The sun shone like one of the many rhinestones at the Marquee in Cork as the rather mixed crowd strolled down the Monaghan Road.

A €4.5m transformation of Marina Park, Cork, will get under way in September which is set to restore the area to its former Victorian splendour.

A multinational firm with its European headquarters in Cork has been acquired by an American company for €36m.

Householders and businesses are braced for the risk of further flash floods and crippling clean up costs as weather forecasters tonight warned of more heavy rain.

Power has been restored to all customers in the Cork suburb of Douglas following major flooding overnight, the ESB has confirmed.

ESB Networks is appealing to residents all over Cork to conserve electricity today, as they try to get customers back online after power outages caused by flooding.

More than 50 homes and many businesses were flooded and several thousand left without power after 50mm of rain fell in a seven-hour period across Cork.

An investigation is underway into the cause of a fire at a car dealership in Cork city.

HEAVY rain caused major problems for commuters yesterday morning and even motorways succumbed to the deluge.

A PRESTIGIOUS motorbike race which recorded winners such as the late World Championship winner Joey Dunlop and legendary Isle of Man TT champion Philip McCallen is to return after an absence of 18 years.

PLANNING is expected to be granted today for three bridges over the River Lee to help kick-start one of the state’s most ambitious regeneration projects.

Police today confirmed a 25-year-old man died in a road accident in Co Armagh.

A LORRY driver was killed when his out-of-control milk tanker ploughed into three houses, narrowly missing several people including a mother and her sleeping teenage son.

A lorry driver was killed when his out-of-control milk tanker ploughed into three houses, narrowly missing several people including a mother and her sleeping teenage son, emergency services said today.

A HACKNEY driver is recovering from a terrifying ordeal when two passengers forced him to flee from gardaí at gunpoint.

NEARLY 1,000 people had to be evacuated after hydrochloric acid leaked from a tank, forming a potentially lethal vapour which spread to adjoining industrial estates.

THIS is a little beauty — plain and simple.

Over €3m worth of cocaine has been uncovered as part of an extensive garda operation to tackle organised crime, it was confirmed today.

Detectives hunting the killers of a dissident republican in Northern Ireland want to trace three vehicles seen in the area where his body was found, it emerged today.

A 14-year-old boy died and two other teenagers were injured in a crash involving a stolen car in Cork city today.

A man and a woman have died in separate overnight road accidents in Co Louth and Cork city last night.

I AM confused by the Government decision to scrap plans to install a toll on the M2 motorway which will run alongside the present N2 route in Co Meath and will be the main Monaghan road to Dublin.

A CITY council vote against plans to build a skateboard park in Cork was described as a kick in the teeth for young people by a city councillor yesterday.

STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN (Cycleways Lee Strand) won his first national senior title in the All-Ireland Criterium Championship around the famed Monaghan Road circuit in Cork yesterday.

A male pedestrian has been killed after he was struck by a car in Co Monaghan.

Security chiefs in Northern Ireland are preparing to pull down two Army observation towers along the border today, despite concerns over dissident republican activity.

Police escaped injury in a bomb attack on their patrol car in Armagh, it was disclosed today.

A GANG of thieves made an unusual withdrawal yesterday, when they ripped an ATM machine out of a wall and drove away with it in the back a stolen lorry.

A 20-year-old Ukrainian man has died after being hit by a car while out walking in Co Monaghan this morning.

Gardai have named the two men who died when their car was in a collision with a lorry on the Dublin to Monaghan road in Co Louth last night.

Gardai in Co Monaghan are investigating a hit-and-run incident in Castleblaney early this morning.

British Army explosives experts defused a device found in the garden of an unoccupied house in north Belfast last night.

A roadside bomb attack by dissident republicans is believed to been foiled by police and troops in Northern Ireland, RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan confirmed today.

Police officers in Northern Ireland came within a split-second of death when a bomb was hurled at their patrol car.

A security operation is underway in Co Armagh following the discovery of a suspect device last night on the Monaghan Road.