Gardaí had to restrict access to the carpark at a popular Clare beach for a time this afternoon as hundreds descended on the area to take advantage of the fine weather.

The army bomb squad has carried out a controlled explosion on a ‘suspicious’ object that was found washed up on a beach in Co Clare this afternoon.

A shoe believed to belong to a missing Japanese woman, whose partner’s body was pulled from the sea on Sunday, has been found on a beach.