Members of the Defence Forces faced charges including assault and negligent driving last year, according to new military data.

They say they are the only public sector workers without access to the Labour Court.

An Army private who went missing for a total of 509 days was fined 10 days’ pay and given a severe reprimand but was found not guilty of desertion.

Pat Shortt and Ruth Bradley star in a new comedy drama from the makers of much-loved TV show, Pure Mule, writes Esther McCarthy

Enda Kenny has received a judge’s report on the inspection of bugging activities by gardaí and the army but refused to confirm details of surveillance. The annual report on the interception of phonecalls, emails and post was delivered to the Taoiseach this month.

An Air Corps officer has launched several High Court challenges aimed at preventing his court martial from going ahead.

It was obvious that Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney was earnest when he promised the support of Government for Reaching New Heights, says John Tynan.

Some 20 years after predictions were made of a ‘Catholic restoration’, the Church finds itself lost in modern Ireland, writes TP O’Mahony

A soldier tragically fell to his death from a bathroom window at McKee Barracks after returning from a night out, an inquest heard.

Assault, theft, and fraud are among the offences that resulted in members of the Defence Forces facing courts-martial last year, while one soldier was jailed for three days for going absent without leave (AWOL).

Gardaí and military investigations are under way into the circumstances of the death of a 32-year-old solider in Dublin yesterday.

Military police and gardai have launched an investigation after the death of a soldier at a barracks in Dublin.

A soldier has died at an army barracks in Dublin, in what the Defence Forces are describing as a "tragic accident".

No member of the Army Equitation School is paid in excess of €80,000 per annum.

The final headquarters of the 1916 rising has been allowed to degenerate into a slum, the Dáil heard.

Gardaí investigating the murder of Malawian student and former Sunday School teacher Rudo Mawere are exploring whether she knew her killer and if she died close to where her body was found.

AS Ireland’s eventing riders go through an intensive training period in a final push to secure a team place in the Olympics, rider Michael Ryan noted how the vagaries of the sport impacted on him and his wife four years ago.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II was formally welcomed to Ireland by the President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday at her first official engagement at the start of her historic four-day state visit.

Prince Albert II of Monaco wished the Government every success tackling economic woes as he strolled through Dublin with his fiancée on a three-day State visit.

Prince Albert II of Monaco has arrived in Ireland at the start of a three-day state visit.

A commemorative mass will be held in Dublin this morning to remember those who died in the 1916 Easter Rising.

A 24-year-old naval service sailor has been jailed for three months and discharged from the Defence Forces for texting the location of his ship to his girlfriend.

The lawyer representing a 24-year-old naval service sailor has told his court martial there was nothing sinister in his disclosing the whereabouts of his vessel to his girlfriend by text.

IN a landmark case involving national security, a member of the Navy is to be charged before a military court next month with allegedly supplying secret information to smugglers.

One of Ireland’s highest military honours was today awarded to a veteran peacekeeper for his work in war-torn Chad.

The Irish general who commanded the EU peacekeeping mission in Chad is due to be presented with a Distinguished Service Medal by the Minister for Defence today.

The Irish general who commanded the EU peacekeeping mission in Chad is being awarded with the Distinguished Service Medal.

THE UN takeover of a peacekeeping mission in Chad involving 400 Irish troops could see a request to the Government to send even more soldiers to the war-torn region.

Almost 400 troops bound for troubled African state Chad went on parade in Dublin today ahead of joining the tough peace enforcement mission.

IRISH troops serving in Kosovo will be paid a pre-Christmas visit by Taoiseach Brian Cowen as part of his one-day visit to the newly independent country.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen will tomorrow make a pre-Christmas visit to Irish troops serving in Kosovo.

RTÉ is to televise a live Christmas Day link-up with Irish peacekeepers serving in Chad and Kosovo, it emerged today.

Half a century of Irish peacekeeping in the world’s trouble spots will be marked with a new exhibition in the National Museum.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen paid tribute to the Defence Forces as veteran soldiers and army chiefs celebrated 50 years of peacekeeping missions.

THE Irish army general heading the EU mission to Chad yesterday said troops were well-received by villagers there so far but the country was still volatile.

A soldier who absconded from McKee Barracks in Dublin has been arrested.

ARMY representatives yesterday warned soldiers to report any approaches made to them by criminals after it emerged a young private is being investigated by gardaí for handling illegal firearms.

Some 400 Irish troops will be finally deployed to Chad at the end of the month, the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea confirmed today.

THE piano in Con O’Neill’s childhood home resonated with history even when its keys were quiet.

GOVERNMENT ministers, especially Brian Cowen, will soon tell us we’ve never had it so good and that we should re-elect them next May.

IF I defied a Supreme Court injunction and then burned evidence in defiance of a subsequent court order, I wonder what would become of me.

A 105-year-old War of Independence veteran who served alongside Michael Collins, died today.

IN recent months there has been an exchange of correspondence in your letters columns regarding the actions of republicans against Protestant people in Cork during and after the Tan war.