A Traveller organisation has urged politicians to learn from a Fianna Fáil senator who has apologised for offensive online remarks.

She had acknowledged the “huge hurt and offence” that she had caused with her tweets, he told RTÉ Radio’s News at One.

The comments on Twitter were “totally wrong and inappropriate”.

Ministers have called on Fianna Fail election candidate Lorraine Clifford-Lee to apologise directly to Travellers for controversial tweets and claimed the comments were used as a “weapon”.

Among the 1,715 University of Limerick students who celebrated their graduations yesterday was Dr Sindy Joyce, who became the first Traveller in Ireland to graduate with a PhD.

On International Men’s Day, Donal O’Keeffe asked some well-known Irish men for their thoughts on what it means to be a man, and what they’d tell their younger selves about masculinity

There is a disquieting culture of violence in Ireland’s Travelling community. Monday’s shooting in west Dublin, in which a woman, an eight-month-old baby, and a boy (17) were injured by a shotgun blast is the latest example of inter-family feuding violence.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was “horrified” by the shooting of an eight-month-old baby boy which happened in his constituency.

The Taoiseach has said Travellers can walk with their head held high after being formally recognised as a distinct ethnic group.

A politician at the centre of allegations he had used political influence to prevent continuing garda questioning of the main suspect for the disappearance of missing child Mary Boyle yesterday denied any involvement.

Traveller rights groups have said they hope Council of Europe criticism of the Government for failing to provide adequate housing will put “pressure” on the authorities to address the problem.

Two former gardaí will allege, in a documentary to be released next month, that there was political interference in the investigation into the disappearance of Mary Boyle in 1977.

Travellers’ rights campaigners say they fear the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to press charges against writer Brenda Power for incitement to hatred gives the media free reign to publish racist comment.

LIFE is not a hymn sheet, which is why nobody has the right to expect that everyone should be on the same page as them.

Travellers want to be officially recognised as an ethnic minority. Are they really asks Ailin Quinlan.

Traveller groups have described the decision to accommodate the survivors of the Carrickmines tragedy in a carpark as a “sad indictment of our society” and said once again Travellers’ rights were second to the demands of the majority population.

I’m still trying to figure out the point your correspondent, Martin Collins, was attempting to make by comparing the various qualities of two quite different field sports from his anecdotal observation of two particular games. (Letters 22 August).

Most Irish people already know that hurling is the best field game in the world — bar none. And if ever conclusive proof of that existed, it was Sunday last (Aug 16), especially for those of us watching the Galway v Tipperary game on TV.

Traveller rights group Pavee Point has said another generation of Traveller children could be condemned to “poverty, unemployment and social exclusion” because of school enrolment policies.

When Mary Boyle went missing from near her grandparents’ home in Cashelard, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, on March 18, 1977, she was one of the country’s youngest ever disappeared.

The arrest today of a man in connection with the alleged kidnapping of six-year-old Mary Boyle in 1977 has brought the case of Ireland’s youngest ever disappeared back into the public spotlight. Stephen Rogers chronicles the background to the case.

Pavee Point has described as "despicable" the refusal by a funeral home to take the body of a teenage Traveller.

A conference on hate crime yesterday heard that the absence of legislation had created "permission to hate" and that hate-motivated crimes should attract harsher penalties.

It has been on the cards for nearly 30 years, but plans to build houses for the Travelling Community in Mount Merrion in Dublin are making headlines again.

The Garda Commissioner has been given two weeks to report back on how two Roma children were taken from their families as part of a probe into the affair — while investigations into the HSE’s role in both cases could begin even earlier.

Pavee Point has hit out at the shape of the investigation into how two Roma children came to be taken from their families in the past week.

The DNA testing process can typically take up to 48 hours, say the Forensic Science Laboratory — so it’s a safe bet there was some anxious pacing of corridors and hallways before the results in the Tallaght Roma case came in yesterday afternoon.

Often, we are told that we look like our parents. We have our mother’s eyes or our father’s chin. Occasionally, we so closely resemble a brother or sister that we can be mistaken for twins. But sometimes, we look nothing like our parents at all.

As the family of one of the two Roma children taken from their care contemplates legal action, calls were mounting for an independent inquiry into the Garda handling of the two cases.

Calls have been made for an independent inquiry into why two Roma children were “abducted” from their families by Irish authorities.

DNA tests are to be carried out on a seven-year-old girl taken into care from a house in Tallaght to see if she is the biological child of her Roma parents.

An organisation representing the Travelling community has said Travellers should have been consulted before recommendations for new laws on sulky racing were made to the Government, and that funding should be made available to promote the sport.

Travellers rights group Pavee Point has described as "extremely insulting" reports that a District Court judge described burglars as "knackers" against whom "maximum force" be used.

Kerry’s most senior Garda yesterday warned of firm action against people involved in Traveller feuds.

More than eight out of 10 Travellers are unemployed, as low participation in education continues to persist among the community.

An Independent Agency should be set up to deal with the provision of accommodation for Traveller families.

A prominent publican who was badly beaten after he refused to serve a Traveller has described the issue of equality as “a no-win situation” for pub owners.

A man who attempted to rob a building society in Dublin while dressed as a wealthy wheelchair-bound woman has been jailed for this, and another attempted robbery.

Traveller Pride Week 2012 will be launched in Dublin today at a ceremony in the Mansion House.

Signs of a feud between Traveller families gearing up in Tralee again this summer led yesterday to a public appeal from Pavee Point for families involved to “take a step back”.

A local authority is spending almost €3,500 weekly on 24-hour security at a Traveller site that cost €2m to complete.