A Cork man who told gardaí he had gone to Monaghan for “a drinking session” and did not know there was half-a-tonne of fertilizer in the van he was driving has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment for IRA membership.

A 20-year-old man has been remanded in custody after he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a father of two during a row at a pub in Cork on St Stephen's Night three years ago.

A woman told a court she had her jaw broken and was knocked unconscious by a man who swung a baseball bat or some kind of club into her face but a jury found him not guilty.

Two slash hooks, a bolt-cutter, a saw, a golf club, a hurley, a wheelbrace and several other weapons were seized by gardaí during the eruption of violence today in an 18-month-old family feud in Cork.