The number of people who were murdered or died violently in the State has increased by 20 per cent over the past year, according to provisional Garda figures.
Sixty murders and violent deaths, including cases of manslaughter, were recorded over the past 12 months compared to 50 the year before.
The number of murders and violent deaths in 2001 was also higher than in each of the previous five years.
However, the Garda Press Office has emphasised that the figures for 2001 and 2000 are still provisional, as investigations are continuing. In addition the Garda's annual report for 2000 still hasn't been published, although publication is expected soon. Problems with the Garda's new multi-million-pound computerised information system are understood to have contributed to the delay.
Figures from its previous annual reports show there were 38 murders and nine cases of manslaughter in the State in 1999, 38 murders and 13 manslaughters in 1998, 38 murders and 15 manslaughters in 199, and 42 murders and four manslaughters in 1996.
For earlier years, figures are available for murders only. There were 41 murders in 1995, 25 in 1994, 23 in 1993 and 25 in 1992.
Among the high-profile homicides in the State in 2001 were those of an elderly nun, Sister Philomena Lyons, just weeks ago in Ballybay, Co Monaghan; that of a German journalist, Bettina Poeschel, whose body was discovered at Donore, Co Meath, in October; and of a Romanian national, Adrian Bestea, whose body was discovered in a suitcase in the Royal Canal, Dublin, in July. Individuals have been charged in connection with each of these.
Also included in last year's murder statistics are a number of infanticide, including the death of six-year-old Deirdre Crowley who was shot by her father, Christopher, before he turned the gun on himself; and of two-year-old Robyn Leahy in Callan, Co Kilkenny, in November. She was stabbed by her father before he turned the knife on himself..