The senior barrister who led the prosecution team that secured the conviction of 50-year-old Patrick Quirke for the murder of Bobby ‘Mr Moonlight’ Ryan received more than €155,000 in fees for his work in the case.

"It's time Minister Ross took action and sought the established of a full-time transport police service."

Mary Lowry's son has described murder accused Pat Quirke as "in control most of the time, grumpy some of the time" and said he went around his mother's farm "as if he kind of owned the place".

Fingerprints on items taken from Bobby Ryan's van after he went missing did not match the accused man Patrick Quirke, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Just 16 of the 51 interviewed Irish-trained doctors who emigrated to Australia planned to return to work in Ireland.

The two-and-a-half year jail term given to child abuser Tom Humphries last week is not unduly lenient, a sentencing expert has said.

As many as 60 people a day have been calling helplines for victims of sexual assault since the sentencing of sex offender Tom Humphries.

The kind of premeditated manipulation practised with great skill by sex offenders also works on the friends, priests and TDs who are so often called on to write references, writes Clodagh Finn

The ultimate sentence may have been lenient, but was not outlandishly so, writes Michael Clifford

The public does not trust judges and the recent lenient sentencing of a sex offender has brought the judiciary into “disrepute”, it has been claimed.

We should not feel sympathy for Tom Humphries. One expert says we need to realise nothing happened to him, that it’s entirely of his own design, reports Joyce Fegan

THE two-and-a-half-year sentence imposed on Tom Humphries has drawn widespread criticism, some of it hysterical but most of it measured and appropriate, with many commentators attacking not just its leniency but comments made by the judge during sentencing. 

The ISPCC has said the Tom Humphries case was an example of how a new cyber safety strategy was needed, and believes that it should be implemented by the Taoiseach’s department.

The CEO of Barnardos has said the sentence handed down to Tom Humphries was "incredibly lenient.

Football pundit Eamon Dunphy has said the two and half year jail term handed to Tom Humphries was "just about the right sentence".

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

More consideration was given by the judge to sex abuser Tom Humphries than to his victim, according to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).

Former sports journalist Tom Humphries has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has criticised the leniency of the sentence handed down to Tom Humphries.

Acclaimed sports writer David Walsh, who faced criticism for writing a court character reference for Tom Humphries, has said he unequivocally condemns the "terrible wrong" his friend committed.

The former high profile sports journalist Tom Humphries has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Clare hurling coach and former Cork hurling goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack has apologised for writing a character reference supporting convicted paedophile Tom Humphries.

Sunday Times chief sports writer David Walsh repeatedly described paedophile Tom Humphries as “a fine man” in 2012, after the latter had been arrested on suspicion of child sex offences, but before he was charged.

Never did word travel faster, within a small community, than the news, five years ago, that Tom Humphries was a probable paedophile, writes Terry Prone. 

Sunday Times journalist David Walsh has defended his decision to write a character reference for Tom Humphries, the former Irish Times journalist convicted of grooming a teenage girl to engage in sexual acts.

The sentence hearing of a former Irish Times sports journalist for the sexual exploitation and defilement of a child is due to take place this morning in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The sentencing of sports journalist Tom Humphries for the sexual exploitation and defilement of a child has been adjourned to October.

LATEST: The sentencing hearing date on the case has been fixed for July 26.

Laying their eggs from March to June, cock stonechats will be threatened by the Heritage Bill 2016 allowing upland burning in march, writes Damien Enright.

Grace Brothers is back and open for business as Are You Being Served? returns after a 30-year hiatus.

A jury took an hour and 40 minutes to return a verdict of not guilty in the case of a truck driver charged with careless driving causing the death of a two-year-old girl.

A woman who was sexually assaulted by her father from when she was aged 10 to 14 years had her “childhood taken from her” by a person she should have been able to trust, a judge has said.

Ardscoil Rís 15 CBC 28: Christian Brothers College confirmed the favourable impression created in their opening round victory over Crescent with an emphatic 28-15 defeat of Ardscoil Rís in the quarter-final of the Munster Schools Senior Cup at UL yesterday.

A Dublin man has been found guilty of murdering a young father while he slept in his bed.

A forensic scientist has told a murder trial that DNA from the tip of a knife found in the accused man’s bedroom matched the deceased, while blood on the handle of the knife matched the accused.

A man on trial accused of murder told gardaí that he stabbed a man who was lying in his bed, a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.

The National Library has warned its collections are deteriorating due to storage conditions and some three quarters of these are stored in premises without adequate fire protection.

Mooted Government plans for a national audit of all buildings and apartments constructed during the boom are likely to be rejected over concerns it will be too expensive and cause too much disruption for people living in or using the sites.

Renua Ireland has promised to tax everyone at a flat 23% rate, including the unemployed, if elected to government and to scrap the television licence as part of radical pre-budget proposals.