A 54-year-old woman sustained burns and later died after a fire ignited while she smoked an electronic cigarette.

Two new projects will form the blueprint for future council houses in Co Cork, as they are designed to be easily adapted for people who become disabled or for couples who require additional space as the size of their family increases.

A unique arts course on an island off the south-west coast has been saved after Cork County Council said it would double grant aid to keep it afloat.

Beach-friendly facilities for wheelchair users are being considered by Cork County Council.

Lack of infrastructural investment is impacting on the “vitality and viability” of rural communities in Co Cork, a senior planning official has warned.

Rural parts of Co Cork are rapidly ageing as young people cannot build houses because planning guidelines are too restrictive.

The Department of Housing is to be urged to let local authorities build council houses with downstairs bathrooms and bedrooms so they are readily usable for tenants who become disabled or too frail for stairs.

Weekend review

Cork county councillors have insisted that their staff are kept constantly updated on any transfers to City Hall they may face as a result of the city’s proposed boundary extension.

Cork county councillors are concerned that losing major revenue-generating areas as part of the proposed city boundary extension will leave them short of money to provide services, especially in peripheral areas.

Major dredging and upgrading of coastal facilities is needed in Cork county to reap the rewards of the fishing industry and maritime tourism.

Single people on the waiting list in West Cork have, effectively, not a “hope in hell” of being accommodated by the local authority — but they could “bond” with like-minded people or even get married to boost their chances.

“If this document was produced under British rule, it would have brought about revolution, and it should. This is a diktat we can’t accept.”

Garda intelligence services have been dealt a blow with the retirement of its chief with uncertainty as to how long it will take to fill his position.

Significant changes in traffic management are being considered in the country’s biggest whitefish port to ensure expansion of the industry in the coming years is not hampered by gridlock.

The issue of clubs’ access to inter-county players took up much of the discussion at last night’s Cork County Board meeting, but county coaching officer Kevin O’Donovan once again issued a plea to clubs to have a debate on the county’s decline at senior level.

Operation Thor has coincided with a significant reduction in theft and breaks-in in the Waterford region, according to gardai.

A colleague of a Cork County Council employee who died after he was hit by a falling telegraph pole has told an inquest he shouted to him three times to run out of the way, but the deceased did not hear him.

Cork GAA chiefs had to deny allegations a proposed county junior hurling championship was being “railroaded through” at last night’s county board meeting at Nemo Rangers.

Some are household names, others have been overlooked but a move is on to honour, as a group, all those from the West Cork region who fought in Dublin during the Easter Rising.

Recent flooding and subsequent damage could have been lessened in Co Cork if a government recruitment embargo had not resulted in a lack of ‘on-the-ground council staff’ being deployed during Storm Frank.

The Cork Film Festival is in its 60th year. Ahead of its launch next Friday, Marjorie Brennan pays tribute to the country’s longest-running film festival.

West Cork was one of the worst damaged regions in the country during storms over the weekend, and the county council is to seek emergency government funding to deal with washed- away roads and bridges.

The Smiddy report on the amalgamation of the two local authorities in Cork has recommended the ratio of councillors to constituents be altered, especially in West Cork where their number has been reduced but the area of representation significantly increased.

The death of a promising young jockey was recalled yesterday at an inquest in Limerick.

What are you currently driving?

The manner in which the GAA’s Central Council opted against changes to the Allianz Hurling League came in for strong criticism at last night’s Cork County Board meeting at Nemo Rangers.

Councillors have expressed their anger at a presumed snub by the National Roads Authority over desperately needed funding for the upgrade of the only national secondary road servicing West Cork.

Henry Corbally’s appointment as chairman of the Glanbia plc board has been well received by the agri-food sector.

Some of us felt this golden age of controvassy might have peaked the morning we learned Roy Hodgson had been found wanting on the tactical half-time comedy front, and had landed in the ‘race-hate mire’ for telling a joke about a monkey in space.

JDIFF is over, after many films and some fun jury time for yours truly. And as the guests wend their way back to their starry lives and the film drives and reels head homewards, its time to take a look at who won what.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2015 runs from the 19th to the 29th of March 2015, and its time to get with the announcements.

Fears have been expressed in West Cork that the HSE and the health minister may not upgrade community hospitals in the region, leading to elderly patients being transferred miles away from their families.

A new ministerial directive on housing vulnerable people has been described as “unworkable” and will put families further down local authority waiting lists.

Communities in West Cork will be put at a distinct financial disadvantage because of a crackdown on septic tanks, councillors have warned.

Likely new development projects in Bandon, Co Cork may not have automatic access to the town’s sewerage system.

Some 45 successful candidates for promotion to senior ranks in the Garda Síochána have been officially notified.

It was relatively quiet in University Hospital Limerick’s accident and emergency department yesterday morning.