The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson has called on the Irish courts and the Irish government to facilitate any extradition request for controversial former priest Patrick Ryan who confessed his involvement with the Brighton bombing on a BBC programme which is to be broadcast on Tuesday night.

If a nun living in Cork doesn’t hold the key to identifying relatives of a Private Ryan who won two World War One medals, those searching for them fear they are heading into no man’s land.

Sean O’Riordan Private William Patrick Ryan was an unusually courageous man. Having fought and survived several bloody battles in the First World War, he then volunteered in its aftermath to exhume the dead for Christian burial, even though he could have been blown to pieces by unexploded shells.

So that’s Tuesday nearly wrapped up. Here are some of today's top stories which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Qualification for the Champions Cup knockout stages for a record 17th time last week may have sent head coach Johann van Graan off for a week’s holiday in fine fettle.

Welcome to Part II of The Munchies 2017, in which The Menu salutes some of the heroes and achievements of the culinary calendar.

This week I’m sharing my favourite Irish online companies for Christmas shopping. Recipe wise, I’ve got my smoked mackerel pate and posh nuts, the perfect nibbles for any Christmas party.

The myhorridparent.com website is a forum for people to share their stories of abusive mothers and fathers, says Áilín Quiinlan

He shall cover it in more detail next week but The Menu can hardly contain himself at the prospect of the imminent Taste of West Cork food festival (September 9-18) with over 170 events taking place in 32 towns and villages and eight islands across the West Cork region.

As the date of the Rising rapidly approached, this is what was happening behind the scenes 100 years ago this week

ONE of the more obscure incidents of the Easter Rising took place near Galbally on the Tipperary/Limerick border.

How this week 100 years ago was spent by the main players behind the Rising, based largely on observations of their movements by police.

An ongoing and chronological look back at 1916 and some of the behind the scenes planning of the Rising which was certainly "NOT in the news" of the time.

THE jungle drums continue to beat about TV3’s Garda soap opera Red Rock. 

Glenville 1-2 Knockavilla 0-3: Glenville claimed the Allianz Sciath na Scol DGF5 Football title as they saw off the spirited challenge of Knockavilla in yesterday’s decider at Páirc Uí Rinn.

 

Women tend to agonise about parenting but what about dads asks Ailín Quinlan

Unlike fairytale stepmothers, their real-life equivalents tend to be more harassed than hazardous, writes Áilín Quinlan.

Equestrian: The annual Tallow point-to-point meeting, run under the auspices of the West Waterford Foxhounds, was shrouded in a dense fog yesterday severely restricting visibility.

The Foodie Forum incorporating the Gastronomy West Symposium (Tuesday, February 3) at GMIT, in Galway, may be just three years old but already comports itself with a swagger befitting its rapidly-growing status as one of the country’s premier food events.

It’s time for a return to the Marble City where Bia Beag are reprising their Meet the Bakers event (January 24). 

AS the holidays approach, we’re all thinking about what we can give our children. 

A drug addict grandfather who was part of a masked gang that raided an elderly couple’s home in Dublin has been jailed for five years.

As Autumn swept in with glorious sunshine, Cork city libraries  yesterday celebrated the new season with its Children’s Bookfest 2014.

We're fresh from the Sky Road TV and Film Festival and wanted to give you the lowdown on an Irish film to keep your eye on

NAMA is expected to pick up the pace of Irish hotel sales in the coming 18 months — so far, it has sold just 19 of the 136 in its control, and so has 117 left to sell, a conference organised by the Irish Hotel Federation heard this week.

Recovery in the Irish hotel and hospitality sector is to be analysed, parsed and predicted by Nine Wise Men, overseen by a male Fulbright scholar — with not a single woman speaker on the bill — at an Irish Hotels Federation seminar next week.

IF you don’t want your children to spend the mid-term break on their smartphones or iPads, you’d better get organised.

Strong emotions can sometime tip over into violence towards parents, who need to stand firm and stay calm, says Helen O’Callaghan.

THE abduction and rape of two little girls attending a birthday party in Athlone didn’t just send shock waves across the country last year — it graphically highlighted the challenge parents face in trying to warn young children about stranger danger.

A quarter of all Christmas family reunions end in disaster. But they don’t have to.

Theatre - Eden

Eugene O’Brien’s award-winning debut play, Eden, is coming to Cork’s Everyman Theatre as part of a nationwide tour.

A RECENT British survey found more than one in 10 parents admitting they have a favourite child.

ME Thomas is a law professor, who has many friends and an enviable lifestyle.

CAMROSS, ANATRIM CHURCH AND DELOUR RIVER WALK, CO LAOIS

THREE months summer holidays — your teen children can’t wait.

CROSSING water in gale-force winds, we are assured the return journey will be calmer.

Daria Adamska has learned the hard way not to let her six-year-old play on the iPad at home.

On a roll

Ten people involved in property partnerships have sued Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd and First Active plc over the alleged mis-selling of derivative agreements or swaps to hedge “notional liabilities” for more than €65m.

A new year and time for The Menu to don his Gypsy Rose outfit to serve up some predictions for 2013. The Menu enjoyed some memorable 2012 events: Dungarvan Food Festival, The Irish Examiner Food Festival, International Slow Food at Terra Madre in Turin and Theatre of Food at the Electric Picnic and Liss Ard Music Festival. Equally, he was heartbroken to miss Savour Kilkenny Festival and Dingle Food Festival — that will be rectified in 2013.! But the inaugural Kenmare Food Carnival was a bit special, not as multi-faceted as the aforementioned but as one of the original culinary outposts in the dark pre-food days in Ireland, KFC has all makings of a future top food attraction. www.kenmarefoodcarnival.com