IAN BAILEY, twice arrested and released without charge in connection with the investigation into the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, is to seek damages for wrongful arrest.

GARDA Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has made changes in senior ranks of the force in the southern region.

THE top ranks of An Garda Síochána will undergo a large revamp in the coming weeks as eight senior positions are filled.

ONE of the country’s most senior Garda officers says the force must keep up the pressure on heroin dealers in Cork and Limerick, otherwise the drug will blight those areas in the years ahead.

GARDA files on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder are to be handed over to the French magistrate investigating the case, the Department of Justice has confirmed.

GLOWING tributes have been paid to a senior garda who retires from the force today following 36 years service.

A PROJECT in Cork city which saves at-risk youths from a life on the streets has been ranked one of the best in Britain or Ireland.

SAVILLE Menswear won the Cork Business of the Year Award on Saturday night.

ERUDITE jester John Cleese, of Fawlty Towers and Monty Python fame, entertained key players in the Irish business and media worlds at the Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) annual dinner in the company’s flagship headquarters on Cork’s South Mall last night.

A Cork chef arrested during a Garda investigation into IRA money laundering following the 2004 Northern Bank robbery has been jailed for four years for IRA membership by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell emphasised yesterday he was not in favour of holding a public inquiry into allegations made by Ian Bailey against gardaí, during an investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

One of Ireland’s highest-ranking police officers is to testify that a chef arrested in a money-laundering investigation after the Northern Bank raid was an IRA member at the time.

EXTRA traffic corps units are to be created in Cork, Kerry and Limerick with an additional 200 gardaí, the first of whom will come on stream on September 9.

A WOMAN in her 60s, who was killed in pile-up in Co Cork yesterday,became the 205th person to die on Irish roads so far this year.

GARDAÍ are now certain that a mother and her two grown-up children drowned in a north Cork river last Sunday, and not on Monday as first thought.

THE burning of a car belonging to a woman, who was once the key witness in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation, may prompt her to leave her West Cork home sooner than planned.

A KEY witness who sensationally withdrew statements in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation was yesterday questioned by gardaí.

A PRINCIPAL witness in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation has insisted she wrongly identified a chief suspect nearly nine years ago.

THE husband of Marie Farrell, the woman who two weeks ago controversially withdrew her witness statement against former murder suspect Ian Bailey, yesterday appeared in court facing an assault charge.

A KEY witness involved in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation is now claiming she felt under pressure when interviewed by police.

The Gardaí have appointed a senior officer to investigate claims that a key witness in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case was pressured into making false statements.

GARDAÍ earned €83.5 million in overtime last year, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

A CONTROVERSIAL licence which bans furniture outside Cork city pubs after 9pm looks set to be scrapped tonight.

A TEAM of police officers and FBI agents from America are set for a three-day battle with gardaí on the fairways, which will raise money for a Cork charity.

A CURFEW of 9pm has been imposed on people drinking at tables outside Cork city pubs because gardaí fear the street furniture involved could be used as weapons later in the night.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell warned Sinn Féin local election candidates yesterday that they will have no say in the future policing of the State as long as they still support the IRA.

THE memory of former Cork football goalkeeper John Kerins is to be perpetuated by the organisation of a youth tournament in the four Garda districts in Cork, culminating in a ‘Festival of Football’ in Páirc Uí Rinn on May 15.

Jim O'Sullivan