A Dublin man who got into drugs to fit in with school peers has been given a seven-year sentence for possessing €658,000 of cannabis.

The rapist at the centre of the "C Case" in the 1990's has been jailed for 21 years by Mr Justice George Birmingham for raping an 86-year-old woman in her home last year.

THE momentous events in the United States and the outrage in Limerick have been major distractions from our economic plight, but we are going to have to face it, and the sooner the better. A number of political commentators have called for a new Tallaght Strategy.

The owner of a children's clothing store in Swords whose vicious stabbing left his victim's intestines protruding from his body has been jailed for 10 years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A man whose bowel and intestines were left protruding from his body in an attack seven years ago has refused to give evidence at the trial of a man accused of stabbing him.

Incoming Taoiseach Brian Cowen is facing a legal battle over an official investigation into the massacre of 33 people in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, it emerged today.

LITTLE over a week before the current Dáil met for the first time a senior counsel who has worked on the staff of at least one tribunal was asked who was going to be the next Taoiseach.

Con Brosnan, a Free State officer, managed to get safe passage guarantees for republican players like John Joe Sheehy and Joe Barrett to play games, and they used football to overcome some of the bitterness.

Serving gardaí who were responsible for a botched probe into the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan must quit now, victims' families said today.

A official investigation into the biggest single act of mass murder in recent Irish history has today found no evidence that alleged British state collusion in the atrocity played a role the subsequent winding down of the Garda murder inquiry.

A long-awaited report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings is finally expected to be published tomorrow.

Nobody will be brought to justice on the back of the long-awaited report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Taoiseach said today.

The Government is today expected to consider the long-awaited report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

A long-awaited report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings is expected to be received by the Government today.

Time may have run out for the present Government to debate the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, families of the victims said today.

IN the past week we had posthumous pronouncements from both Judge Seán O’Leary and the late US President Gerald Ford.

The families of victims killed in the Dublin Monaghan bombings have criticised delays in a Government-commissioned investigation as it passes its sixth deadline.

An inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings will be completed next month, the Government said today.

AN inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings is expected to seek more time this week to complete its work.

An inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings is expected to seek more time this week to complete its work.

THE current rumblings within Fianna Fáil and Mary Harney’s hand bagging of MichaelMcDowell this week were reminders that prior to the arrival of Charlie Haughey on the political scene, there were no power struggles in the main political parties within Leinster House.

A Government inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which was due to report this month, has been granted an extension until July 31.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern last night revealed an inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was making “considerable progress” in investigating the atrocity.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern tonight revealed an inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was making considerable progress in investigating the atrocity.

Relatives of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings tonight expressed hope that a new source of information could boost their search for justice.

A Cork man who orally raped an American student and then claimed he was a commanding officer in the IRA has been given a six-year sentence by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.

A Government inquiry in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings will now be completed at the end of January, it emerged tonight.

A Dublin businessman who made a record €9m payment to the Revenue for unpaid taxes was today jailed for three months for tax evasion.

BERTIE AHERN’S address to the United Nations this week attracted little international attention, which was hardly surprising.

YOUNGER viewers will no doubt find the TV series on Charles J Haughey interesting, and it will evoke memories for older people who can still remember the events.

A man who murdered a young German tourist and dumped her shoes and trousers in a skip today began his appeal against his conviction.

A woman who witnessed the assault on a man got up from her "ringside" seat "for a can of beer" during the attack, the trial of two Dublin men accused of murdering a man heard today at the Central Criminal Court.

A woman, who was a suspect in the case, was kissing one of the accused at the victim’s house on the night of the murder, a jury in the trial of two Dublin men accused of murdering a man heard today at the Central Criminal Court.

A Central Criminal Court jury in the trial of two Dublin men accused of murdering a man heard that the dead man took his three children to McDonald's and a duck pond the day before his death.

A Corkman who raped an Australian tourist and described by Mr Justice Barry White as "a danger and a menace to society and women", has been jailed for 18 years.

A father’s act of bringing a knife into a fight with his son was “highly dangerous” and constituted criminal negligence, a murder trial jury heard at the Central Criminal court today.

The last words of a man who lay dying in his father’s arms after being fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife during a row were heard by a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal court today.

A man accused of murdering his son frantically tried to resuscitate him during a 40-minute wait for an ambulance, an eyewitness told a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal court today.

The trial of a Louth man charged with the murder of a young German woman in 2001 concluded at the Central Criminal court today with closing speeches heard from both prosecution and defence counsels.

A Drogheda Garda Inspector today defended the circumstances surrounding the alleged confession of a man accused of murder that he had returned to the body of a young German woman days after her disappearance to remove and hide her clothes.

Murdered German journalist Bettina Poeschel may have been killed and later dumped and hidden in dense undergrowth, a murder trial jury heard at the Central Criminal court today.

A mother-of-two who shot her husband dead with a shotgun she had bought him weeks earlier should not be jailed, so she can continue caring for her children, a court heard today.

Pre-trial publicity meant a woman jailed for the murder of her husband did not get a fair trial, her lawyer argued today.

A Cavan farmer who raped and sexually assaulted the 13-year-old daughter of a long-time friend for nine months has been jailed for five years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court heard.