IRELAND’S bid to secure Olympic qualification was dealt a significant blow yesterday, after vastly experienced defender Bridget Cleland (McKeever) announced her retirement from international hockey.

A couple and a three-year-old boy escaped injury in a pipe bomb attack in the North.

A woman who was beaten with baseball bats in a brutal paramilitary attack was warned she had 24 hours to leave her home, it emerged today.

Nightclubbers are to be questioned by police investigating a suspected arson attack that claimed the life of a fireman, it emerged tonight.

A 33-year-old man appeared in court in Northern Ireland today charged with the possession of information likely to be of use to terrorists.