IT WAS county final weather in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday, and county final conditions.

THERE probably isn’t enough ink to do justice to an afternoon with Stuart Barnes. The former England international and Lion rolls out the stories and anecdotes — the late Keith Floyd figures in a few — in a steady stream.

IF YOU came down this direction to get refuge from the John O’Donoghue furore towards the front of the paper, don’t take flight because you see his name printed here.

THERE’S a moment in Ken Burns’ outstanding documentary series, ‘Baseball’, when Buck O’Neil, an old coach and manager, muses on the impossible glamour that was Manhattan in the 40s and 50s with a faraway look in the eye.

LAST weekend Nicholas O’Leary won the Irish Sailing Association Championships in Cork Harbour.

They’re already here. – Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, 1957.

BEYOND the ice baths and recovery sessions, the careful diet and early nights, the final whistle in an All-Ireland title still has the power to turn a man’s focus to mush.

IN ONE sense, South African rugby star Jean de Villiers didn’t time his arrival in Ireland that well.

LAST WEEK Muhammad Ali came to town.

IS THERE any irony to be mined from the tributes being paid to Cork County Board secretary, Frank Murphy, falling on the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II?