A 60-year-old man has been described as carrying out despicable thefts around the country — particularly one where he stole €1,000 from a 79-year-old woman in Bantry who acted as a Good Samaritan and took pity on him.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

One of three mobile phone companies recently criticised by a Labour TD has agreed to meet with community representatives in Clare to discuss coverage issues.

Ireland's oldest person, Kathleen Snavely, died yesterday aged 113 years and 140 days.

In just a few hours, the oldest living person born in Ireland will make history and become the longest living Irish person ever.

A 113 year-old Irish woman, currently living in New York, is on course to become the oldest person in Irish history in just over a month.

Today one Irish lady in New York is celebrating a special birthday.

Former Dublin manager Anthony Daly has rejected criticism of his former players as being "manufactured hurlers" as well as Ger Loughnane’s and Donal Óg Cusack’s stance on the dual player dilemma.

A tribunal has ruled that a council foreman who is alleged to have threatened to turn himself into a ‘human fireball’ in a one-man protest had been unfairly dismissed.

A senior Siptu official told a hearing "the Abbeylara scenario was on everyone’s minds" when trying to defuse a five hour stand-off between the Garda Emergency Response Unit and a council worker four years ago.

Cannabis worth approximately €12,000 has been seized by Gardaí in County Clare.

The GAA are to honour the 15 outstanding hurlers from the 1980s who were unsuccessful in annexing an All-Ireland winner’s medal.

THE Italian and Irish flags were draped side by side in Feakle, Co Clare, as a capacity crowd squeezed into the community hall to witness a small miracle.

They’ve always had each other. When Clare produced their finest team in two decades to beat Cork and Tipperary in 1955, it was a young and unconsidered Limerick outfit, Mackey’s Greyhounds, who tripped them up in the Munster final on an afternoon of sub-Saharan heat on the Ennis Road. When Clare produced their next successful team two decades later, the bunch that won two National Leagues in the late 1970s, the big championship rivalry was with Cork but – all politics being local — the rivalry with Limerick wasn’t far behind.

It’s great to see traditional Irish music finding its place in the world of science and medicine renowned fiddler, Martin Hayes said yesterday after a group of Italian and Irish people with Parkinson’s disease thrilled a crowd at a packed Feakle Community Centre by set dancing to a few reels.

An Italian doctor who saw the positive effect of set dancing on an Irishman with Parkinson’s disease, turned his observation into an international study whose findings will be presented this week in Co Clare.

MUSIC and dance have long been believed to possess transformative powers, from Turkish spinning dervishes dancing to elevate their souls, to African tribal healers stomping in frenzied trances to cure illness.

A public works’ contractor landed a local authority with an €11m bill after completing a project for which the tender price was just over €6m.

FOREST owners need to gather as much information as possible about thinning, said Teagasc Forestry Development Officer Áine O’Callaghan, at last week’s Teagasc/Forest Service event at Feakle, in Co Clare, on Steps to Thinning and Marketing your Timber.

FARM training body Teagasc is on a drive to train landowners on how to maximise their profits from forestry.

THE home of the legendary Clare healer Biddy Early is up for sale.

ANTHONY DALY revealed a text message from Ger Loughnane shows his former All-Ireland-winning manager is prepared to fight his battle against leukaemia.

AN TAISCE was accused of being anti-rural and anti-development after the planning watchdog lodged appeals against four one-off homes across Clare.

GARDA Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said yesterday he expected decisions will be made before the end of the year on whether bankers will be charged in the huge criminal investigation into Anglo Irish Bank.

A PRIME Dublin 4 address and some redbrick charm are on offer at an attractive two-bed house at 13 Dodder View Cottages in Ballsbridge.

A five-hour stand-off between Gardaí and a man who threatened to set himself alight with petrol has ended peacefully in Co Clare.

A 49-year-old man was killed in a work place accident in a saw mill yard today.

This Co Clare grazing farm includes a renovated property, extended farmhouse and some traditional outbuildings.

THIS cottage in east Clare offers accommodation and lifestyle. It has a large polytunnel, an organic vegetable garden, an orchard and a small bakery.

A Co Clare Priest has put in a request for time away from his parish after photographs of him, allegedly from a gay website, were published in a tabloid newspaper.

A well-known Co Clare priest is promising to make a statement later following articles written about him in a tabloid newspaper this morning.

After weeks of speculation, Ger Loughnane has been officially ratified as Galway's new senior hurling manager.

THE massive consignment of drugs seized in Co Clare yesterday could have a street value of up to €9 million, according to the garda in charge of the operation.

Gardaí in Co Clare are investigating the death of a man whose body was discovered on a roadside near the village of Feakle earlier today.

THE parents of four-year-old Karl Fox, who was killed in a freak accident at his school last week, are struggling to come to terms with the loss, the local parish priest, Fr Michael Hogan, said yesterday.

IT'S nonsense, isn't it, all this Clare crisis lark? The physio resigns, and it's a crisis? A guy makes a crack in a private telephone conversation about a fella he patently doesn't like, and it's front-page headlines?

Efforts to secure an end to the IRA’s campaign ultimately proved fruitless, writes Ryle Dwyer.

LIMERICK is surely a lady as the Shannonside anthem proudly proclaims, but it took a filly from Clare to take the equine version of the title at the two day show held over the weekend at the region’s new racecourse near Patrickswell.