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A spike in the number of deaths in recent weeks has disrupted funeral arrangements and put mortuaries under unprecedented stress. An Irish Examiner analysis of death notices on the website rip.ie shows there were 9,718 published in the eight-week period from December 1, 2022, to January 25, 2023 — up 20% from 8,075 in the same period a year earlier. The figure is also considerably higher than the 8,135 death notices published in the same period to January 25, 2021, when the country was in the grip of the worst period of the Covid pandemic. Pre-pandemic, 6,802 death notices were...

New research looks set to answer a long-standing question about the status of a mysterious tomb-like structure uncovered in Cork Harbour many years ago. Archaeologists have been split as to whether it was prehistoric or a more recent 19th-century “folly”. However, Connemara-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons now says there is conclusive evidence the Carraig á Mhaistin stone structure at Rostellan on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour is a megalithic dolmen. Mr Gibbons has also discovered a previously unrecognised cairn close to the dolmen which would have been concealed by rising sea levels, and which he is reporting to the National...

The men whose centuries-old remains were found buried under a landmark Cork city pub with their hands tied behind their backs “met a violent and gruesome end”, archaeologists have confirmed.And it has also emerged that a second major archaeological discovery, a 1,000-year-old defensive ditch, found nearby on the site of the former Nancy Spain's pub on Barrack Street suggests that the mediaeval city was bigger than previously thought...The nature of the gruesome find made headlines around the world.It has now been confirmed that the skeletal remains of six people in total, all male, were found on the site.Four were dumped...

An abandoned cargo ship has landed on the coast of Ireland after spending more than a year drifting alone at sea. The Irish Coast Guard said it responded to the vessel aground near Ballycotton, Cork on Sunday and discovered there was no one was on board. It turns out that the mysterious vessel is the 250-foot Tanzanian-flagged merchant ship Alta, which had been adrift since the U.S. Coast Guard rescued all 10 crew members on board after the vessel lost power while en route from Greece to Haiti in September 2018. At the time of the rescue, the U.S. Coast...

Update: 7.25pm: Gardaí believe three men wearing balaclavas were involved in today's shooting in Coolock. They understand that the three left the scene in a silver Toyota Avensis with a registration number 04-D-71806, which was found burnt out in the Castletymon Gardens area of Coolock at around 3.45pm. The scene has been preserved for a forensic examination and a post mortem will take place tomorrow.

A man was blasted to death on Tuesday afternoon at the family home of a pal murdered last week. Hamid Sanambar, in his 40s, and originally from Iran but living in Ireland for several years, was blasted in the head by a gunman. He was standing in the garden of the Little home on Kilbarron Avenue in Dublin’s Coolock, when he was struck by a hail of bullets.

An Iranian man who got political asylum in Ireland met three Cork men through road bowling in the county and they got together for a raid on a brothel in the city. Hamid Sanambar, aged 38, with an address at Dominic St, Cork, at the time pleaded guilty to robbing one woman of a laptop, phone and cash to the amount of €1,060 and £250 sterling at the premises on Cove St, Cork, on September 2, 2012. He also admitted robbing a laptop, phone and €3,000 from another woman, and robbing €100 from a man at the premises and entering...

Two Irish groups regularly fly the Confederate flag and one of the flags was seen on television on Sunday at a major sporting event despite the weekend deaths in Charlottesville and the white supremacist supporters widely waving the Confederate flag. It also flew Sunday at Dublin’s premier sporting grounds in Croke Park in Dublin. Supporters of the Cork team, which played Waterford in the All-Ireland hurling semifinal before over 72,000 people in Croke Park, were seen flying the flag during television coverage of Sunday’s game. The Cork hurling and football teams are known as “The Rebels” and have long used...

The president of Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has implored fans of the County Cork teams to stop waving the Confederate flag during games. Fans of Cork (“the Rebel County”), whose colors are red and white, are known for flying a range of flags from around the world emblazoned with those colors. Some fans have a preference for the US Confederate flag because of the red and the white and because of the “rebel” connotations. This allegiance has been a source of controversy in the past, with activist groups in Ireland calling for a ban on the use of the...

An Argentinian car mechanic has invented a potentially life-saving device that could be used to help deliver babies when complications occur during labour. Jorge Odón, 59, designed the instrument which could be safer than forceps, a ventouse, or a Caesarean section, in a non-hospital setting. The Odón Device uses a polyethylene sleeve, fixed around the baby's head, to pull the child down the birth canal.

Up and Down Like a Cork? by John D. Morris, Ph.D. * In a prior column, I pointed out that Earth’s strata, which often lay conformably one on top another, are believed to be separated by millions of years of time, according to traditional thinking.1 The dates—derived by radioisotope dating, the fossil content, or whatever means—often indicate that the top of one bed is much older than the bottom of the overlying bed. This age difference claim is made in spite of the fact that the layers are right on top of each other—clearly appearing like their deposition was continuous....

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose, and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

Protestors burn the Israeli flag outside Leinster House during the Ireland Palestine demonstration in Dublin today. Photo: Matt Kavanagh A man attempted to set himself alight at a protest today in Dublin over the continued bombing of Gaza. The man, who appeared visibly distraught, set his arms and shoulders alight before onlookers managed to extinguish the flames. He was not seriously injured. The incident happened at around 1.45pm this afternoon at the Central Bank in Dublin where around 600 people had gathered to protest at Israeli attacks in Gaza. The protest continued without incident to Leinster House and finished this...

Last week, I took my favorite train to one of my favorite parts of the city, Main Street, Flushing, and a world unto itself. After soaking up some of the exuberant street life, I hopped a bus to Whitestone, Queens, and a cozy house on a tree-lined thoroughfare of clipped hedges and tidy lawns. This is a tranquil neighborhood. There’s a seminary up the road. It’s the perfect outpost for someone who’s helped restore your faith in humanity. He was already a legend when I met him at the Irish Echo, 24 years ago. They said his generosity was incomparable,...

Archaeologists uncover county’s ‘first capital’ By Sean O’Riordan21 August 2007 ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have discovered what may have been Cork’s ancient capital, built 3,200 years ago at a time when Rameses III was pharaoh of Egypt. A team of archaeologists from UCC, led by Professor William O’Brien, have carried out extensive research that sheds new light on what is the largest prehistoric monument in Co Cork and the oldest dated ringfort in the country. Their three-year project, funded by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy, shows that huge wooden defence walls once...

The demand came into Israel's Foreign Ministry from the Swedish ambassador in Tel Aviv demanding an explanation. A Swedish ISM activist, a woman named Tove Johansson, was struck in the face by those nasty settlers in Hebron. Johansson, 19, was in Hebron demonstrating with the ISM through one of its "Christian peacemaker" groups. She chose to be there during an international Shabaton bringing Jews from all over the world to celebrate Judaism in King David's former capital. Johansson was armed with a video camera. The ISM likes to film Jewish settlers off guard, like when the settlers chase Arabs off...

MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Sammy Sosa was once one of baseball's most popular figures, a prodigious home run hitter who raced enthusiastically to his position and tapped his heart to salute adoring fans in the Wrigley Field bleachers. Now one season after his bitter departure from the Chicago Cubs, the 37-year-old Sosa is probably headed to retirement, his days of circling the bases over. If that is the case, he leaves behind a conflicting legacy. "I imagine it's frustrating when you get to this point in your career and you can't get a guaranteed contract. I can't imagine what that...

Sammy Sosa recently got a sympathetic phone call from a guy who knows something about being ripped an lampooned.Bill Clinton told Sosa to hang in there.Sosa will learn today if he, agent Tom Reich or Cubs President Andy MacPhail spoke persuasively enough at his hearing Tuesday with Major League Baseball officials to have his eight game suspension reduced by a game or two.Sources said Major Leage Bseball will probably release its decision by mid morning.

COOPERSTOWN, New York-Tests conducted on five of Sammy Sosa's game bats donated to the National Basball Hall of Fame revealed no cork, unlike the infmaous one he used Tuesday night, the museum announced Thursday.The Hall of Fame had X-Rays taken of three bats Wednesday, and CT scans of two others on Thursday.MConducted by a radiologist at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, the tests were negative.

Walker: Sosa's Explanations Don't Add Up 1 hour, 23 minutes ago By BEN WALKER, AP Baseball Writer Sammy Sosa said all the right things. It was a mistake. It was for the fans. It was an accident that will not happen again. A lot of explanations and excuses. And about as hard to believe as many of those 500-foot monster shots he launches. On Wednesday, X-rays showed that 76 of Sosa's bats confiscated a day earlier were clean. Which would mean he somehow hit a 1-in-77 chance of bad luck. Hmmmm. Sosa insists he was using a lighter, corked bat...