THE country’s top wildlife park has been forced to put down its entire flock of ostriches after a health scare.

Politicians in Ballinasloe plan to honour Oscar-nominated film director Danny Boyle, whose mother hailed from the town.

An inquiry from President Patrick Hillery about whether he was entitled to a pay rise under the national wage agreement sparked an investigation into his expenses, official files reveal.

FORMER President Patrick Hillery’s funeral was dignified and fitting.

THOUGH maybe not quiet as daunting as being made a Wehrmacht field marshal deep in the cold steppes of Stalin’s Soviet Union in, say, 1943, assuming leadership of the Progressive Democrats bring its own challenges.

Books of condolence for former President Patrick Hillery are due to open today at various locations in Dublin and his native Co Clare.

THE State funeral of former President Patrick Hillery will take place on Wednesday. He will be buried in St Fintan’s Cemetery in Sutton, Co Dublin, alongside his daughter, Vivienne, who died of cancer in 1987 at the age of 18.

PRESIDENT Patrick Hillery, who died on Saturday aged 84, was of the generation who succeeded the revolutionaries-turned-politicians who shaped post-colonial Ireland in the second quarter of the last century.

Several special events are planned at the National Concert Hall this year as it celebrates its 25th birthday.