Rural communities are to receive extra funding for CCTV and text alert schemes to help tackle the scourge of crime.

An initial report into the Rescue 116 helicopter crash says it "pitched up rapidly" in its final seconds.

Latest: Searches are to continue for two missing Irish Coast Guard crew members after a major operation to lift their helicopter from the sea failed to locate them.

Latest: The Air Accident Investigation Unit has released a statement confirming that no mechanical anomalies were found on the health and usage monitoring system and multi-purpose flight recorder recovered from Rescue 116.

The funeral of Captain Mark Duffy was held at the St Oliver Plunkett Church, Blackrock, Co Louth, yesterday.

The focus of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 search mission off the North Mayo coast has shifted to the recovery of the remaining two missing crew members, writes Evelyn Ring.

The focus of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 search mission off the North Mayo coast has shifted to the recovery of the remaining two missing crew members.

The black box from Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116 will be given to British experts today in the hope that they will be able to shed light on what caused Rescue 116 to crash off the coast of Co Mayo.

Update 10.30pm: Gardaí have confirmed a body have been discovered on board the wreckage of the Rescue 116 aircraft.

More than 120 volunteers converged on the tiny village of Aughleam near Blacksod Bay in Co Mayo yesterday to assist in the search for the crew members of the ill-fated helicopter R116.

A sea scan for the black box and wreckage of Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116 will not take place until Sunday afternoon, because of severe weather conditions.

Strong winds and heavy sea conditions have severely hampered the search operation for Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116 in Blacksod, Mayo.

Divers and robots will today try to retrieve the black box of Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116 from the ocean where it is thought to lie at a depth of up to 40 metres.

A major operation to locate the wreckage of downed Rescue 116 is due to get underway at first light off Mayo today.

The task being undertaken by the crew of Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 when they disappeared was almost a carbon copy of a mission they carried out with their Sligo colleagues in Rescue 118 just six days earlier.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has offered his “deepest sympathy” to the families of Irish Coast Guard workers affected by the tragedy off the coast of Mayo in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Intensive efforts to recover the remaining missing crew from the Coast Guard helicopter that vanished off the Mayo coast will continue today as air crash investigators try to find out what caused the disaster.

The Sligo-based Coast Guard helicopter airlifted a crewman from a Russian fishing vessel some 180 miles North West of Erris Head Co Mayo this morning.

A century-old document has revealed how the official weather readings for the capital are blank during the 1916 Rising.

Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to fatal road collision in Co Mayo yesterday evening which claimed the life of an 18 year-old man.

An 18-year-old man has died following a collision in Co Mayo.

The Normandy beach landings were deferred on the say-so of the Blacksod lighthouse keeper, and victory was assured, says Dan McCarthy

Seven tonnes of material have been airlifted to Skellig Michael for essential renovation works on the Unesco world heritage site.

I’M just back from Achill, a wet windy outpost of mountains and cliffs, where it gets dark later than anywhere else in Europe.

The Coastguard has been involved in an operation to help airlift an ill crewman from on board a British submarine located around 200 miles off the coast of Mayo.

Two people have been rescued this morning from a yacht that got into difficulty near Achill Island in Co Mayo.

A woman has died following a road crash in Belmullet, Co Mayo, in the early hours of this morning.

A man who was being questioned in connection with the death of a Co Mayo farmer was released without charge last night.

A MAN arrested in connection with the death of an elderly farmer in Co Mayo was released without charge last night.

Gardaí in Mayo have arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the death of 72-year-old farmer over the weekend.

GARDAÍ were last night trying to locate the last person to have seen a man found dead in suspicious circumstances on a remote Co Mayo peninsula.

Gardaí have today revealed they are treating as suspicious the death of a pensioner whose body was discovered outside his home in Co Mayo.

Gardaí in Co Mayo are investigating the death of an elderly man whose body was found outside his house in Co Mayo yesterday afternoon.

Rescuers today plucked an injured man from a fishing vessel in the Irish Sea, airlifting him to hospital in Co Galway, coastguards said today.

Rescuers are battling to aid an injured man on a fishing vessel of the Mayo coast, coastguards said.