  Gamma-ray bursts are violent events occurring randomly in the sky. In this
review, I will present the fireball model, proposed to explain the phenomenon
of gamma-ray bursts. This model has important consequences for the production
and observation at Earth of gravitational waves, high energy neutrinos, cosmic
rays and high energy photons, and the second part of this review will be
focused on these aspects. A last section will briefly discuss the topic of the
use of gamma-ray bursts as standard candles and possible cosmological studies.
