New chapters beckon at the premises of one of Cork City’s longest-established bookshops, Connolly’s, as owner Adrian Connolly prepares to retire after decades dealing in old and rare books, new books, and records.

AFTER the excesses of Easter what better way to shed extra kilos than to add nutrient-rich grains in your diet.

Rank-and-file gardaí are demanding the garda watchdog make a full apology to two of their colleagues who were charged with causing harm to a violent youth they were forced to subdue with pepper spray — and then had the charges against them dismissed.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has served disciplinary papers on one of the gardaí who were cleared in court of wrongdoing after they used pepper spray to subdue a violent youth.

Frontline gardaí have lost confidence in their watchdog’s ability to run fair and impartial internal investigations, said a senior member of the Garda Representative Association.

The refusal of the State to pay the legal costs of two gardaí prosecuted for assault, despite no evidence of wrongdoing, is an unfair and spiteful response to the outcome of a criminal trial that should never have happened.

Representatives of rank-and-file gardaí have launched an attack on the Ombudsman Commission after two members were left to pay their own legal bills after being cleared of assaulting a violent teenager whose own mother described him as “an absolute gurrier of the highest order”.

Two gardaí who were accused of assaulting a teenager with pepper spray following his arrest in Cork City have been cleared after the charges were withdrawn yesterday.

After stormy weekend weather caused significant damage and hampered Christmas shopping in towns and cities across the country, more of the same is likely later this week.

THE head of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) has blamed the banks for the collapse of a well-known travel agency.

A GEORGIAN national who bought a bag of heroin for e25 outside a Cork city shopping centre died after taking an overdose, an inquest heard yesterday.

AT a time when the art market is awash with cash and artists have never had it so good, the news that the only things hanging in two local Cork art galleries are ‘to let’ signs has been greeted with some surprise.