Ireland's most successful Paralympic team ever touched down tonight with 16 medals en tow, receiving a rapturous reception from the thousands of well-wishers at Dublin Airport.

IRISH cyclists Padraic Moran and Gay Shelly set new national records in their respective events on a day of contrasting emotions in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing yesterday.

The Irish cyclists posted two national records in Beijing’s Laoshan Veldrome on the opening day at the 13th Paralympic Games.

A 25-YEAR-OLD homeless man, whose badly burned body was discovered in a fire at a derelict house in Dublin, was dead from drug poisoning before the blaze erupted, an inquest heard yesterday.