A father-of-six who attacked a man with a claw hammer in a family restaurant, subjecting diners to "a violent and frightening experience" has been jailed for 18 months.

Conditions at Sligo Garda Station have deteriorated even further since an examination of the building was conducted in May 2016, according to the engineer who conducted the surveys.

A Mayo community has been gripped by shock and sorrow as it struggles to come to terms with the loss of three members of a much-loved family in Monday’s horror road crash.

The Office of the Prison Inspector has strongly criticised the decision to close the country’s only semi-open prison and said it conflicted with stated official policy.

Ireland is breaching human rights by not allowing adult prisoners have complaints independently investigated, according to a leading judge.

Prisoners in Irish jails have made almost 350 complaints of serious assault and intimidation under a new complaints procedure introduced by the Irish Prison Service introduced in November 2012.

A prisoner found in a coma at Limerick Prison died from a cocktail of drugs which included heroin, methadone and two types of prescription sedatives.

Prison authorities have “legal obligations” to protect the health of prisoners after a “frail” 61-year-old inmate died following an assault in a shared cell.

Prison officers and their families suffer “severe” consequences if they do not conform to unprofessional behaviour of colleagues, including actions that display a hatred towards women and people in general.

The Irish Prison Service (ISP) has been criticised over the accuracy of record keeping of checks by prison officers on vulnerable prisoners in two separate investigations into the deaths of prison inmates.

The Inspector of Prisons has called for proper assessment of all prisoners being freed early following the death of an inmate who was granted temporary release from an overcrowded jail.

A couple whose home caught fire after a contractor they hired carried out works on their roof are responsible for damage caused to their neighbour’s property, the High Court has ruled.

Plans to allow sex offenders get early release from jail where they engage in programmes to lessen their risk of reoffending are being considered by the Department of Justice and the Prison Service.

The Inspector of Prisons has strongly criticised the blanket ban on early release for sex offenders following the death of a severely ill elderly offender in prison.

A prisoner who repeatedly asked to be moved to a psychiatric facility so he would not kill himself was later found hanging in his cell.

The Inspector of Prisons has been expressing concerns about bullying in Irish jails.

The Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has announced the closure of a section of Mountjoy jail used to house 'protected prisoners'.

Inmates under protection in Mountjoy are kept in "unacceptable" conditions, fuelling "obvious tension" in the prison’s separation unit.

A specialist unit for gang members and other protected inmates at Mountjoy prison in Dublin, is no longer fit for purpose, according to a report from the Inspector of Prisons.

A man who stabbed his mother to death at her Mayo home in 2011 while he was high on drugs had walked out of a Castlebar courtroom three weeks earlier, despite an order to keep him in custody.

Limerick Prison failed to follow its own procedures to watch over a man who took his own life while on suicide watch.

Prison officers are calling on the Government for a new watchdog body to investigate complaints made by offenders.

The overcrowding crisis in women’s prisons continues to deepen, with 40% of female inmates being let out on temporary release due to a dire shortage of space.

LATE on Wednesday evening came the news that Justice Minister Alan Shatter had requested Judge Michael Reilly, Inspector of Prisons, carry out an urgent independent investigation into the announcement that conversations between 139 prisoners and their solicitors had been “inadvertently recorded” on prison phone lines since 2010.

All young people sentenced to St Patrick’s Institution have been transferred out of the detention facility — which has been dogged by controversy and scandal.

Community-based courts could reduce re-offending rates by around 10%, international research suggests.

Investigative Correspondent Conor Ryan looks at why criminals reoffend, and asks what can be done in the legal and prison systems to buck the trend

A timeline of neglect and inaction

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has confirmed Garda recruitment will recommence today with an estimated 300 posts being offered.

The Inspector of Prisons has called the overcrowding crisis at the Dóchas Centre in Dublin unacceptable.

The Inspector of Prisons says overcrowding is the single greatest problem in the country's largest jail for women.

A Cork drug dealer serving a 16-year sentence for the biggest seizure of ecstasy in the State has died from a suspected overdose in prison.

The middle classes “who live in leafy suburbs” must refrain from recreational drug use in order to curtail the power of drug barons and the spread of narcotics in jails.

Concerns are being raised as to how the educational and childcare requirements of young offenders being transferred from St Patrick’s Institution to Wheatfield Prison are going to be met.

Young offenders are being verbally abused, denied basic rights and held in cold, filthy cells with broken toilets filled with excrement.

Punishments in Irish jails are totally out of line with international norms, the prisons inspector has warned.

Every complaint made by inmates against prison officers under a new independent investigation system have so far turned out to be baseless.

Prison is often a “very expensive way” of making the lives of vulnerable women worse, the inspector of prisons has said.

A report into the death of a prisoner in Cloverhill courthouse in 2011 has found that organs of the prison system failed to communicate with each other, failed to adhere to standard work practices and didn't keep adequate records.

October

A vulnerable persons unit will be set up in St Patrick’s Institution after last month’s damning report by the Inspector of Prisons.

Former St Pat’s inmate tells Claire O’Sullivan how life works on the inside