Alan Hawe, who killed his wife and three children at their family home in Co Cavan in 2016, was troubled, depressed, and severely mentally ill in the months before the murder-suicide, an inquest was told.

A man who is not mentally ill but whose behaviour is “violent and challenging” must remain inappropriately detained in a ward of chronically mentally ill patients because there is no suitable place here to address his needs, the president of the High Court has said.

A man who claims he was acting in his sleep when he allegedly raped his friend likely had full mental capacity at the time, an expert has said.

A man who harassed a woman for nine months had been hearing voices warning him he would be menaced by evil spirits if he disobeyed them, a court has heard.

Bjork, Christy Moore, and Derek Jarman will all feature in this year’s Cork Film Festival in a typically eclectic programme of screenings that will appeal to movie buffs and mainstream audiences alike.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter yesterday announced the closure of St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders in Dublin.

Almost one-in-four young offenders in St Patrick’s Institution are at high risk of developing psychosis, according to ground- breaking research.

The jury in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her husband by stabbing him over 60 times has been told to consider a verdict of diminished responsibility.

A psychiatric expert has agreed under cross examination that murder accused Tanya Doyle's behaviour was "certainly odd" in the days before stabbing her husband more than 60 times.

A murder trial has heard psychiatric evidence drink and drugs rather than a mental disorder may explain Dublin woman Tanya Doyle's state of mind when she stabbed her husband over 60 times.

The country’s leading forensic scientist, Harry Kennedy, head of the Central Mental Hospital, is involved in managing some of the most violent patients in the State. It goes without saying, therefore, that his warnings on the use of tranquillisers should be heeded.

Stopping the use of certain tranquillisers in prisons and hospitals reduces the levels of violence and self-harm and helps raise health standards, according to the country’s leading forensic psychiatrist.

The Mother of Anthony Ward has appeared in court in Limerick, charged with her son's murder.

A court last night ordered that a mother charged with the murder of her son should be examined by a forensic psychiatrist at the female wing of Mountjoy prison.

The long-criticised practice of detaining children at St Patrick’s Institution will end within two years, beginning with 16-year-olds who will no longer be kept there from May 1.

A man deemed unfit to stand trial, due to mental illness, is in the High Court today challenging his detention at the Central Mental Hospital.

THE Central Mental Hospital is facing a raft of legal challenges because offenders are not being rehabilitated adequately due to chronic staff shortages, the head of the country’s most high- profile unit has warned.

It MIGHT be flippant to suggest that conditions at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) are ‘crazy’, but before long we could be wondering if some of those responsible for those conditions are not in need of treatment themselves.

A CLARE man told gardaí “I killed the devil” after being charged yesterday with the murder of 21-year-old law student Eoin Ryan.

The daughter of a woman accused of murdering her husband of 32 years at their Co Laois home, has told the trial that her earliest memory is seeing her father point a shotgun at her mother and threaten to “blow her head off.”

ONE of the country’s foremost experts on mental health has called on the Government to make changes to new legislation designed to improve protection of adults with impaired decision-making capacity.

TODAY Prof Harry Kennedy raises the ever-more pertinent question – on the next page – about when one person should be responsible for making decisions for or about another? He also wonders who should make decisions for us if we are incapacitated.

THE West Cork man who sexually abused at least 15 children — some when they were as young as two years old — was given a 20-year jail sentence yesterday with the last seven years suspended.

The economy is in crisis, but services to people with mental illness have been in crisis since the ’80s and the consequences are all around us, writes Claire O’Sullivan.

MENTAL health experts have called for the reform and expansion of prison psychiatric services after it emerged that more than one in 10 new male inmates have a psychiatric disorder and one in 20 are in need of transfer to psychiatric hospital.

A former City of London policeman has been found not guilty by reason of insanity on all charges arising out of his bus rampage which led to the death of 62-year-old Ms Maire Buckley two years ago.

A JUDGE yesterday rejected the evidence of a consultant psychiatrist that a Nigerian man she is treating was fit to plead to a number of charges.

A JUDGE yesterday launched a strong attack on the Central Mental Hospital over the manner he said it was treating his court.

THE mentally ill Nigerian man who has been moved between prison, a Garda station cell and a hotel over the past five days was admitted to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Dundrum last night.

A DISTURBED Nigerian man, whose detention in a Garda station was ruled illegal by the High Court last Friday, was remanded to Limerick prison yesterday following an assault in a hotel on Sunday.

THE Department of Justice was warned in advance about problems with laws introduced in 2006 that have led to people being detained in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Dublin, even though they have been deemed medically suitable for release.

THE row over the move of the Central Mental Hospital to a new prison site has taken a major twist with the emergence of the highly critical views of the hospital’s medical boss.

THE regrettable tendency of governments to steamroll over the opinions of experts for political ends is under the spotlight in today’s Irish Examiner exposé of serious concerns over plans to relocate the Central Mental Hospital alongside a new super prison.

The only man jailed in connection with the Omagh bombing in the North claimed today that his short-term memory loss would interfere with his right to a fair hearing in a retrial.

'Only Fools And Horses' has been voted the show with the best ever TV ending.

A Wexford apprentice carpenter has been given a seven years sentence by Mr Justice Peter Charleton at the Central Criminal Court for raping a student near Waterford city centre before Christmas 2004.

The 54 year-old man accused of hacking to death a taxi driver in Clare was "making up" stories about voices telling him to commit the killing, a forensic psychiatrist told a jury in the Central Criminal Court today.

The jury in the trial of a 21-year-old Clare man accused of murdering his 17-year-old sister will return to the Central Criminal Court on Monday to consider their verdict.

Diagnosing the 21 year-old apprentice butcher accused of murdering his sister as suffering from a mental disorder was an attempt to ‘clutch at straws,’ the director of the Central Hospital said today.

A 21-year-old Clare man accused of murdering his 17 year-old sister was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of her killing, a jury in the Central Criminal Court was told today.

GOVERNMENT plans to treble the number of mentally ill prisoners treated in the Central Mental Hospital have still not been implemented more than three years later, it has emerged.

MORE THAN 600 prisoners end up in padded cells each year in this country, it was claimed yesterday.

A 50-year-old Kildare man has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity by a jury at the Central Criminal Court - the first time in Irish legal history such a verdict has been returned.