In 2011, Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue defied the national trend to become a new TD in Donegal while the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan lost her seat in the neighbouring constituency.

Gerry Adams has questioned the ability of the judiciary, saying that judges can make mistakes.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has again rejected any possibility of his party forming a post-election coalition with the “mafia-like” Sinn Féin, despite colleagues and one senior Sinn Féin TD insisting a deal could be struck.

IRA abuse victim and Seanad nominee Mairia Cahill will highlight abuse perpetrated by Republicans if elected to the Upper House, Labour’s Alan Kelly said.

The controversial closure of 139 rural Garda stations is saving the State just €500,000 a year, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has admitted.

An inquiry into the fatal shooting by gardaí of a Real IRA member during the course of an armed robbery almost 20 years ago is to begin in Dublin this week.

Banks will still have a veto over the bulk of personal insolvency deals, despite Government claims to have changed the balance of power, opposition party TDs have warned.

Kieran Shannon looks back at three epic encounters on Sunday, June 26, 2011 that proved to be momentous moments in shaping the destinies of three provincial championships.

REGGAE music has been an important force in the life of the poet and troubadour Gearóid Mac Lochlainn. In next week’s episode of TG4’s Ceolchuairt series, he travels to Jamaica to explore the music’s roots, which played as a soundtrack to his youth.

Opposition parties have welcomed new Garda legislation, but insisted its provisions needed to be stronger.

Cabinet ministers have been warned to abandon "unrealistic" budget plans and settle for what is available.

The Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, told Sinn Féin to hire background people “who can add” in a forceful put down of the party’s economic policies.

Export licences for €6.4m worth of military goods for Israel have been approved by the Government in the past three years, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

An Oireachtas oversight committee has sought legal advice after retired judge John Cooke turned down an invitation to appear before it in relation to his investigation into alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman.

The Garda’s Computer Crime Investigation unit has been beefed up with an additional eight forensic examiners in a bid to tackle a significant backlog in processing online child abuse cases.

Retired High Court judge John Cooke has been invited to appear before a joint hearing of two Oireachtas committees, either tomorrow or Wednesday week.

Independent TD Clare Daly said that "very defined viewpoints" were taken on the Cooke Report into allegations of bugging at the Garda Ombudsman’s office "to peddle a myth".

An Oireachtas committee may call for a commission of investigation into the "GSOC bugging saga" after it holds further sessions with the ombudsman and possibly with retired judge John Cooke.

The Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe has been told by interim Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan that his allegations of harassment will be independently investigated by an officer of his choice.

"Will you inform the committee what happened that night, very clearly and in plain English?"

The new interim garda commissioner’s claims that Sergeant Maurice McCabe is protected from harassment were contradicted by ex-garda whistleblower John Wilson in spectacular fashion yesterday.

The Government is setting up a full-scale state inquiry into alleged Garda corruption after the Justice Minister dramatically resigned over his role in the affair.

An Oireachtas committee probing the GSOC crisis has expressed “alarm” at Alan Shatter’s failure to back up his Dáil statement that the ombudsman’s office was not bugged.

Fresh concerns are being expressed at the ability of the Garda ombudsman to do its job effectively after figures show staff levels have been cut by more than 20% since 2007.

One of the nation’s leading lights in children’s theatre, Branar Téatar do Pháistí, are currently touring their new Christmas show, Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has refused to withdraw his “highly offensive” comments in the wake of the Smithwick Tribunal report, saying it was nonsense to suggest he blamed the RUC officers for their own deaths.

IF IT really was a “war” in the North as Gerry Adams claims, then where were the rules of war?

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein have joined forces in attempts to grill the Justice Minister over allegations of Garda collusion with a convicted drug trafficker.

The number of people jailed last year for the non-payment of TV licence fines jumped by almost 50%, new figures show.

Opposition spokesmen on justice will raise emergency motions in the Dáil this week regarding the Garda Ombudsman’s report on alleged collusion between gardaí and an informant.

Outspoken disability campaigner Joanne O’Riordan has accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of again backtracking on “his personal promise to me” that disability funding would not be cut under his rule.

An Oireachtas committee has asked the Department of Health’s top civil servant to appear before it following the axing of the mobility grant, as it is “increasingly concerned at the difficulties in the relationship between the Ombudsman and the Department of Health”.

The Moriarty Tribunal has said it cannot comment on what it will do with a large amount of new evidence received on the involvement of Michael Lowry in English property deals.

Andriú Mac Lochlainn says the demands on inter-county players has reached a “tipping point”.

Travellers who abuse the rights given to them by the State must be “confronted head on”, according to the Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, who is the first member of the Dáil from a Traveller background.

Sinn Féin says it is to seek legal advice after Donegal North East TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn was blocked from voting on the Social Welfare Bill.

An Independent TD last night linked two well known celebrities to the ongoing investigation into cancelled penalty points.

Kildare 3-20 Cavan 1-9

Kildare corner-back Aindriú Mac Lochlainn has hit out at critics of his county’s attack. Despite scoring 0-19 in their opening victory against Offaly, it was The Sunday Game in particular that complained about a lack of killer instinct and an inability to get goals.

Oireachtas authorities have still not determined whether Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty must pay back €8,000 in travel expenses which he said was being put towards a new car.

The Government has bowed to pressure and removed from an information website a series of speeches calling for a yes vote in the fiscal treaty referendum.

Kildare 0-18 Meath 2-11