Ireland head coach Noel McNamara has made two enforced changes to his starting line-up for today’s crunch World Rugby U20 Championship Pool B clash with Australia in Santa Fe, Argentina (2.30pm Irish time).

Five people died on the roads over the bank holiday weekend, bringing the total number of fatalities so far this year to 39.

Sheep farmers in the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth say their flocks have been under siege from dog attacks in recent months.

Sections of recent Dáil debates and international statements made by the Taoiseach threw up some interesting statistics.

 

Vibrations linked to the devastating earthquake in Italy, in which at least 73 people died, were felt in Ireland.

Armed detectives, bomb disposal teams and dog handlers are searching land near the border for a second day after a dissident republican arms dump was uncovered.

The house where Garda Tony Golden lived is an ordinary house, modest, red-bricked, semi-detached with starlings chattering on the roof and a small patch of lawn to the front.

Here's what to watch on the TV tonight.

FROM the family farm in the Cooley Peninsula, Co Louth, to the grounds of the Aviva stadium, rugby player Dave Kearney’s life has largely been lived out on the green fields of Ireland.

IT WAS one of those pictures that made you laugh, then roll your eyes to heaven. Very definitely not the kind of shot a candidate-to-be would want taking up half a page in a local newspaper. The picture showed a man in a long formal overcoat. A very Fianna Fáil overcoat, no offence to Louis Copeland.

A long way away from the rest of the world.

It might not be the weather for it at the moment but analysis of crabs caught off the north Clare coast could lend itself to better returns for fishermen.

The investigation into the murder of Detective Adrian Donohoe has recorded more than 1,000 exhibits.

Leinster back rower Jordi Murphy is the only casualty from the weekend’s 22-17 victory over Glasgow Warriors as the province gear up for a crucial RaboDirect PRO12 interprovincial meeting with third place Ulster at the RDS on Saturday (6.15pm).

Their faces have been seen by thousands of people around the world, and their smiles greet tourists as they arrive at Dublin Airport from international destinations.

A woman has been found dead in a burnt-out car on the Cooley peninsula.

Detectives probing the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe five weeks ago are examining a possible connection with a body found in a burned-out car nearby.

Detectives probing the murder of a colleague are examining the scene of a body discovered in a burned-out car.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has said no one underestimates how difficult it will be to bring the killers of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe to justice.

The bravery of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe and his innate love of family, policing, the GAA and community will not be forgotten.

Murdered garda detective Adrian Donohoe was a virtuous man who was a perfect role model for the rest of society, his state funeral heard today.

More than 20,000 people have signed books of condolences for murdered Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

Tributes have poured in for a Garda detective who was shot dead in Co Louth last night in a botched hold-up.

A manhunt was underway tonight after a Garda detective was shot dead in in a botched hold-up.

A proposed cross-border car ferry linking Down and Louth could provide a €10m a year boost for the counties, an economic study has predicted.

CARLINGFORD, Co Louth, is a small and particularly beautiful village situated in the extreme north-east corner of our little Republic — the very place, in fact, where you can see the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.

THE busy South Cork guild at Innishannon got the past year off to an altruistic start with two whist card drives which raised proceeds for the Bandon Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber and Rehab.

ONE of the most disturbing and despicable aspects of the present general campaign is the total moral and intellectual cowardice of the media, politicians and the various churches with regard to Sinn Féin.

THE feats of Fiadhna, a white-tailed eagle which has circumnavigated Ireland twice since being released in Killarney last August, were yesterday being celebrated by nature lovers.

THE High Court has dismissed a test case to determine if hundreds of sheep farmers are entitled to additional compensation over the culling of their sheep flocks as a result of the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak.

JUST before the solstice, I spent a few days on the shores of Carlingford Lough. There was quite a good dawn chorus in the morning, to which the outstanding contributors were not the usual robins, but song thrushes. Although thrushes begin singing early in the year, the Carlingford ones were ahead of themselves, in full voice before the year had even turned. These fine vocalists have become scarce over much of the country but they seem to be thriving on the Cooley peninsula.

BASED on what they found during an intensive visit to Brazil earlier this year, IFA have been fully justified in highlighting their serious concerns about imports to the EU, including Ireland, from a country with foot and mouth disease in its national herd, and controls which do not inspire confidence.

The former Minister for Agriculture who spearheaded Ireland's successful defence against the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak has praised the swift action by the British authorities in the latest crisis.

A SDLP delegation will discuss all-Ireland transport issues with Transport Minister Martin Cullen in Dublin today.

A FRESH dig for the body of a teenager abducted and murdered by the IRA nearly three decades ago will begin today after a witness to the burial, who had not come forward before, decided to do so just over a month ago.

AMID growing fears for the survival of large areas of rural Ireland, the Government’s decision to widen the CLÁR boundaries promises to breath new life into dwindling communities.

IF Christmas is the time of excess, can the New Year’s Resolution be far behind?

Gardaí are waiting to question Helen Judge, who was found in secluded woodland on the Cooley Peninsula in Co. Louth this morning.