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10% tax on junk food to tackle obesityA 10% tax on fizzy drinks, sweets, biscuits, crisps, and chocolate is to be recommended to the health minister as a way of tackling the country's soaring obesity problem.
Prayer vigil for fine weather as farmers queue for fodderA 24-hour prayer vigil for fine weather has been held on the Kerry-Cork border.
- WORLD
It’s technology, Jim, but not as we know it WHEN Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first dreamed up the concept of a television show based in the unexplored universe of Outer Space in 1964, the world was a very different place.
Berlusconi’s party girls dressed as nuns, Obama Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured women dressed not just as sexy nuns and nurses, but also as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor that the former Italian premier has accused of persecuting him.
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IBRC delays loan valuations, saleThe valuation and sale of IBRC loans has been pushed out by six months to November and December of this year.
The smart money is always on SeánFounded four decades ago, its annual turnover is now €2bn.
- SPORT
The Terry Reilly Interview: The Godfather of GalwayOver the course of almost half a century, Liam Sammon has been in service to Galway football. Now he hopes a new generation can restore county pride.
Super Blues keep double in sightsJoe Schmidt's side won their third European trophy in successive years and gave Connacht reason to celebrate also as the Westerners gained entry to next season's Heineken Cup courtesy of their neighbours to the east.
- LIFESTYLE
Let in the seasonal lightYOUR wardrobe isn't the only thing that needs updating once the barometer starts to rise.
It’s a guy thingDid you cry with your buddy while watching Fergie say farewell at Old Trafford?
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Breaking stories
Relationships still strained after what I wrote, says Hayes
By John Fogarty
Former Meath player Liam Hayes has admitted his relationship with some of his former team-mates remains cool because of what he wrote about them during their playing days.
Hayes, a sports journalist in the 80’s and 90’s with the Sunday Press, revealed one player refused to pass the ball to him after being offended by something he had written.“I don’t want to name names because it would be unfair to them but at one point on the Meath team my relationship with one of our top players broke down completely because of something I had written.
“He took it very badly — to the point where he pretty much refused to want to have anything to do with me on the field or off it. Even refused to pass a ball to me.
“And in that case, Seán (Boylan) actually took me and the player in question aside and spoke to us both, and mended fences to the best of his ability. But he never was able to fully mend them.
“And to this day too, I mean it’s what, 20 or 25 years since I stopped playing on the Meath team, but I do know still that there are certain team-mates of mine who were unhappy about what I had written and have always sort of held a little bit of a grudge and have always felt that I was perhaps unfair to them.”
Ahead of guiding the Legends Tour of Croke Park tomorrow, the Skryne man acknowledged some of his work as a pundit has offended Kerry players, management and supporters in recent times.
However, he explained he developed his intrepid analysis style by initially being critical of his own performances and those of his Meath team.
“Anytime I’ve written about any other teams — in particular Kerry in more recent years, and Kerry people think I’ve been very insensitive and very harsh and tough on them — but I was trained to be tough on myself and tough on my own Meath team, so it has allowed me to analyse or write about other teams ever since and to be as honest and to be as fearless as I can in what I write.
“Because I did it to my own people, and if you do it to your own, then you can do it to anybody.”