Developer Owen O’Callaghan has been described as a humble man of integrity and a true gent who support many charities discreetly and charmed all those he met.

The skipper and owners of a fishing boat, who were convicted and fined a total of €4,000 on charges partly related to out-of-date safety equipment on a trawler, failed in their application under the Probation of Offenders Act to have the convictions dismissed.

The brave actions of four crew members of a Naval Service ship, which nearly sunk after an incident off Cork Harbour in 1962, are to be finally recognised.

The skipper and owners of a fishing boat were convicted and fined a total of €4,000 yesterday on charges partly related to out-of-date safety equipment on a trawler.

Navy veterans will be among a group planning to picket the office of Defence Minister Simon Coveney after he refused to award distinguished service Medals to two men who helped save a ship after it was rocked by a mine explosion.

Sedatives and products to treat erectile dysfunction and weight loss accounted for the bulk of counterfeit medicines seized by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) last year.

Mr Mulvany’s campaign, which Sean O’Riordan reports on, (‘Global support to honour Irish Navy veterans’, August 26) is another thinly disguised attempt to compromise Ireland’s long established and most successful national defence policy, by highlighting “global support” for the recognition of the heroic action of our sailors on LÉ Clíona all those years ago.

Naval associations around the world are backing a campaign to ensure two Irish veterans are given bravery awards 53 years after they helped save a ship’s crew during an explosion.

The humanity shown by the naval branch of our Defence Forces on the high seas in such difficult circumstances brings great credit to our country and will no doubt be officially recognised by government in due course.

An average of nearly 200,000 slimming tablets are being seized every year, according to the State medicines watchdog.

A young man in his 20s has died after taking deadly dieting pills bought online — in what an expert has said is the first loss of its kind here.

Garda-organised crime units are to crack down on gangs dealing in anabolic steroids when the products are added to the list of controlled drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

Restaurants and retailers say not enough consultation behind move

The Sinn Fein deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, has claimed that the party has no information on child abuse.

I read The Circle this week, Dave Eggers’ novel about an internet company that has taken over Google, Facebook, Twitter and the rest.

The availability of cannabis-based medicine to relieve one of the main symptoms of multiple sclerosis is about to move a step closer.

Almost a million illegal medicines were seized last year.

Are GM foods the answer to world hunger or a danger to our health? Rita de Brun asks the experts on both sides.

Medical devices firms will be forced to pay significant pre-market “risk assessment” charges if they want to sell their products under new patient safety laws.

The Irish Medicines Board has warned that people are putting their lives in danger by taking illegal and fake medicines after it emerged there had been a 60% rise in seizures of sedatives last year.

The Irish Medicines Board has revealed that more than three quarters of a million dosages of fake or illegal medicines were confiscated last year by customs’ officers after they were purchased online or via mail order.

THE culinary choices facing US President Richard Nixon that October night in Kilfrush House, Co Limerick, were not confined to whether he wished to have his Waterville potatoes boiled or baked.

The high cost of legitimate drugs is forcing a record number of people to gamble with their lives by seeking out cheaper black market medications online.

There is far greater awareness and acceptance of generic drugs now, with more than three quarters of Irish people willing to accept a cheaper, unbranded medicine, it has emerged.

Pharmacists will be legally obliged to substitute branded medicines with cheaper, generic drugs within months.

Kilbrittain 0-17 Cloyne 1-12

More supports to help children of the “new Irish” to learn their heritage languages could help bridge a major skills gap, a senior education figure has claimed.

SATURDAY

The carer whose letter underlined national anger over planned respite care cuts has told TDs unless they prevent the move their sympathy and words of support are only “crocodile tears”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to reverse the 20% reduction in the carer’s respite grant despite pleas from the opposition benches to heed the impassioned appeal of a husband caring for his ill wife to leave the grant alone.

Enda Kenny says he feels for carers and others struggling to cope with proposed budget cutbacks.

Dear Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore, Michael Noonan, and all TDs of who are voting in favour of cutting the carers’ respite pay.

Goal founder John O’Shea is to retire from his role as chief executive of the charity he founded more than 30 years ago.

Out-going Goal CEO and founder John O’Shea has said it was an honour and a privilege to help " the downtrodden, the deprived and the destitute" all over the world.

Goal founder John O’Shea has blocked a bid to suspend him, denying claims of bullying and alleging there was a “concerted action” to remove him from his post.

Some food businesses are putting inaccurate labels on their products, limiting already restricted diets for people with allergies.

Private clinics which offered PIP breast implants in Ireland “can do what they want” because they are not regulated, the country’s medicines watchdog has said.

During the coming week I am required to pay €100 household charge and €160 TV licence.

I was surprised at the article in Saturday’s (Feb 4) Irish Examiner citing a culture of secrecy and resistance to reform at the senior management level in Goal.

New Waterford hurling manager Michael Ryan had mixed feelings after his side deservedly defeated UCC in the quarter-final of the Waterford Crystal Cup at Carriganore yesterday.

Government officials have blamed weaknesses in financial systems at Goal for a fraud resulting in the loss of almost €90,000 of taxpayers’ money in Malawi.

International aid agency Goal has rejected suggestions that it withheld information from government auditors during an examination of how it spent €14 million in state funding.