Campaigning continues today ahead of the impending general election, with the various political parties battling for media attention on the main policy issues.

GRIEF-STRICKEN communities in Co Limerick were last night trying to come to terms with the road accident deaths of two men, both husbands and fathers, who had dedicated their lives to the service of the State.

Gardaí and prison officials are investigating the overnight death of an inmate at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise.

Two men and a woman were killed in a serious car crash near Portlaoise earlier this afternoon.

A garda has been shot dead following an aborted raid on the Allied Irish Bank in Abbeyleix, Co Laois.