THE owners of a Co Kilkenny nursing home which was closed down by the health authorities have been ordered to pay almost €38,000 compensation to two former staff members.

STAFF who raised concerns about the ill-treatment of patients at a private nursing home — which has since lost its licence — were constructively dismissed, trade union SIPTU has claimed.

Eyewitnesses have been telling of scenes of suffering and damage following the 6.3-level earthquake in New Zealand, which killed at least 65 people.

EIGHT years after Stephen Byrne drove the car containing his two sons and himself off Duncannon pier, three years after Sharon Grace drowned herself and her two daughters on a lonely stretch of Wexford coastline, and one year after the Dunne family were found dead in their house in Monageer, last weekend’s events in Clonroche have once again stunned the south-east.

ONE year after a tragedy that rocked the nation and raised significant questions about how we treat the issues of mental health and child protection, the grieving families of Adrian, 29, Ciara, 26, Lean, 5, and Shania, 3, Dunne are no closer to knowing the truth about how their loved ones died.

THE independent team carrying out an inquiry into the tragic deaths of the Dunne family in Monageer has advertised for anyone who could be of assistance to come forward.

THEY were to be buried in their Liverpool tops and new Dora The Explorer denim jeans, little Leanne and Shania Dunne, in white coffins with pink stripes.