The Ombudsman for Children is to investigate why two children were taken from their Roma families and put into State care.

A blonde haired, blue-eyed schoolgirl removed from a Roma family will be reunited with her parents after DNA tests proved she is their daughter.

DNA tests are to be carried out on a seven-year-old girl taken into care from a house in Tallaght to see if she is the biological child of her Roma parents.

Signs of a feud between Traveller families gearing up in Tralee again this summer led yesterday to a public appeal from Pavee Point for families involved to “take a step back”.

A Romanian teenager, whose remains were found in a shallow grave in the Wicklow Mountains last month, is being remembered in Dublin this evening.

A group representing Travellers has said the violent scenes witnessed at a horse fair in Dublin yesterday were down to a small minority of people.

EIGHT people were brought to court on assault and public order charges last night in Westmeath after a riot involving up to 200 people at a local housing estate.

Tougher laws are needed to move on members of the Travelling community who camp unlawfully in towns and villages across Ireland, it was claimed tonight.

GARDAÍ suspect serious criminals from the Travelling community were behind the partial destruction of a local authority-owned golf course in Dublin.

John Breslin