A convicted rapist has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempting to murder a Wicklow man in front of his wife and children, failing only because his shotgun cartridges were damp.

The couple’s 11-year-old son struck the attacker with a kitchen brush, which broke, in an effort to help his father.

A man and a woman were arrested today after a cannabis find in Meath.

Gardai in Co Wicklow have arrested two people following a raid on a cannabis-growing operation in Bray last night.