Like much of the country, this column was marooned in rush hour traffic yesterday morning when news dropped the interminable counting of ballots in the Longford- Westmeath constituency had come to an end and, with it, the 2016 general election, writes Brendan O’Brien.

With renewed focus on concussion, there are contrasting cultures in the northern and southern hemispheres in that the approach here is to seek ‘collisions’ while the emphasis down there is to avoid ‘contact’, writes Brendan O’Brien

At least that’s Argentina put to bed.

Welcome back England, we missed you, writes Brendan O’Brien

For years now this column asked itself: ‘what exactly does Allianz see in the national football and hurling leagues that most of us don’t?’

It’s more than a quarter of a century since the Berlin Wall came down and communism was rolled up like a musty carpet across Eastern Europe.