The poor benighted Douglas village in Cork has been in the wars once more, flooded not too many years ago and now recovering from a fresh trauma in the wake of the terrible fire that has left the Douglas Shopping centre temporarily closed.

Josh Cullen is a London-born midfielder and West Ham United employee and he has just been called up to the senior Ireland senior set-up for the first time as a late addition to Mick McCarthy’s squad.

The fuss and furore these winter days over the increasingly likely prospect of a hard border around the neck of this little island fascinates me lately.

Ireland should create a "safety net" to guard against a hard border after Brexit, a farmer on the front line said.

Business owners along the Irish border have given a mixed reaction to the budget's loan scheme to help small companies weather Brexit.

Celebrity chef Neven Maguire has called for obligatory cooking lessons for all secondary school children to beat the obesity epidemic.

Update: Responding to a court decision to reject a challenge to a McDonald’s drive through fast-food restaurant being opened near a school in Greystones, the advocacy group Irish Heart have called for new legislation to protect children’s health by introducing no fry zones.

A ‘breastfeeding welcome here’ sign has been launched to help normalise breast-feeding in public.

This constituency could be best described as hodgepodge, taking in four counties and two provinces.

THE National Organic Centre in Co Leitrim is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Heartfelt tributes were paid to the late Ballyshannon-based Sergeant Michael Galvin yesterday, on a day when Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan paid a private visit to boost morale in the shell-shocked station.

Parents looking for healthy options for their children can now turn to top chef Neven Maguire’s homegrown food bible for recipe ideas, writes Marjorie Brennan.

More than 290 prisoners have absconded from the country’s two open centres since 2010 – and 15 remain at large.

TAKE out your stopwatch and try the following experiment: phone in your favourite takeaway order and wait for it to arrive.

After weeks of Halloween shenanigans, the ghouls and goblins (both commercial and otherwise) have shuffled off for another year.

IT WAS daunting. The assembly of a 500km route over mountains, bogland, fields, across rivers and through towns and villages took years.

The Olde Post Inn, Cloverhill, Co Cavan; tel: 047-55555; theoldepostinn.com

An article published on Sept 24 included a statement that gardaí were examining links with the suicide of a young man in the Blacklion area of Co Cavan to with another death.

Celebrity chef Neven Maguire and wife Amelda have ruled out having any more children because of the health risk.

Prison officers are calling for an independent review of the gang problem in the country’s jails.

Three prisoners have been returned to custody after absconding from an open prison yesterday.

Electronic tagging of prisoners will not necessarily lead to a reduction in the country’s prison population, the Irish Penal Reform Trust has warned.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has today apologised for the transfer of a Garda-killer to a low-security prison, from which he later escaped.

A court in Derry has remanded Martin McDermott in custody, charged with assaulting three police officers, resisting a police officer, disorderly behaviour and criminal damage.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has ordered an investigation into how a Garda killer caught on the run in the North escaped from prison.

A garda killer who went on the run after escaping a low security prison has been caught in the North.

A FEW days ago I happened to be driving along a small road in the limestone uplands of north Cavan, close to the Fermanagh border.

A man arrested in connection with a grenade attack on two Northern Ireland policemen was tonight released without charge.

A man was arrested after dissident republicans fired a grenade at policemen in the North.

FUTURE Gordon Ramsays, Richard Corrigans and chefs of a quieter yet no less talented disposition gathered in Dublin over the weekend to do battle in kitchens for one of the most hotly contested title in Irish culinary circles.

The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has announced the closure of two prisons in a bid to cut the overtime bill within the Prison Service.

RESTAURANT owners are struggling to survive as spiralling wage, tax and insurance costs endanger the industry, it was claimed yesterday.

I WILL always remember the first time I went to eat at Neven Maguire's restaurant in Blacklion, Co Cavan. The restaurant, on the main street of this border town, felt like a family home, warm and comfortable.