A MAJOR consignment of eight million smuggled cigarettes has been seized by customs officer following a surveillance operation.

The cigarettes had a street value of €3m and were found following a joint customs and garda operation in Ashbourne, Co Meath late on Friday.

The smuggled goods formed part of a consignment that had arrived in Ireland from the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Customs officers are questioning a number of people in connection with the find after what they said was a lengthy surveillance operation.

THE Archdiocese of Dublin got a new priest yesterday in a rare good news story for the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin ordained 45-year-old Conleth Meehan in the Pro Cathedral on Marlboro Street in Dublin yesterday afternoon.

The Tyrone man is a former butcher at Dungannon Meats but decided to take up a vocation in the face of falling numbers of priests.

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