Packages found in body of man who died on Aer Lingus flight

Gardai are investigating the possibility that the man who died on board an Aer Lingus flight bound for Dublin yesterday may have been a drugs mule.

A number of suspicious packages were recovered during a post mortem on the body of the 24 year old Brazilian.

The post mortem was completed at Cork University Hospital this afternoon, and a number of packages removed from the man's body.

These have been sent for forensic testing, and Gardai investigating his death are also awaiting a toxicology report.

SOS note claiming to be from a Chinese prisoner found in Dublin Penneys store

A letter claiming to be an SOS message from a Chinese prisoner has been found in a packet of socks bought in Penneys store on Mary Street in Dublin.

The note was discovered by a shopper living in the capital, who found it hidden in the bottom of a sock and sent the document to Newstalk.

"I don’t think it is safe for women in Ireland to be pregnant" – Graham and Helen Linehan back campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment

Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan and his wife Helen have joined Amnesty International to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution, adding their voices and termination story to change what the couple describes as “Ireland’s barbaric abortion laws.”

In an interview with The Guardian published today, the co-creator of the 1990s sitcom Father Ted and his wife tell how Helen became pregnant in 2004 shortly after their wedding. But following a routine scan at 12 weeks, doctors informed the couple that the foetus Helen was carrying had developed acrania, a fatal-foetal abnormality meaning the baby's skull had not fully closed. The diagnosis meant their child could not survive outside of the womb.

Brian O'Driscoll dissects why things went wrong against Argentina

Brian O'Driscoll has dissected some of the reasons why Ireland tasted defeat to Argentina in yesterday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final.

The Ireland legend and Off The Ball guest presenter shared his thoughts on yesterday's disappointment on tonight's show.

"I've never seen Ireland defend as narrow as they did and the disappointing thing for me is that you could see it early on," he said.

"For me, the two biggest losses were Jonny at 10 and possibly from a defensive point of view, Jared at 13, just being able to pull guys out to the width." 

Adding that "unfortunately we lost too many of our key players" to injury, Brian also picked out another factor from the performance.

Smell on the street led garda to cannabis growhouse

A man was caught with a cannabis growhouse in his apartment after gardaí on patrol smelled the odour that was being carried onto a city centre street through a makeshift air-duct.

Sebastian Charzynski (30) was growing 45 cannabis plants in a specialised tent in this sitting room. He had placed a large air duct coming from the tent through opened windows in the apartment which carried the strong smell onto Dublin's Aungier Street.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Garda Patrick Martin told Grainne O'Neill BL, prosecuting that he suspected the smell was coming from Charzynski's apartment in the Grafton Hall complex after he went into the building, having first got the odour from the street while on routine patrol.