Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has confirmed Garda recruitment will recommence today with an estimated 300 posts being offered.

A murdered pregnant nanny was beaten to death and her body put in a barrel and buried, sources have confirmed.

Detectives searching for pregnant nanny Aoife Phelan have begun digging ground at the rear of a house in her home town.

Farmers have welcomed the timely issuing of €538m by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney in the initial payments run for the Single Farm Payment (SFP).

PLAYING sport at any level, not to mind for your county, can take its toll on the body. For Andy Moran, 28, a Mayo GAA footballer who won his first All-Star in 2011, it was his hamstring in his left leg and lower back that gave him trouble.

A former leading member of the Provisional IRA and prison escaper was one of four men who appeared at the Special Criminal Court today charged with possessing equipment to make counterfeit money.

More than 2,000 people have attended a protest in Portlaoise, Co Laois this afternoon, in opposition to the downgrading of services at the local hospital.

MORE than 23,500 places in 20 new schools and 32 extensions have been promised as part of the Government’s €579 million school building programme.

A HIGH COURT judge has expressed concern the credit crisis is leading to “a much greater risk of failure” for companies placed under court protection.

PRISON Service bosses last night said Wayne O’Donoghue’s release from prison tomorrow would be handled in the same way as that of any other inmate, unless there was a threat to his safety or public order.

Gardaí are tonight investigating an armed robbery at Castlecomer Post Office in Kilkenny.

A Nigerian asylum seeker forced to flee religious persecution in his homeland was today elected Ireland's first black mayor.

One year after the Government’s decentralisation programme was announced, plans for the first batch of relocations were revealed.

Building firm Grafton plc has added two new companies to the group with the acquisition of The Telford Group Limited in Ireland and Plumbline Supplies Limited in Scotland for a total cost of €40m.

The head of the Irish Air Corps made a dawn flight today to mark the 75th anniversary of the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic by air.

The 75th anniversary of the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic by air will be marked this weekend by a repeat flight in a modern-day propeller aircraft.