German airmen who crashed in Ireland during the Second World War and survived were interned here, becoming objects of great curiosity among local people who encountered them, as Ryle Dwyer discovers.     

Criminals targeting a rural village have hit a "new low" — by breaking into a local Garda station.

A nephew of a 73-year-old shopkeeper, whose premises has been raided three times in the last two months, yesterday pleaded for the return of gardaí to rural areas.