The latest addition to our stellar team of rugby writers reflects on the ups and downs of a magnificent playing career — and reveals the reasons why he's chosen to move to Paris to kick-start his coaching career.

Ronan O'Gara has dismissed any concerns about being appointed to coach his former Ireland rival Johnny Sexton at Racing Metro.

If you are going to achieve something as mad as spending nearly 27 years in the biggest job in football, you might as well bow out in equally ridiculous fashion.

It's a story familiar to GAA people all over the country. A stormy annual general meeting, members walking out, transfer applications handed in afterwards.

Robin van Persie wishes Manchester United could have found a "Fergie Time" winner at West Brom yesterday to give Sir Alex Ferguson the perfect send-off.

Ronan O'Gara has agreed a two-year contract to join Jonathan Sexton at Racing Metro for next season.

Liverpool 1 QPR 0Forward Philippe Coutinho was Liverpool's match-winner but Jamie Carragher was the star of the show at Anfield on his 737th and final appearance for the club.

Munster head coach Rob Penney has hit out at the IRFU's stance over recruiting players from overseas as he bids to build his squad for next season while Ireland's taxation levels have meant the province has already lost out on two key signings for 2013-'14.

Newcastle 0 Arsenal 1If this is Arsenal's 'negative spiral', Arsene Wenger will no doubt look forward with dizzy excitement to making sure it continues long into next season and beyond.

West Ham 4 Reading 2 Manager Sam Allardyce says signing Andy Carroll on a permanent deal from Liverpool is West Ham's "main priority" this summer.

As the Dáil committee hearings continue on the abortion bill, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has waded into the debate saying it is important that Christian believers "be, and seen to be, on the side of life, especially when life is most vulnerable".

Limits on rent supplement payments set by the Government are forcing thousands of families to make undeclared top-up payments to landlords to secure places to live.

North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast, a day after launching three more of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said.

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.

The eurozone is heading towards a break up unless there are moves towards much closer political and fiscal union, according to chief economist with State Street Global Advisers, Chris Probyn.

Ireland will be able to maintain its current corporation tax code in the face of international pressure to prevent multinational corporations avoid paying their fare share of tax, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton said yesterday.

Galway 0-11 Mayo 4-16 Five minutes to go in Salthill yesterday and James Horan was still cajoling his men to sew it into Galway.

ASM Clermont Auvergne 15 Toulon 16 Not for the first time this season, a matchday performance and the result have made a mockery of the statistics.

LENNY Abrahamson has directed three feature films: Adam & Paul, Garage and What Richard Did.

Trying on clothes, said Ewart, produced "sensations which bring deep peace and perfect contentment" to the female mind.

The latest addition to our stellar team of rugby writers reflects on the ups and downs of a magnificent playing career — and reveals the reasons why he's chosen to move to Paris to kick-start his coaching career.

Today, inspirational teenager Dónal Walsh will be buried. This is an essay he wrote about how he dealt with his two crushing cancer diagnoses

A Fine Gael TD has revealed that pro-life activists have threatened to slit her throat and burn down her house.

It's a story familiar to GAA people all over the country. A stormy annual general meeting, members walking out, transfer applications handed in afterwards.

More than 300,000 people have left Ireland in the past four years. Tempting as it is, Ruairí McKiernan is prepared to stay to help make the country a better place

DÓNAL Walsh will be buried today having fought two battles in his short life — one with cancer and one with our health service.

IF THERE'S a season for dieting then it has to be summer.

Paddy Power are today refunding all win and each way singles to customers who backed Ireland's Ryan Dolan for last night's Eurovision.

Cork 5-14 Tipperary 0-24 The Cork senior hurlers bagged five goals on the way to a five-point win over Tipperary in a challenge match at Cloughduv last night.

I love yoga but I don't love the yoga image, the squeaky clean yogi whose practice of yoga has led to a more highly evolved state of being than your average mortal.