The jaguar in the garage turns out to have a real roar

Saturday/Sunday

WHEN gardai found a jaguar in a Clondalkin garage in Dublin they reacted by calling in "the man from the zoo". Princess was an 18 month old jaguar cat whose natural habitat is the Amazonian rain forest.

Gardai, searching the house in Ronanstown, also discovered a serval, a smaller African cat. Both were taken to Dublin Zoo where they were placed in quarantine. Gardai said they are against returning the jaguar to its owner.

The Army postponed for a week the replacement of the 633th Irish Battalion serving with the UN in Lebanon for safety reasons bias roads were jammed with refugees between the areas where Irish troops are located and Beirut.

An attempt to extradite a Dublin man, Mr Anthony Duncan (26), to Britain failed in the Dublin District Court because of a "fundamental flaw" in documents presented to the court by Britain.

He is wanted for questioning about two IRA bomb attacks in 1994. After the case, scuffles broke out between republicans and gardai outside the Bridewell Garda station as Mr Duncan, from Kippure Park, Finglas West, was rearrested and charged with IRA membership.

A 13 year old girl from Bundoran, Co Donegal, was found dead in a field less than a mile from her home. Alison White was last seen at 3 p.m. and her body was found by gardai at 11 p.m. with severe head injuries.

Monday

The Medical Council decided to hold an inquiry into complaints of professional misconduct against Dr Moira Woods, the Dublin doctor and campaigner on social issues. The inquiry arises out of allegations made by a group of parents who claim they were wrongly accused of child abuse in the late 1980s. As the first director of the Sexual Assault Unit of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr Woods was involved in providing evidence to support allegations of abuse.

A 36 year old Donegal man was charged with the murder of the Bundoran girl, Alison White. Mr Patrick Michael Granaghan, of Drumacrin Terrace, Bundoran, was charged at a special sitting of Donegal District Court.

Gardai in Co Kerry began a murder inquiry after two boys returning from school discovered their mother's body lying in a pool of blood in their home at Blennerville, near Tralee. The woman, Ms Anne Marie Duffin (39), had suffered extensive head and neck wounds. Originally from Holland, she lived with her two sons, Kevin (16) and Timothy (13). She separated two years ago from her husband.

Three judges were appointed to the Supreme Court by the President, Mrs Robinson, at a ceremony in Aras an Uachtarain. The appointment of Mr Justice Ronan Keane, Mr Justice Frank Murphy and Mr Justice Kevin Lynch brings to eight the number of judges in the court.

Tuesday

The British government initiated legislation for Northern Ireland elections and published rules for all party negotiations. The British emphasised the need for another ceasefire if Sinn Fein was to be allowed into the talks. The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, earlier described the joint rules as a good basis for all party negotiations.

The Irish, Scottish and Welsh rugby unions have dismissed as "wholly unacceptable" a plan by the English Rugby Football Union to make its own television deal for coverage of the Five Nations International Rugby Championships.

Television rights worth £130 million were expected to be agreed when the contract with the BBC ends after next season's championships. Now, however, the English union wants a £60 million share because of its larger viewing audience.

Wednesday

A bomb exploded in an empty house in central London minutes after the Associated Press news agency received a coded IRA warning. The device exploded at 9.45 p.m. in the house which was under renovation at The Boltons, off Collingham Road, Earl's Court. There were no injuries and the damage was confined to the building.

The report on the death of the Mayo teenager, Kelly Fitzgerald, strongly criticised the role of the Western Health Board. The report, Kelly - A Child is Dead, says the board's intervention was "naive and ineffective".

The report was finally published after a long delay because of litigation fears when the Fine Gael TD, Mr Alan Shatter, proposed that it be submitted to all Oireachtas members.

The Fitzgerald inquiry was established by the board to report on its attempts to protect Kelly and a sister from the danger that their parents posed. The 15 year old girl died five months after moving from England with her parents, Susan and Desmond Fitzgerald.

Catholics in the Dublin Diocese gave £26.4 million in church collections and other donations last year, according to accounts published by the diocese for 1995.

Thursday

The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, condemned as "barbarity" Israel's attack on a UN base in south Lebanon which killed 97 civilians. Mr Bruton called on Israel to "show that it respects the norms of international behaviour". The Government's concern was conveyed to the Israeli ambassador, who was summoned to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

A former disc jockey, Vincent Connell, walked free from the Central Criminal Court after sentences totalling 12 years for assaults on four former girlfriends were suspended. Connell (45), from Terenure, Dublin, admitted four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to the four women between 1978 and 1989. In April last year the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Connell's conviction for the murder of Patricia Furlong (21), from Dundrum, in July 1982.