Work is at an advanced stage on producing what’s hoped will be the world’s finest gin, through a collaboration between a new distillery in West Cork, a number of Michelin-starred chefs and a French company which harvests rare citrus fruits.

THE lament of a lone piper wafted through a woodland setting as the matriarch of one of West Cork’s best-known aristocratic families was laid to rest.

CELTIC PHARMA, a private equity fund backed by Corkman Stephen Evans-Freke, is buying British biotech group Xenova for up to £26.1 million.