While much coverage of Ireland's rising murder rate has focused on the surge in fatal gun attacks, the majority of Irish murders were the result of assault or stabbing.

Twenty-six people were shot to death during 2006, compared to 35 victims of assault or stabbing.

In 2005, just under 48% of murder victims died after assault or stabbing, but this has now risen to 54%. Shootings accounted for 39% of killings in the state this year, compared with 41% last year.

A statistical breakdown of figures for 2006 shows a marked similarity to figures for 2005 in many categories, suggesting that a long-term pattern of homicide may now be in place. For example, the number of women killed in both years represented roughly 15% of the total.

Eight women were killed during 2005, compared to 10 in 2006.

Some of the most high-profile murder cases this year involved women. In February, mother of three Siobhan Kearney was found strangled in the bedroom of her home in Goatstown, Dublin. Nobody has been charged with her killing.

One month later, 22-year-old Donna Cleary was shot dead at a house party in Coolock. The man suspected of firing the shot that killed Cleary, Dwayne Foster, later died in garda custody. Among the other high-profile female murders were those of 19-year-old Sheola Keaney in Cobh in July, and 35-year-old Meg Walsh in Waterford in October.

While there was a rise in assault and stabbing, the counties with the highest murders rates in 2006 have featured prominently on the list in previous years. Dublin, Limerick and Louth all experienced high murder rates in 2006, all with roughly one murder for every 34,000 people living in the county.

The rate of killing in Dublin has increased significantly on last year. Whereas the rate for 2005 was 1 in 43,185, that has risen this year to 1 in 34,024. Of the 33 people killed in Dublin this year, almost exactly half . . . 16 . . . were shot to death, a higher ratio than the national average.

Ten people were stabbed to death in the capital, and another six died after being assaulted. A total of 26 people were killed in Dublin during 2005. Nine per cent of murder victims in Ireland during 2006 were foreignnationals, correlating with figures showing that roughly ten per cent of the population is non-Irish. Of the six foreign-nationals killed this year, three were Lithuanian, two were Latvian and one was Brazilian. Among them was Latvian mother of two Baiba Saulite, who was shot dead outside her home in Swords in November.

The percentage of foreign Irish nationals featuring on the homicide list is down on 2005, when 11 foreign-Irish nationals were murdered, 18% of the total figure.

There is noticeable variance with historical data on murders in Ireland when the 2006 killings are compared with those of a decade before. Out of 47 murders in 1996, 17 were women, a total that included several highprofile killings . . . journalist Veronica Guerin, mother of two Geraldine Diver, civil servant Marilyn Rynn, who was raped and murdered on her way home from a Christmas party, and Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

A decade after these deaths, many of them are still in the public domain because of ongoing events. The results of an internal garda investigation is due to be presented to garda commissioner Noel Conroy in the coming weeks into the handling of the du Plantier murder inquiry. The current internal investigation has heard allegations that English journalist Ian Bailey was falsely targeted as a suspect in the case. Several people who were convicted of high-profile murders are expected to seek early release from prison in the coming year, including Catherine Nevin, who was convicted in 2000 for the murder in March 1996 of her husband, publican Tom Nevin. Later dubbed 'The Black Widow', she remains in Mountjoy women's prison.

It was only this year, a decade after his wife's killing, that the state's case against John Diver concluded when he was found not guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court in July. Diver, (65), a retired porter at the Coombe Women's Hospital, was acquitted of murdering his wife Geraldine, then aged 42, at Robinhood Road, Clondalkin on 2 December 1996. The dead woman was found with a tie around her neck in the front seat of her car. Four years after the killing, her husband of 18 years was convicted of her murder. That conviction was overturned in 2005 following a decision by the Supreme Court and he was later found not guilty in a retrial.