A severe weather alert remains in place today after torrential rain sparked localised flash flooding, leading to the cancellation or postponement of a number of sporting fixtures — most notably Listowel Races.

From glorious glass to new names in Irish art, Faith Ryan picks some honest design and craft for the home.

A week ago, University College Cork reminded us how much creative talent exists within this country when it awarded doctorates to notables from the design and art world.

The kids are off school next week and because a week’s skiing isn’t an option for most, Ellie O’Byrne checks out fun and cheap day trips that will keep them off screens

A studio where Dublin Councillor Mannix Flynn has an office has been attacked by vandals apparently protesting the new busking by-laws.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has come under intense pressure to open a public inquiry into the Áras Attracta abuse scandal, after families said the State cannot be trusted to root out what happened.

Groups makes radical call as HSE vows to punish care home abuse

Mixed-race Irish who spent time in industrial schools will today claim they faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse there because of the colour of their skin.

Just when people thought no more revelations remained to be uncovered, a truly shocking spectre — 800 dead babies dumped in a septic tank and innocent infants buried in mass graves — has come back to haunt the Irish State and the Catholic Church.

Martin Claffey enjoys a walking break in the stunning surrounds of Connemara.

THERE was no sex in Ireland before television — this famous political quote from the 1960s sums up the mismatch between public debates and people’s private behaviour.

An Irish fashion designer who has been in the business just two years will see her work at the Oscars next weekend.

The celebrities championing the works of art in RTÉ’s Masterpiece campaign to discover Ireland’s favourite painting may be better known than the artists.

Most of the English-speaking world’s view of the 20th century is neatly enough book-ended by two entirely avoidable human tragedies.

People who are on the brink and can pay no more are “willing and ready to stand together” against the household charge, campaigners have claimed.

GOING on a weekend break with a surfer, a toddler and a bump takes a special kind of optimism.

DEFINITELY larger than it looks is this early to mid-1900s Galway bungalow – it even has managed to accommodate five bedrooms in it.

GALWAY breeders and owners enjoyed success at the Connemara Pony Show in Clifden.

WITH its thatch sprouting in fits and starts, this Renvyle, Co Galway home is as much in need of a comb-over as a makeover.

SEAN Brady, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Ireland is reported as having said that “Our (sic) children were sent to institutions either for poverty, or for petty larceny, or for simply absence from schools.”

A MAJOR rift has emerged in the Catholic Church over the handling of the child abuse scandal after 18 religious orders rejected urgings from the country’s two most senior clerics to reconsider their stance on the indemnity deal.

“MY story, which is true, should be published in my own name.”

I WOULD like to put on record that the pseudonym “Noah Kitterick” employed by the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse refers to Peter Tyrrell.

I repeat that I witnessed assaults regularly. I saw some boys get pretty serious beatings, although not enough to require hospitalisation, thankfully. Sometimes it happened for the most trivial of offences, such as speaking out of turn, being late for class or for being unable to answer a question correctly

FOR many of the thousands of children committed to the industrial and reformatory schools system, their only crime was poverty.

IT was with mixed feelings that I read recent reports about the Christian Brothers handing over their schools to a new trust.

MOST families will know of the great emotional and practical challenges involved in offering the endless support needed by a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister or even a neighbour’s child, born with intellectual difficulties.

MY recent performance on the Vincent Browne radio show discussion on the Child Abuse Commission has evidently been causing Ryle Dwyer sleepless nights. He has used a second column (Irish Examiner, January 28) to bash me.

THE political correctness controversy surrounding the recent remarks of Mary O’Rourke reached ludicrous proportions. The only thing racist in relation to her comments was the criticism.

THE sexual abuse of children at an industrial school in Galway was viewed by the Christian Brothers as a moral failure rather than a crime, an inquiry heard last night.

The Christian Brothers said today there was nothing out of the ordinary about the deaths of 100 boys during the history of their former industrial school in Galway.

PEOPLE with intellectual disability were yesterday given a new incentive to strive for independent living when a brochure on housing tailored to their needs was launched at the Brothers of Charity Service Users Conference in Bunratty.

THE leader of a victims support group yesterday described as “deeply offensive” remarks made by a Christian Brothers’ spokesman in relation to sexual abuse in industrial schools.

THE last year is the longest period of time Jason has been out of prison in the last 25 years.

I, like Dr Grimmer, may consider those aged between 13 and 17 as children, not adults, but this is not a distinction which the perpetrators of Palestinian terrorism make (The Irish Examiner, August 7).

DR Grimmer (The Irish Examiner, August 7) may consider Palestinians aged 13 to 17 as children, but this is a distinction which Palestinian terrorists make only when compiling statistics on casualties among their own people.

THE claim

Detectives investigating alleged child abuse at a reform school during the 1960s and 1970s were today exhuming the body of a 13-year-old boy.

Gardai have confirmed that the body of a 12-year-old boy, who died over thirty years ago, is to be exhumed as they investigate the circumstances of his death.