
'There'll never be another Big Tom' - Thousands turn out to bid farewell to country music legend
TEARS streamed down the faces of Big Tom’s devoted fans as they gathered at his graveside to sing together with the cream of Irish country...
TEARS streamed down the faces of Big Tom’s devoted fans as they gathered at his graveside to sing together with the cream of Irish country...
TEARS streamed down the faces of Big Tom’s devoted fans as they gathered at his graveside to sing together with the cream of Irish country...
No obstacle was too difficult for Big Tom's loyal fans to traverse. One fan recalled a journey of four-and-a-half hours on a Honda 50 to see him play in 1981. Another woman remarked on how a...
SINGERS TR Dallas, Margo and Derek Ryan were amongst those who came to pay their emotional respects to legendary singer Big Tom, at a...
A JUDGE has lifted reporting restrictions on the trial of two Ireland rugby players acquitted of rape.
The young woman in the witness box was asked by the barrister: “How did you feel being back at Paddy Jackson’s house?”
Many times we wondered who exactly had been put on trial here.
The complainant at the centre of allegations in the Ulster rugby case is "understandably upset and disappointed with the outcome".
Police in Northern Ireland say they hope the result of the rape trial of rugby stars Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding does not deter victims from coming forward.
Unusually, Dara Florence proved to be a crucial eyewitness witness at the heart of arguments for both the prosecution and the defence.
AMID a pressure cooker environment rare in its intensity, this would have been no easy trial for any judge.
ALL four defendants in the Belfast rape trial have been found not guilty on all charges.
The judge told the jury that the prosecution asks it to consider what the young woman at the centre of this has to gain by making these allegations;...
AFTER a lengthy delay in the morning for “technical reasons”, at last it was the turn of Judge Patricia Smyth to address the jury – but only on points of law.
The little joke Rory Harrison's lawyer had penned by way of an opener plopped silently like a pebble into a stagnant stream in the dense atmosphere of the courtroom.
'There were a lot of middle-class girls downstairs - they weren't going to tolerate a rape or anything like that," Stuart Olding's barrister assured the jury.
'You see these four men...doesn't look great, does it?" said Paddy Jackson's barrister, arm outstretched as he gestured towards the defendants, inviting the jury to consider them.
THERE was some understandable trepidation when it emerged that Brendan Kelly, QC for Paddy Jackson, had apparently ‘written a book’ on this trial – with his announcement that his closing statement would consist of no less than 15 chapters. By 4pm, he had still only reached chapter six.
THERE was a tense pause in the proceedings as Toby Hedworth QC, for the prosecution, shuffled some papers.
At the police station, the detective put it to Rory Harrison that out of every offence that might have allegedly been committed that night, he had guessed rape.
The prosecution case ended rather abruptly, with the rigorous probing by the defence of the chief police officers over how the case had been conducted.
At the start of this trial, much had been made of the 'timeline' and the painstaking preparation being done on it.
IT was "damage limitation", the detective had suggested to Rory Harrison during his final interview.
One of the reasons people drink alcohol, a defence barrister put it to the forensic medical examiner, is to induce a feeling of "well-being".
AFTER being arrested, Stuart Olding had told the police what he was wearing that night. This outfit had entailed a navy shirt, black jeans, black “boxer underwear” and brown shoes.
BY the end of her eight days in the witness box, the version of events put forward by the young woman who had given her evidence from behind a curtain had been well and truly established.
The young woman in the witness box was asked: "What was the last you heard of your friend?"
As is customary following the cross-examination by the defence, the prosecution was permitted to ask a few questions for clarification purposes.
'I'm not going to argue with you over grammar. You're not putting words in my mouth," the young woman told the lawyer, very deliberately and with no small amount of heat.
At one stage of the night in the sitting room, Rory Harrison's barrister claimed, his client had looked over the shoulder of a friend and formed the view that the young woman was looking at Paddy Jackson.
‘I was handled like a piece of meat,” the young woman told the barrister in slow succinct tones.
'I was handled like a piece of meat," the young woman told the barrister in slow succinct tones.
It was the most difficult and most painfully forensic day in the cross-examination so far.
IRELAND rugby captain Rory Best was asked to attend the rape trial of two international teammates by senior counsel, a court has heard.
A young woman who has accused two rugby internationals of rape broke down in court as a video of her police interview was shown to the jury.
IRELAND rugby captain Rory Best was among three Ulster teammates who were photographed arriving at Belfast Crown Court, as the trial reached its second day and the alleged victim entered the witness stand.
THAT this was an ordeal was all too painfully apparent.
THE young woman at the centre of the rape claims involving Ireland rugby player Paddy Jackson has told the trial at Belfast Crown Court that she decided to report it to the police because "rape is a game of power and control and they rely on your silence."
‘THIS case concerns a young woman going to an after-party with young sportsmen,” said the counsel for the prosecution, cautioning the jury that “there is a danger that stereotypical views are taken of what such a complainant should expect”.
THE young woman at the centre of a rape claim against Ireland rugby player Paddy Jackson and Ulster rugby player Stuart Olding sent a text to a friend the morning after the alleged assault saying she would not go to the police because it would be her word against theirs and "they have the backing of Ulster Rugby."
Jurors sworn in for the rape trial of Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding have been warned to "keep an open mind" during the hearing, which is expected to last for five weeks.
A jury sworn in for the rape trial of Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding have been warned to 'keep an open mind' during the hearing which is expected to last for five weeks.
Newly-weds Philip Tonge and his wife Laura are trying to save for a deposit for their own place but it's a mammoth task.
Gardaí are trawling 15,000 DNA profiles for any connections that will lead them to the parents of murdered Baby John.
Amid warnings by medics that a blast of Arctic air would only serve to worsen the spreading of the flu virus, the swirling snow and bitter wind outside the Midland Hospital in Tullamore served as yet another reminder that this crisis is far from over.
In his most famous speech from the movie 'Taken', Liam Neeson warns of having a "very particular set of skills...skills I have acquired over a very long career" before going on to warn his daughter's kidnapper that he will find him and kill him.
Peter Sutherland promoted globalisation because he saw it as "a means of lifting billions out of grim poverty and of countering narrow nationalism" - though his enthusiasm for the benefits "may have blurred his view of its downside", mourners at his funeral heard.
A group of students have claimed that they have discovered several mistakes in the aeronautical charts used by coast guard services in Ireland - as part of their scientific research for the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.
The hot cup of milk is an insomnia remedy almost as old as time itself - but how about ditching it for a kiwi?
The first Irish person set to travel to outer space will be inspiring young students at the 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology exhibition.
As a fully qualified chartered accountant, the shopkeeper who sold the winning €38.9m EuroMillions ticket would surely have some advice for her lucky customer who has become Ireland's latest multimillionaire.
What a way to banish the January blues.
A woman coming down the stairs raises her eyebrows as a nurse races past her. "Someone's in a hurry," she remarks.
It is an eye-rolling cliché to say a week is a long time in politics - but 2017 provided firm proof that clichés only become clichés because they are true.
Heroic, full of life and strength, the faces of Dara Fitzpatrick, Ciarán Smith, Paul Ormsby and Mark Duffy stand out as the most powerful and haunting images of the year, never to be forgotten.
Amid the fallout and helpless distress of the Hawe tragedy, with all its unanswered questions, yet another arises – where do we go from here?
ON the invitation of questions by the coroner, Mary Coll sat forward in her seat and addressed the psychiatrist directly, asking: "Do you never interview families?"
THE jury at the inquest into the deaths of five members of the Hawe family has found that Clodagh Hawe and her three sons were 'unlawfully killed' by Alan Hawe - before he killed himself.
What with the combination of animation, pitch and a sprinkling of deepest Tipp, it's fair to say it can be a little tricky to understand deputy Mattie McGrath when he's in full flow in the Dáil chamber.
Who knows what my job is?" asked the Taoiseach. One little girl shot up her hand. "Ruler of Ireland," she declared.
ONCE Conor McGregor's accountant and as a former pro boxer himself, liquidator Aidan Garcia is used to rolling with the punches.
Agitated huddles scarred the corridors in Leinster House. The joyous relief at being yanked back from the brink of a Christmas election was short - though most sweet.
Down at the pier in Buncrana, a heart-wrenching shrine of teddy bears and holy medals still remains.
Outside in the bitter cold, Louise James told how her heart has been left shattered.
Like a student of dubious industry and ability who had just done an urgent night's cramming before an exam in the hope it might suffice, Boris immediately rattled off everything he knew about Ireland before it escaped his head.
"Ireland thought they were in a stronger position than they actually were" throughout the Rugby World Cup bidding process, the chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union has said.
Darren Randolph - at the age of 11, he was a guest at Ronan Keating's first wedding, to model Yvonne Connolly. His father, Ed Randolph - a basketball player and coach from Florida, USA - had coached and befriended Yvonne in Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said it is 'not good enough' for the European Union, British government and the Irish Government to all say they are in favour of an open, frictionless Border and then to ultimately not find one that works.
You can tell the expert by the risks they are not willing to take. The Taoiseach's latest foray into self-promotion sees him move up with undue confidence from the amateur level of novelty socks to regular video posts and now to the advanced category of 'Man of the People'. This is a bold move, not for the faint-hearted.
'Oh yeah, Central Banking goes on, Long after the Troika's been and gone, bank on."
A hand-painted sign outside the town reads: "Best of luck to St Patrick's from Ballyragget Scout group."
When Tom Humphries was jailed for a mere two-and-a-half years for grooming and sexually abusing a young girl, he joined a notorious club of men who preyed on young women or girls, leaving shattered lives behind them.
Now reviled as a paedophile, Tom Humphries was lauded for many years as the best sports writer in the country. He once wrote that when somebody asked him why he wrote, he thought of the glass display cabinet that his great-grandfather made.
"I have the strength now to not let this wrong define me or overcome me with total despair," says Clare Stewart of the tracker mortgage scandal that darkened five years of her life, robbing her family of a sense of security.
Some of the worst-hit victims of the housing crisis are being forced to live in tents along the banks of the Royal Canal.
In Aglish, Co Kilkenny, Storm Ophelia has come at a sobering cost for farmer Thomas Dermody who lost two four-year-old Friesian dairy cows - electrocuted after a power line had come down in his field.
'Even Cromwell couldn't breach Clonmel... but a woman could," quipped a local man of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ophelia.
Statistically the chances are low - between two and five in every 100,000 women will develop a blood clot while taking the contraceptive pill.
Thousands of third level students from all over Ireland have protested the introduction of a student loan scheme, chanting: “Our future is at stake, we say no to student debt” and “Leo, Leo, debt is not the way to go.”
They arrived each day at Dublin Castle hand in hand. But their disparate testimonials delivered before the Disclosures Tribunal proved such a bizarre contrast to this outward harmony that far more questions were left hanging mid-air than answers.
"You were obviously keen to hitch your wagon to Sergeant McCabe's train, would that be fair?"
'Do you want to be involved in this Tribunal?" Marisa Simms was asked. Or with GSOC, or with the High Court proceedings? "Absolutely not," Ms Simms replied, with an emphasis that was almost ferocious. "I want peace."
The curtain rose with a swish on our two players for act one, scene two of this compelling new drama.
Fragile, rather precious and some half-cracked, the senators were taken out of their acid-free archival tissue paper and positioned thoughtfully - though without much ceremony - in the Ceramics Room of the National Museum.
In the foothills of Croagh Patrick, a gold All-Ireland medal gleams in the last rays of the setting sun, a tantalising talisman for what may come tomorrow.
A Garda on points duty. A teacher coaching first-year students in football. A shop owner selling his wares. All Mayo footballers, going about their business as normal in the run-up to what may turn out to be the most important clash of the last 66 years.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he does not believe women in Ireland are equal.
'I'm not much of a singer," said captain David Burke. But he knew who was. Step forward Paul Flaherty, with an embarrassed clear of the throat before the crowd of 15,000 that stood before him in anticipation, hoping that they knew what was about to come.
The West's Awake rang out once again as the triumphant Galway hurlers - minor and senior - received a heroes welcome in Ballinasloe, their first stop after crossing the Shannon.
He was a giant and a leader both on the field and off. But Ireland rugby great Willie Duggan was also a softie at heart who loved an epic weepie like 'Braveheart' and "poured his soul" into his granddaughter Jo and "loved her with every sinew of his body".
Barely three minutes had passed before the sheet fell off the bogeyman's head - and the scare factor never came back.
In a hot and stuffy room on the 19th floor of one of Toronto's fanciest hotels, a self-conscious few were attempting a sweaty type of nonchalance as they gathered at the fringes of a reception given by the Irish Ambassador to Canada. Their mission - a selfie with the new Taoiseach.
One of Canada's largest banks has ditched plans to exit Ireland after Brexit persuaded it to ramp up its operations instead.
A border similar to the one between the United States and Canada would not work on the island of Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Mid-way into the Taoiseach's speech, two large bin trucks rumbled by and, though he tried his best, he struggled to raise his voice loud enough to be heard over the hubbub of the big city.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has played down the decision by Noirin O'Sullivan to seek an exit from the force just halfway through her term as Garda Commissioner.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has rejected the idea of using the US Canadian border as a template for Ireland saying "make no mistake, it's a hard border."
European leaders will not allow the Brexit negotiations to move to the next phase unless Ireland is happy with progress made on the future of the Border, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
For someone so busy "swanning around Canada", Leo looked aghast at the idea that someone thought they had spotted him walking through the lobby wearing shorts.
Ireland will double its footprint overseas by 2025, to fulfill our ambition of being "an island at the centre of the world."
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has hit back at broadcaster George Hook's criticism on none other than the Twitter machine.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described claims by the British government that a Brexit trade deal would help progress on the future of the Irish Border as "common sense".
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett were cheered from the rafters as they marched in the Montreal Pride Parade on Sunday.
Trade, Brexit, abortion and the healthcare system were all on the table during a bi-lateral meeting between the Taoiseach and his Canadian counterpart.
An elderly woman recounted how she had come back from the hairdressers to see a crowd gathered near her home after the shooting.
It's perils are notorious - and just moments after arriving, we witness a fall first hand and at a very early stage in the climb.
'Have you got your legendary sponge?" quipped a fireman filling the tanks at Kilbrew in Ashbourne, Co Meath. Mick Byrne, the former physiotherapist for the Republic of Ireland soccer team, just chuckled, two 10-litre plastic drums in his hands as he waited.
Turns out it's not just the Taoiseach who harbours a fondness for 'Love Actually'.
There was time for just one more official department of Health announcement before the Minister tied the knot today.
Envious glances were doubtlessly cast across the Irish Sea from Montrose at the publication of BBC's gilded wages report.
"Come at me when I'm healthy and I'll fight you - but not when I'm sick when I can't," said Sandra O'Rourke-Glynn.
Fresh from their month-long honeymoon around the world, Pippa Middleton and her new husband, James Matthews, have landed up on these shores for her best friend's wedding.
From fidget spinners to sauce boats, the shelves of Tony Lipton's shop are heaving, in the modern day version of 'everything from a needle to an anchor'.