Speaking against the background of violent criminal feuds in Drogheda, Co Louth, and Corduff and Finglas in west Dublin, the country’s superintendents said the drugs trade had “permeated” towns and villages nationwide.

Gardaí are investigating an incident of criminal damage by fire at a house in Blanchardstown in Dublin this morning.

Gardaí have found a loaded gun and bullets in wasteground in Dublin.

At around 3.40pm yesterday afternoon, a lone gunman appeared to target a man in his 20s who was waiting outside Riversdale Community College on Blanchardstown Road North.

Latest: Gardaí in Blanchardstown have condemned the reckless attack which took place outside a secondary school in the Corduff area.

A man in his 20s has been injured in a shooting in West Dublin.

Armed support units carried out the searches targeting the sale and supply of drugs in the Corduff and wider Dublin 15 area.

Gardaí are appealing for help in tracing a missing 41-year-old man in Dublin.

Easter Rising leader Thomas Ashe was described yesterday as “a man ahead of his time” by two young pupils from the school where he once taught.

The last remnant of the John Gilligan property empire in Ireland has gone on sale with the disposal of the former crime boss’s sprawling bungalow in Co Meath.

Paschal Collins is not a man to aimlessly wander along with the consensus. While many boxers decry a certain forthcoming ‘super-fight’ as “bad for boxing”, the head trainer of the Celtic Warriors Gym takes a different view.

Convicted drug dealer John Gilligan and members of his family have been given three months by the Supreme Court to leave their homes, one in Co Meath and one in Blanchardstown, before the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) moves to sell or lease them.

Two Dublin market traders have been spared jail sentences after getting caught selling more than 100 different types of prescription drugs from their stall.

A search is underway in the Ballytrust area of Co Cavan after two men eluded gardaí in the area this morning.

A computer programmer who was mowed down by a drunk driver as he walked along a city footpath with friends has settled his High Court action for €2.3m.

Observers of John Gilligan will watch for his signature mock wiping of the brow when he walks free after 16 years in prison.

A defiant Pat McEnaney has dismissed suggestions he is attempting to sanitise the game of hurling.

Only three of the country’s worst accident blackspots have been upgraded — a year after plans to fix the 60 deadliest road bends were trumpeted.

AS a breeding ground for champions, a nursing home in north central Dublin is certainly one for the books.

AH, the strangest day, perfectly parsed by Dublin’s No 6 Ger Brennan.

UNTIL yesterday, Corduff in Co. Monaghan was best known in GAA circles — if at all — as the birthplace of the five McEnaney brothers, among them Seamus and Pat.

TO THE list of great clear-the-air team meetings, add Corduff, Co Monaghan.

Fianna Fáil has selected Councillor David McGuinness as its candidate to contest the forthcoming by-election in Dublin West.

THREE young men shot in a public park on Sunday had made enemies all over their local community, making the task of narrowing down suspects a difficult one.

Three men have been injured in a gun attack in a Dublin park.

A woman's body has been found at a house in West Dublin today.

A drug addicted robber who held up a chip shop after "MUG" was written across his forehead while he was asleep at a party has today been given a suspended sentence and work to do in the community.

Gardaí in Dublin have arrested a man in his early 20s following the seizure of a handgun a small quantity of cannabis in the west of the city yesterday evening.

Eight handguns were seized when gardaí uncovered an arms cache and raided a suspected drug dealing house in two separate operations.

A drug-addicted robber who held up a chipper after "MUG" was written across his forehead while he was asleep at a party has had his sentence adjourned at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A north Dublin man has been jailed for a year by Judge Martin Nolan for dangerous driving causing the death of one of his closest friends when racing another car in Lusk two years ago.

Two men have been stabbed in separate incidents in west Dublin overnight.

APART from their families and loved ones, there will be few in Blanchardstown who will mourn the news from Spain.

A 24-year-old man is the country's latest car crash victim.

A world champion rugby team will be winging its way to Ireland this week to encourage young people to hit the playing fields.

THE high voter turnout for yesterday's local and European Elections could well result in Fianna Fáil suffering heavy losses.

The Blanchardstown office of semiconductor design software group Synopsys Inc and Junior Achievement Ireland today launch an initiative aimed at encouraging local primary-school children to remain in school through to second-level education.

GARDAÍ were yesterday hunting down a fugitive gang boss believed to have returned to the country to avenge the murder of an associate.

Gardaí in Dublin have launched a murder inquiry after a 24-year-old man was shot dead in a pub in the Blanchardstown area last night.

Gardaí were tonight hunting a van driver whose caravan became unhooked and careered across a main road, seriously injuring three people.

Teagasc is to close ten of its centres and its dairy farm at Ballinamore, County Leitrim.