Suspended sentence last month for Cathal Crotty over attack in Limerick prompted protests across Ireland

Ireland’s defence forces are to discharge a soldier who avoided jail after brutalising a woman in a random street attack, in a case that provoked a national outcry.

Senior army officers have completed dismissal proceedings against Cathal Crotty, 22, who is to be formally discharged on Thursday, Irish media reported.

DUP loses Lagan Valley seat vacated by former leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Ian Paisley defeated in North Antrim

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The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is on track to lose three of its eight seats, which would leave Sinn Féin as the Northern Ireland party with most MPs.

The DUP lost the Lagan Valley seat vacated by its former leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who faces sexual offence charges, and suffered a stunning defeat in North Antrim where Ian Paisley lost a seat held by his family since 1970. It also lost South Antrim and had reduced majorities elsewhere.

PSNI treating incidents as hate crimes, as African family also describes threatening posters and smashed windows

A suspected loyalist gang has targeted Catholic and African residents in a spate of sectarian and racist attacks in County Antrim that has forced at least one family to flee.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was treating the incidents as hate crimes and had increased police visibility across the town of Antrim.