Sinn Féin has defended its handling of a controversy which has prompted a sitting TD not to run for the party in the next general election.

Sinn Féin insisted yesterday its decision to temporarily freeze the expulsion of east Cork county councillor Kieran McCarthy over serious financial allegations, was not linked to the politician threatening to take legal action.

Sinn Féin has suffered a double support slump in the wake of the Sandra McLellan bullying allegations, after falling three percentage points in two separate opinion polls.

Sinn Féin is set to hold emergency meetings with grassroots members “over the next few days” to quell anger over its axing of two prominent councillors.

Michael Clifford examines the funny goings-on within Sinn Féin.

Cork East TD Sandra McLellan has broken her silence about an internal Sinn Féin row amid speculation that she threatened to leave the party if it did not take her side in the dispute.

The Sinn Féin councillor expelled from the party this week has been the subject of two internal inquiries into financial issues in the past 12 months.

Sinn Féin’s ard chomairle has overturned a rule banning male candidates from challenging Cork East TD Sandra McLellan for a seat at the next general election.

A Sinn Féin councillor has been expelled from the party and another suspended for a year amid a wider internal row involving claims of bullying against a sitting TD and a loan from the organisation’s funds.

The delay in Co Cork of a further major public scheme could have a significant impact on tourism in a seaside town.

Dáil parliamentary questions and their responses are usually very formal in their tone, but Transport Minister Leo Varadkar appeared less mindful of his "Ps and Qs" in one of his latest PQ responses to Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan.

The Galway site where bodies of hundreds of babies and children were disposed off should be treated as a crime scene, opposition TDs demanded.

A Dáil ethics watchdog probe into a Sinn Féin TD’s practice of donating much of her salary to party activities will be concluded next month.

SAVE Youghal Ambulance Group simulated a fatal car accident and a resuscitation scene in protest against the HSE’s proposed changes to the east Cork ambulance service.

MORE THAN 500 people formed a 600-metre chain in Youghal yesterday as they protested HSE plans to replace the town’s ambulance service with a first responder paramedic car.

ABRAHAM Lincoln was plagued with bad generals.

LIVES will be put at risk in east Cork, it has been claimed, as one of three out-of-hours SouthDoc cars is to be withdrawn from service due to cutbacks.

SINN Féin has long threatened. This time it delivered.

THERE are clear signs that Fianna Fáil is in trouble in the Cork East constituency and that some of its voters are defecting to Sinn Féin, leaving that party’s candidate well in the hunt for the last of the four seats on offer.

GARDAÍ believe the killer of a 32-year-old unemployed single man tried to disguise the murder by setting fire to the victim’s apartment.

THE fallout from a controversial VEC election continued yesterday as Fianna Fáil claimed Sinn Féin had shown more consideration to the Church of Ireland than Fine Gael.

CORK’S county manager Martin Riordan is in favour of sealing and capping a toxic waste dump after being told he can’t develop Cork harbour “as a major tourism mecca with a potential Sellafield” in the middle of it.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will commence building on the phenomenal year that was 2009 when she travels to Portugal for warm weather training tomorrow – she already had a session in Cork over the festive season when she sneaked into the CIT track in Bishopstown.

THE last factory is to close in a Co Cork town with the loss of 80 jobs.

DERVAL O’ROURKE brought the curtain own on another incredible day for Irish athletes at the world championships in Berlin when she finished fourth in the final of the 100m hurdles and set a new national record at 12.67 seconds.

PAUL HESSION and Derval O’Rourke delivered the perfect ending to an exciting day for Irish athletics at the world championships in Berlin when they both qualified for today’s semi-finals of their respective events.

Derval O'Rourke cruised through to the semi-finals of the 100 metres hurdles at the World Championships in Berlin this evening, clocking a season's best time of 12.86 seconds.

MICHAEL HEGARTY, the Fine Gael leader on the county council, topped the poll in 2004 with 3,089 first preferences and the Ladysbridge man is expected to be there or there abouts this time out.

A specialist in braking systems has told a jury that the fact that the ABS was not working on a bus involved in an accident that killed five Meath schoolgirls significantly affected the outcome of the crash.

THE National Concert Hall (NCH) plans to develop three performance halls on its current site at an estimated cost of €140 million, to be completed by 2010 or 2012.

Bernie Ecclestone has been accused of “extortion” over his decision to axe the Canadian Grand Prix over a tobacco advertising row.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has called a Cabinet meeting in Toronto instead of Ottawa to show the World Health Organisation erred in warning against travel to Canada’s largest city because of Sars.