Former Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell has not been selected to contest the Seanad elections after party HQ ruled her out but backed others for the race for the upper house.

For the first time in Fine Gael history, Waterford failed to elect a TD in a general election after a surge of left-leaning transfers handed the fourth and final seat to Green Party newcomer Marc Ó Cathasaigh.

The motion said the councillors have “a responsibility to show leadership in efforts to improve the civility of public discourse on political matters”.

With the Dáil set to return later this month for the last session, those hoping for a summer general election might as well forget about it.

With only days to go, INDIE18 is shaping up for its biggest festival to date as the three-day event at Deer Farm, Mitchelstown, Co Cork gets ready to open its gates.

Public and private investment can unlock the potential of Waterford city and county, writes Christy Parker

Waterford City and County Council is to demolish, within weeks, a derelict 113-year-old grain store on a quayside site earmarked for a €300m development project.

Literary audiences will be in for a treat with some of the biggest names in travel writing taking centre stage at this year’s Immrama Festival of Travel Writing.

A canopy-style roof on a public section of Waterford’s city centre is part of a €17.3m urban renewal programme due to begin next month.

The biggest Christmas festival in the country kicked off last night when Santa switched on 100,000 festive lights in Waterford City.

Three counties in the SouthEast have submitted their joint bid for the European Capital of Culture title for 2020.

Two Irish climbers who plunged to their deaths in a fall on an Alpine mountain had reached the summit and were descending when the accident happened.

An elderly couple had a miraculous escape when their car crashed through a bridge and plummeted into a river.

The mayor of Waterford, Councillor John Cummins, has secured a High Court injunction directing Twitter to take down comments posted about him which the politician says are false and grossly defamatory.

An influential international business magazine has included Waterford among its top European cities and regions of the future in a new ranking of high-potential areas.

Commercial rates in Waterford are being cut by 20%.

Retailers are to be given financial incentives to occupy vacant shops in Waterford as part of a €600,000 drive to revitalise the city centre.

Some of the world’s most popular bloggers were eating, drinking and sightseeing their way around Cork and Kerry for the past few days.

A city centre management group has been formed in Waterford in an attempt to combat the “challenges” faced by the district in the teeth of recession.

Thousands of spectators lined the streets of Waterford last night for a massive parade celebrating street theatre company Spraoi’s 21st birthday.

Waterford City Council will spend €2.2m to buy 11 houses it was informed were worth considerably less than half that amount.

ONE careful lady owner — the term, often applied to a second-hand car sale as a sort of badge of tender, loving care, can equally, and probably even more appropriately, be applied to the Cork home called Spanish Point.

Galway’s All-Ireland U21-winning midfielder Fiontain Ó Curraoin has been named in the side for the opening defence of their crown in tomorrow night’s Cadbury’s Connacht U21FC quarter-final against Mayo in McHale Park but remains a major doubt due to an ankle injury.

Bree Macra from Co Wexford are the 2012 National Capers champs.

Luxury handbag maker Mulberry shrugged off the economic gloom today as it trebled its half-year profits on the back of strong sales at home and abroad.

MICHEÁL McDERMOTT is set to focus exclusively on the Clare senior footballers in the wake of Monaleen’s exit from the Munster club championship on Sunday.

AFTER a roller coaster of a day which saw them race from council meeting to council meeting, Senator David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon eventually obtained four council nominations each to ensure their place in the race to the Áras.

LEADERSHIP distinction awards were presented to 54 Macra members during the Bank of Ireland-sponsored county officer training.

Waterford: The Government must take immediate steps to address deficits in the teaching of entrepreneurship to ensure the necessary skills are fostered in students of all ages, according to Cllr John Cummins, speaking at the inaugural awards ceremony for South-East Regional Authority’s (SERA) Generation Next entrepreneurship competition in Waterford.

KILDARE tillage farmer Laurence Flood won the overall Grain Grower prize at yesterday’s Glanbia Quality Awards in Kilkenny.

LIAM KEARNS could be set for a second spell as Limerick football manager.

Kerry native Liam Kearns has been linked with a return to managing the Limerick senior footballers.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a US priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including “the good of the universal church”, according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

GAA President Christy Cooney yesterday unveiled the Club Wall at Croke Park which carries the crests of GAA clubs both at home and abroad, and revealed that he is heartened by the progress on improving lines of communication with grassroots clubs over the past year.

AS CHAMPIONSHIP draws go, the one facing Tipperary footballers this summer is as forbidding as possible. After a spectacular rate of progress in the past two seasons under John Evans, hopes of provincial glory in 2010 have been dented by the fact that Tipperary are paired with All-Ireland champions Kerry in their Munster opener, with defeated finalists Cork awaiting the winners.

The brother of a woman who died after being beaten about the head with a fire poker was tonight being quizzed by detectives over the violent death.

A bull filmed rampaging around a supermarket after escaping from a cattle market has put a small market town in the west of Ireland on the international map.

THE supermarket worker who faced down the ‘bull in a food shop’ in Co Mayo spoke of her amazement at seeing the animal in the store.

SHOPPERS in a Co Mayo town found themselves almost on the horns of a dilemma when a runaway bull decided to give the china shop a miss and opting instead for the local supermarket.

THE Better Environment and Safer Telecommunications (BEST) group commends Kerry County Council for its stance on keeping phone masts at a safe distance from the human population, thus protecting their health and safety.

The family of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes tonight welcomed the inquiry into the conduct of Britain’s most senior police chief following the fatal shooting of their relative.