There were more than 15,000 people gathered in North Bull Island, Clontarf, today to see a host of kites up in the sky.

A further push to secure an internationally-based biosphere status for Kerry, and Killarney in particular, continues to face objections from a conservation organisation.

The Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports (CACS) is alarmed at the news that hares are now extinct on Dublin Bay’s North Bull Island, one of Ireland’s most important nature reserves and coincidentally one that for generations had been almost synonymous with the Irish hare.