A canopy-style roof on a public section of Waterford’s city centre is part of a €17.3m urban renewal programme due to begin next month.

Gloomy gable ends and scruffy shopfronts are among 24 sites in Waterford’s city centre scheduled for a spectacular makeover in the next few days.

A murder investigation was under way last night into the death of a “devoted dad” who may have been lying dead in an abandoned building for up to 24 hours before his body was found by teenagers.

Gardaí in Waterford are treating as suspicious the death of a man whose body was found in a disused building yesterday evening.