Ireland’s father of invention, physicist Dr Tony Scott, was busy yesterday judging the latest batch of budding boffins at the Young Scientists Exhibition.

FORMER Manchester United and Ireland star Denis Irwin may have brought good news for the country’s sports shops yesterday — but his evening’s work also heralded pressure for parents of soccer-mad youngsters.

"This is a stick-up" is what the first man in a queue told a postmistress as soon as she opened for business - but within minutes, he was arrested and held by a local pensioner and a Ukrainian national.

UP TO 15,000 jobs in the hi-tech industry are under threat, IDA Ireland has warned.