The Gigginstown House bull sale last Saturday scaled new heights, with a purchaser from West Cork, John Applebe, describing the sale as “another step up”.

To address our challenges, Cork needs much more autonomy and freedom to shape its future prospects, argues Dr Frank Crowley.

Baby Abbey Lespiaucq was undergoing a rare procedure because she was found to be anemic.

It happened around midday when Gardaí and the Coast Guard were called to the West Pier where a man had been spotted in the water by a passer-by.

Here's your morning news bulletin...

Are rural areas losing out because of the reconfiguration of emergency and acute care? We may need to reexamine how those decisions are made, writes Noel Baker.

’RED Admiral thrives despite wet summer’ runs a headline on Butterfly Conservation’s website. This glamorous insect is doing well in the UK, writes Richard Collins.

Gardaí were questioning a man last night regarding the theft of more than €10,000 from a Garda station.

New Zealander Hori Morse served as an Auxiliary in Tralee, Co Kerry, during the War of Independence, when the town was international news. In 1921, he began an affair with a married woman and would himself become a front-page story, says Ryle Dwyer

A medical intern who sent photos of a seriously-ill patient to a doctor-on-call was following instructions, an inquest heard.

Latest: A person has been struck and fatally injured on the rail line just outside Skerries in North County Dublin.

From today young offenders in Ireland will no longer be sent to adult prisons.

Kirsty Donohue’s eldest child told her he was a boy trapped in a girl’s body. She tells Claire O’Sullivan about the journey her family has been on since that day.

A derelict buidling has been sealed off in County Dublin as part of the investigation into a man's disappearance more than 11 years ago.

Five units of the Dublin Fire Brigade have brought a fire under control at an apartment complex in Dublin.

The Handbook of the Irish Revival contains violent material and covers a period when theatre was never so exciting because history itself was excited, writes Thomas McCarthy.

Gardaí say they are very concerned about a woman whose daughter was found in Rathcoole in County Dublin yesterday afternoon.

Irish trainer Paul Stafford kept up his fine run of form at Hexham as Better B Quick rewarded favourite-backers in the SIS Handicap Chase.

According to tradition Richard Lionheart, returning from a crusade, brought the first mute swans to England. Later, the Normans took them to Ireland.

Gardaí have arrested three people in a jewellery and cash seizure in County Dublin.

Fraudster businessman Breifne O’Brien has been jailed for seven years for running a Ponzi scheme which costs his victims millions.

Michael became interested in photography when a friend taught him how to develop black and white pictures. He brought his first camera at 14, having saved up for it for a year. It cost £3.26.

I got into show business purely by chance.

Irish Water workers installing meters in County Dublin have had to temporarily down tools over a protest.

Gardaí have arrested a teenager after an An Post van was stolen in Dublin this morning.

Declaration Of War will join stablemate Mars in tomorrow’s Group 1 showpiece, the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown, after a final field of seven was unveiled.

Sixteen new Education and Training Boards will be established today to replace the 33 VEC's across the country.

The long-awaited RTÉ documentary on standards in Irish creches saw children spending up to two hours a day being strapped into highchairs as they screamed to get out.

THE passion for treading the boards on the amateur drama circuit will be documented in a new six-part series on RTÉ One, starting on Apr 16.

Onions and shallots drying in the sun in the garden of Trevor Sargent, County Dublin.

Is it correct to refer to “the Western mass media” as an entity?

Sprinter Sacre has frightened away all but three rivals as he attempts to take his unbeaten run over fences to five in this afternoon’s Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree.

A PAPER in the current edition of Irish Birds, The Birds of the Phoenix Park, County Dublin, gives the results of a survey carried out during the summer of 2007 and the following winter. The author is Olivia Crowe.

DESSIE Hughes is hoping Roberto Goldback’s touch of class will see him through in the Matty Ryan Memorial Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles today.

A man in his 50s is due in court this evening, in connection with dissident republican activity.

Siobhán worked in retail after she left school, but the family company closed in 2006.

A controlled explosion has been carried out on a suspect device discovered in Swords, County Dublin, in the early hours of this morning.

IN a remarkable coincidence, the County Dublin village of Swords netted the young Driver of the Year awards for rallying and racing as Motorsport Ireland honoured its top achievers yesterday.

AS the big freeze took hold again overnight, road conditions remained dangerous with the lack of gritting on minor roads an ongoing problem.