Saturday/Sunday
Six sites were identified to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains as the burial places of IRA victims, in Louth, Monaghan, Meath and Wicklow.
The commission was informed that the body of Jean McConville, who was abducted from her home in Belfast in 1972, was buried under a car park at Templetown beach, five miles from Carling ford, Co Louth. After extensive excavation, nothing was found.
Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem with Take Me to Your Heaven, sung by Charlotte Neilsson. Ireland had one of its lowest scores in the history of the contest, receiving just 18 points for When You Need Me, sung by the Mullan sisters, Bronagh and Karen, from Belfast.
Some 40,000 members of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association gathered for a rally at Croke Park to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, was the chief celebrant and the homily was delivered by Cardinal Francil Arinze from Nigeria, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Controversy surrounding the Bloody Sunday inquiry intensified as families of the 14 victims reacted to the support of the British Secretary for Defence, Mr George Robertson, for the soldiers concerned. The 17 members of the Parachute Regiment were claiming anonymity in the inquiry into the 1972 killings, on the grounds that they would be in danger if their names were revealed.
Monday
Following the death in South Lebanon of Pte William Kedian (21), from Station Road, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, the United Nations protested to Israel and a formal complaint by the Government was being prepared in Dublin. Israeli army sources admitted the South Lebanon Army was responsible for the fatal mortar fire at Brashit. Pte Ronnie Rushe (23), from Boggadh, Co Offaly, was seriously injured by shrapnel.
The Guinness family is selling its seat in Ireland, a mansion with up to 40 acres of land on the edge of the Phoenix Park in Castle knock, Co Dublin. Farmleigh is estimated to be worth between £10 and £15 million.
EU foreign ministers reacted angrily to UEFA's refusal to postpone or cancel a match between Yugoslavia and the Republic scheduled for today. An analysis of CAP reforms by two Teagasc economists said the expected decline in the number of farmers between now and 2007 would mean that farm incomes would remain at 1998 levels.
A new third-level campus for Dublin's docklands was announced. It is due to open in 2001 on a 1.3-acre site donated by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
Tuesday
The "revolving-door" system in prisons would be ended in the autumn, when restrictions on the temporary release of prisoners and new bail laws came into effect, the Minister for Justice said. Mr O'Donoghue said the categories of offenders who would not be eligible for temporary release because of overcrowding would be extended.
The Taoiseach appealed for any further information on where the IRA placed the bodies of the disappeared. Mr Ahern hoped any information would be passed to the Garda and members of the commission. He was replying to the Labour Party leader, Mr Quinn, who referred to the "extraordinary agony" which the families were going through.
Wednesday
The Department of Agriculture moved quickly to detain all Belgian poultry and egg produce in circulation in the Republic, following concern that it could contain a cancer-causing dioxin. The EU ordered the removal from sale and destruction of all Belgian chickens, eggs and poultry products throughout Europe.
The Government's consultation process on genetically modified foods was derailed by the withdrawal of 19 organisations, all opponents of the way GM foods are being introduced to Ireland.
The trial began in the Special Criminal Court of Mr Brian Meehan, a Dublin man accused of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. It was disclosed that the number of asylum-seekers gaining refugee status on appeal had risen considerably in recent months, as new legal proceedings started to take effect. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said that in the first five months of the year, 34 per cent of asylum-seekers were granted refugee status on appeal after they had been refused.
The Provisional IRA and loyalist paramilitaries killed five people and exiled 600 others since the signing of the Belfast Agreement, according to a report published by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau.
The Government said it would refuse visas to the Yugoslavian soccer team, thereby causing the match to be cancelled.
Thursday
Fewer than a quarter of Ireland's 350,000 people with disabilities were likely to vote in the European and local elections, the State's largest disability organisation warned.
The State was likely to pay out £377 million in compensation to people infected with the hepatitis C virus, the Secretary General of the Department of Health told a Dail committee.
Supermarkets started removing products which use Belgian poultry and egg ingredients from their shelves after strong warnings from the Food Safety Authority and the Department of Health about their safety.