Ballybunion drownings
The siblings who died in a suspected drowning incident off Ballybunion Beach have been named locally.
The brother and sister, who got into difficulty in the water in Co Kerry on Thursday evening, were pronounced dead at the scene.
They have been named as Desmond Byrne (50) and his sister Muriel Eriksson (62).
Mr Byrne, who was originally from Athlone, was living in Lecarrow, Co Roscommon, while Ms Eriksson had an address in Malmo, Sweden.
Their bodies were removed from the scene by ambulance and taken to the mortuary in University Hospital Kerry in Tralee where post-mortem examinations are due to get underway.
Major drug seizure
Gardaí have seized 120kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of €8.4 million and a light aircraft following a series of searches across multiple counties, resulting in the arrest of two men.
The drugs were discovered after officers attached to the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau, supported by other national units, intercepted two vehicles shortly after 6pm on Thursday at two locations in the Lough Owel area of Co Westmeath.
Follow-up searches were conducted at residential properties in Naas, Co Kildare and Waterford City, while a commercial airfield in Co Longford was also searched by officers where the light aircraft was seized.
In a separate operation, a man was arrested following a drug seizure worth €90,500 in Bray, Co Wicklow.
Galway lotto win
Celebrations are underway in Galway City where the winning ticket for Wednesday night's €5.5 million Lotto draw was purchased.
The lucky ticket was bought in Newspoint newsagent in the Galway Shopping Centre on Headford Road on Sunday, July 31st.
The National Lottery confirmed the winner has made contact, but offered no further details on the "Galway player".
Monkeypox advice
The HSE is to issue advice on vaccination to groups who are most at risk from contracting monkeypox in the coming weeks, the head of Ireland’s national immunisation programmes has said.
It follows on from calls made on Thursday to speed up the rollout of the smallpox vaccine to at-risk groups, after health authorities confirmed a further 12 cases of monkeypox, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 97.
Last week, the Government accepted the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) advice to offer the smallpox vaccine to groups who are at high-risk of contracting monkeypox, including gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, as well as other people at high-risk of exposure.
