Eva Loeffler has the strongest of connections with both disability and Paralympic sport: she and her father both devoted decades to the causes. The woman appointed as mayor of the Paralympic Village spent a day there yesterday and said: "The atmosphere is absolutely amazing. I'm having a marvellous time – everybody's spoiling me."

Katie Taylor had the raucous support of thousands on both sides of the Irish Sea

Worldwide, only Vietnam experienced a greater drop in those describing themselves as religious

He was once Ireland's richest man. But now Sean Quinn is bankrupt, under siege from the Irish government – and an unlikely local hero

The author Maeve Binchy was for 30 years the queen of Irish popular fiction, collecting a series of major awards for the 16 novels which sold 40 million copies all over the world. Yet part of the reason why the Irish prime minister Enda Kenny yesterday described her as "a national treasure" was the outsize personality which came across powerfully not just in her writing but in her broadcasts and personal appearances.

A collection of dangerous dissident republican factions in Northern Ireland yesterday announced they were coming together under a single leadership to combine their sporadic campaigns of violence.

Ireland's most criticised banker appeared yesterday in a Dublin court facing sixteen charges following a major investigation into alleged financial irregularities at Anglo Irish Bank.

Zak Gilsenan wins place at prestigious academy with seven-goal blitz

Amid scenes of jubilation, two workers at a luxury hotel were today acquitted of the murder of a Northern Ireland woman killed while on honeymoon on the holiday island of Mauritius.

Major Hugh Dawnay was a passionate horseman who followed family tradition by serving in the army and then devoting himself to polo, becoming an internationally recognised expert.