Senior gardaí are giving politicians specific security advice on coping with threatening phone calls, personal security, worker risk assessments, and constituency office defences amid heightened fears they could be attacked by the public.

There has been a near 50% increase in the space of 12 months in the number of people using their mobile phones to browse for purchases online.

Retailers have reported a small increase in trading this Christmas as far more people shop online.

An online shopping delivery service has had to bring in buses to deal with the “large increase” in people buying on the web.

Black Friday is the new December 8, according to An Garda Síochána, with more than 50% of people expected to shop online this Christmas.

This is a problem far bigger than Barry Walsh, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell

There are 40,000 vacant residential units in Dublin city centre, according to a town planning expert.

An organisation representing retailers wants gardaí to charge parents with being accessories to crime if it is believed that they are using their children to shoplift.

Organised crime gangs are flying into Ireland in order to carry out weekend raids on stores selling smartphones, a retail body has said.

Politicians and others in high-profile positions should take legal action against people abusing them online, according to Sports Minister Patrick O’Donovan, insisting the criticism they face is tantamount to “thuggery”.

Targeting of the all- female cast of a new movie is a symptom of a wider misogyny, writes Áilín Quinlan

Three Labour Party ministers of state who failed to win back their seats in the general election are now hoping to re-enter politics through the Seanad.

Nama was the €72bn missing elephant of the election campaign, writes Political Editor

With huge tracts of this constituency hived off into the new Roscommon-Galway region, a number of TDs have seen their home bases ripped asunder.

The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is a crucial response to one of our most significant public health problems. Alcohol misuse claims three lives every day in Ireland and we all know someone who has been affected in a harmful way by alcohol use — it is all too common.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly has said the person who sent a suspect package with a death threat to his constituency office is a “scumbag” who should be tracked down by gardaí.

A number of politicians have faced personal and hateful abuse, with the public discourse seeming to revel in and help swell this growing animosity, writes Theresa Reidy 

Gardaí are investigating a death threat which was made against a Fine Gael TD.

The gardaí are not in the grip of a flawed culture, despite a string of high-profile “sleazy” controversies, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has insisted.

All right-thinking people will condemn the vile abuse directed at Labour Party senator Lorraine Higgins by online ‘trolls’. The latest attack includes the third online death threat the senator from Galway has received this year.

A string of vile abuse including a threat to fill her “rat’s mouth with lead” and “blow her big fucking jew nose off” will form the basis of a complaint to gardaí this morning by Labour senator Lorraine Higgins who has again been targeted by online trolls.

An alliance of doctors, HSE experts, youth leaders,and campaigners are backing an Oireachtas Health Committee report on the forthcoming Alcohol Bill.

Cyberbullies would face up to 12 months in jail under a crackdown proposed by a senator who has been subjected to a spate of social media abuses.

A Labour senator has claimed that supporters of the water charges have effectively been gagged from expressing their view.

Pat Rabbitte, TD, on Prime Time, said that people can protest, and they are allowed to protest, but they cannot voice their concerns.

I listened with great interest to Senator Lorraine Higgins on Monday’s Morning Ireland speaking about Irish Water.

When is a deadline not necessarily a deadline? Noel Baker picks through the intricacies of Irish Water’s billing process

A majority of TDs have been abused online, according to an Irish Examiner survey which reveals the extent of the problem.

Cyberbullying is associated with school-aged children and teenagers but online abuse has escalated so that politicians, celebrities and their families are being targeted, writes Kelly O’Brien.

Gerry Adams has asked the Oireachtas to provide mental health services for TDs and senators who are reluctant to access treatment in their local areas due to "societal stigma".

Online abuse and harassment will be made an offence under laws to crack down on bullying and harassment.

THE Tuam babies story this week says much about the past, but about the present also.

Labour senator and European parliament candidate Lorraine Higgins has said she received death threats in the election campaign.

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan has passed the quota and been elected an MEP in the Midlands Nortwest constituency.

Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins has conceded she's unlikely to win a seat in the Midlands Northwest Constituency.

By Sean McCarthaigh

There is cause for concern for Labour ahead of this Friday's local and European elections, with the publication of two new opinion polls.

WHEN the planes went into the Twin Towers on 9/11, Brian Fagan realised it was time to hightail it out of Afghanistan.

THE garlic man has resurfaced. So has our old pal — mandatory minimum sentences. All in the name of anger looking for a home.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s attempt to distance himself from any responsibility for the economic crisis has ignited angry calls for him to accept his role in the downturn.

A second Nama employee has been reported to the Garda over allegations of unlawfully passing on information held by the property giant.

There were calls for a law exempting politicians from offences to be reviewed following an Irish Examiner investigation into the removal of penalty points from the driving records of TDs.