Saturday/Sunday
GOVERNMENT spokesmen rejected reports that the Naval Service and the Air Corps were to be transformed into civilian bodies. Separate studies of both being done by Price Waterhouse consultants under the auspices of the Government's Efficiency Audit Group.
A Government spokesman said it was "entirely speculative" to say the consultations had urged that the services operate in future as civilian agencies.
Former newsreader Charles Mitchel died aged 76. He was Telefis Eireann's first newsreader when the service started in 1961, and remained so until his retirement in 1984.
Monday
Gardai seized cocaine and cannabis in Dublin with a street value estimated by the Garda at £1.5 million. In a linked operation, gardai searched a house in Clondalkin where they found 0.25kg of cannabis and stolen property. Two people were questioned and later released. At a house in Coolock they found 4kg of cocaine, along with gun cartridges and balaclavas. A man was questioned at Santry Garda station.
The Irish comic Ardal O'Hanlon was disqualified from the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on the grounds that he was "too big a star". The Perrier is a major stand-up comedy award, and is given to the best performer on the fringe.
Some 280 people have died in Ireland from AIDS-related illnesses, according to Government statistics, which showed that 11 people died in the last three months of this year. A further 16 new cases of the disease were reported.
Tuesday
The 22-year-old mother of the four children taken into care in Belfast last week denied they were not well cared for, and said she was the victim of a hate campaign.
Leaving Certificate students discovered it was easier to get into college this year, but more difficult than ever to secure a place on a high-points course such as medicine, physiotherapy and computing. The points requirements for university courses remained high, despite a fall of almost 4,000 applying to the Central Applications Office. Overall, however, points were down for down for slightly more than half of all university courses.
Police in Queensland, north Australia, were on the alert for three young Dubliners. The parents of one of the three received a telephone call from their daughter in Cairns, during which she sounded distressed. The group was later found safe and well.
Wednesday
A large Japanese tuna fishing fleet was reported to be "standing off" Irish fishery limits following the Naval Service's detention of one of its vessels about 180 miles west of Galway Bay. It was the first Japanese vessel to be arrested in Irish waters. It was also the first non-EU vessel to be detained in two years, and the 28th vessel so far this year.
The Department of Enterprise and Employment said it was carrying out inquiries into a Dublin financial services company, Taylor Asset Managers. The complaints are understood to relate to hinds belonging to two
Irish clients.
The contestants in the Rose of Tralee competition attended the traditional lunch in Dublin, before leaving for Kerry. Gay Byrne was there, but this year he will be a judge.
There was a tense stand-off between gardai and residents of homes in north inner-city Dublin after 300 people were involved in disturbances in the Summerhill area. According to gardai, a number of searches for drugs had been carried out and arrests made.
Thursday
About 500 people from the Summerhill area took part in a protest march against local drug dealers.
Mortgage rates were on the way up, with banks and building societies preparing to add around a quarter of a percentage point to their main variable rates of interest. The impact for most borrowers was expected to be modest. A bigger increase was averted following a decision by the Bundesbank to cut key German interest rates.
Members of a Co Antrim Protestant family who were driven into exile by loyalist paramilitaries two years ago returned to live in defiance of the death threat hanging over them. The couple, Charles and Agnes Kinkead, said they did not deserve to be sent into exile because "the UVF murdered a Roman Catholic fellow who did no harm to nobody".