A man who left dozens of people trapped in an apartment block after he set fire to an underground car park has been jailed for five years.

This week Denise O’Donoghue hears from Amy McColgan from Donegal, a blogger who is passionate about the Irish language and her vegan lifestyle.

Gardaí have launched a murder investigation following the death of a 36-year-old man in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

Two Irish architecture practices have won awards in a prestigious international competition, one for the design of a new secondary school in Donegal, the other for work on a parish hall in Malahide, north Dublin.

A moneylender has been found guilty of threatening to kill another man – because he owed him just €70.

Christmas Day TV produced an unlikely ratings battle between Mrs Brown’s Boys and Mrs Windsor’s message, with millions of viewers tuning into both.

The grandfather of Joshua Mangan, the toddler who died when he was struck by a van at his home, has said he holds nothing against the man who killed his grandchild.

A landmark City Hall vote has blocked the payment of conference and travel expenses to several Cork councillors.

Gardaí have been accused of stringing along a coroner and the family of murdered IRA spy Denis Donaldson with bogus claims.

A Garda sergeant, who was stabbed in the arm as he tried to arrest a troublemaker outside a nightclub feared he was going to bleed to death, a court heard.

A man who tried to stab his brother-in-law up to a dozen times during a Mass for his own brother has been found guilty of assault causing harm.

A perfume gang are targeting chemists across the country.

The Army Bomb Disposal Unit is searching for more devices at the scene of a booby-trap car bombing in Co Donegal.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has recorded a 103% rise since 2007 in the number of patients on trolleys at a time when 2,279 hospital beds remain closed.

The annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will hear calls today for a review of Ireland's currenty midwifery practice.

A priest has slammed the HSE for the lack of help given to his stepfather, who took his own life after being turned away by psychiatric services.

Gardaí say it will be later today before they know the cause of death of a mother-of-three who was found dead in her apartment.

Armed PSNI men have seized four mortar bombs just minutes before dissident republicans planned to blitz Derry’s main police station.

Double All-Ireland winner and 1950s Mayo GAA legend Pádraig Carney described the late Garda Robert McCallion as a hero as a new pitch was poignantly rededicated to his memory in Swinford, Co Mayo yesterday.

A man who had part of his face bitten off at a house party is recovering in hospital having undergone plastic surgery on his injuries.

PLAYING sport at any level, not to mind for your county, can take its toll on the body. For Andy Moran, 28, a Mayo GAA footballer who won his first All-Star in 2011, it was his hamstring in his left leg and lower back that gave him trouble.

PRESSURE is mounting for official Government inquiries into the response to child sex abuse in all Catholic dioceses after Church-sponsored audits showed serious failings by numerous bishops.

ABUSE victims have described the audit in Raphoe as a whitewash that was never going to uncover any new revelations.

FORMER conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf could make their first steps with new limbs as early next year.

The General Secretary of the Irish Postmasters Union has said he is not surprised that An Post says it needs to axe 2,000 jobs by 2015 as a result of the recession.

NEIGHBOURS of a woman who bred mice to feed her pet python say their house is now infested with rodents since she moved out.

MANY old and sick people came to look at a big man’s heart in the Mater Hospital in Dublin yesterday hoping to draw strength from it.

ABOUT 1,500 people attended a memorial service for rally crash victim Thomas Maguire in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, yesterday.

A series of eight business finance seminars to assist SMEs to gain greater understanding of financial, employment, tax and business supports information is to be held across the country in the coming weeks.

A MARRIAGE planned this week between a Pakistani man and a 19-year-old Latvian bride-to-be will not go ahead following a Garda investigation into bogus marriages.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern today led tributes to the young garda who died today after being injured in a head-on car crash.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a consultant surgeon and his wife against their convictions for defrauding almost €750,000 from insurance companies through a false breast cancer claim.

Two teenagers will appear in court today after a young garda mown down by car thieves was left fighting for his life.

The family of a young garda officer was keeping a bedside vigil tonight as he fought for life after being mown down by teenage car thieves.

PAYMENTS to GPs under the medical card scheme and other State subsidies more than trebled in the past decade, reaching a record €440 million last year.

PAYMENTS to GPs under the medical card scheme and other state subsidies more than trebled in the past decade, reaching a record €440 million last year.

DSG Retail Ireland is looking to grow its network of Currys and PC World operations to 50 stores within the next five years in a move that would create close to 750 jobs.

Travellers are to decide today whether to wage a national campaign demanding ethnic minority recognition.

JUDGE Patrick McCartan described the fraud as “a clever scheme of deceit”.

A consultant surgeon who defrauded almost €750,000 from insurance companies through a false breast cancer claim has been jailed for four years by Judge Patrick McCartan.

The jury in the €700,000 breast cancer insurance fraud trial has been told by the prosecuting counsel that the evidence could lead to only one conclusion: "This was a clever, elaborate and dishonest fraud."