions and dangerous levels of deception when visiting the homes of at risk children.

IRISH child protection workers must get out of the office and into children’s homes if they are really to protect children from neglect and abuse, a leading social worker has said.

A BRITISH-based professor of social work has been appointed to determine if the Health Service Executive (HSE) failed in its duty of care to a teenager who died after inhaling aerosols.

An independent review is to take place into the HSE's handling of a Waterford teenager, who apparently died after sniffing solvents in Dungarvan last month.

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs Seamus Brennan has called for support services and family law courts to be more sensitive towards the rights of fathers, it emerged today.

Motorbike riding ace Joey Dunlop, who died during a race last year, has been voted the North's greatest man in a BBC Radio Ulster poll announced today.