Following his dream debut in the Premier League on Saturday, Aaron Connolly will take his first steps as a senior Ireland international when he trains with the rest of Mick McCarthy’s squad in Abbotstown this afternoon.

Eir Sport have announced the longlist of 23 nominees for the eir Sport Book of the Year award.

Reading the game: Our writers select 29 sports books from 2017...

A proper educational process could have spared Brendan O’Sullivan the reputational damage he and his family have endured for nothing more than a poorly thought out mistake, writes Mike Quirke.

Here's your evening update.

An elegant playmaker, Paddy Kelly has retired from Gaelic football with one All-Ireland senior medal. But he wanted more and rather than look back, he is angry about Cork’s future and what he sees as apathy engulfing the county...

Rory McIlroy couldn’t live the life Tiger Woods leads, we heard this week.

As teammates they battled together on the rugby pitch. However, Paul O’Connell’s grit has overcome Brian O’Driscoll’s glam in the Christmas book battle.

Sports columnist Paul Kimmage has been challenged by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to conduct his interview in Dublin scheduled for next month.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

There can be few things more irksome and irritating as a GAA player than losing a game in Croke Park and then finding you’re one of the players being drug-tested straight after.

False modesty may be something Jim Gavin can occasionally leave himself open to being accused of, but no such thing is at play when he insists that Kevin Heffernan’s team of the 70s will always hold pride of place in the Dublin football pantheon.

Q:

Idris Elba writes and directs King For A Term on Sky Arts, Thursday, Idris Elba as Dad and Omar Agyei as Akuna.

After all the months hearing about them, reading about them and buying them, finally, over the last few days, we’re guessing you got round to actually reading some sports books.

"What a load of tripe."

Joe Schmidt has challenged claims there may be a widespread problem with either legal supplement use or illegal drug-taking among rugby players in Ireland.

We know about the stuff people like to hear. What about the stuff that people don’t like to hear? Paul Kimmage’s comments about rugby the weekend before last fall into that category.

Leinster coach, Matt O’Connor, has played down claims that rugby has a widespread illegal drug culture by insisting he has never encountered it in a playing and coaching career that has spanned his native Australia, France, Japan, England and now Ireland.

Amid all the fears that cash rich Dublin was going to dominate the Championship for years to come, it was interesting to note that two of the wildest and most remote counties in the country contested this season’s All-Ireland final.

Behind all the bonhomie and judicious score-settling, Roy Keane’s books are discreetly aimed at Premier League bosses, says Michael Clifford

The first thing about Roy Keane’s latest book is that it’s brilliant. Or since it was Roddy Doyle who ghosted it, and not our old mentor Cormac MacConnell, it’s f**king brilliant, deadly altogether, writes Kieran Shannon.

Stephen Roche admits cycling could have saved itself years of turmoil had it taken Paul Kimmage’s revelations in his book Rough Ride more seriously when it was published in 1990.

Being the invisible artist brings its challenges, discovers Richard Fitzpatrick.

Paul Kimmage said he felt like a member of the Beatles when he lay down, drowned in a pool of his own sweat, on the kerb at the top of O’Connell Street, basking in the moment of helping secure the Nissan Classic for his Irish compatriot Sean Kelly in 1987.

Irish cycling legend Stephen Roche says that given the growth of the sport and the increased profile of the country’s top riders it’s time to revive the Tour of Ireland.

I am married. I have two children, a boy and a girl, and I am 40-years-old. Anto Finnegan is married. He has two children, a boy and a girl, and he is 40-years-old.

Sports writer Paul Kimmage has revealed Brian O’Driscoll’s decision to give an interview to one paper ahead of another was behind the journalist’s decision to pull out of ghost-writing the rugby legend’s autobiography.

Paul Kimmage has resigned as ghost writer for Brian O'Driscoll's autobiography.

Paul Kimmage has admitted he may never again speak to his one-time colleague David Walsh.

The Irish writer who was targeted with legal action by the UCI has spoken of his relief that the international cycling union has dropped its case – and called for Hein Verbruggen to be removed as honorary president.

The UCI has dropped its legal action against the Irish writer Paul Kimmage, the cycling body's new president has confirmed.

Accumulated profits at the main firm owned by one of Ireland’s greatest sportsmen, Brian O’Driscoll, last year increased to €3.19m.

Dan Martin says he's prepared for a big tilt at the Tour de France: “Last year I went in a bit more nervous but this year I’m ready to race really proactively. I know what to expect.”

IF he was so minded, Lance Armstrong could have looked to these shores for the model confession.

The two Irish sportswriters who doggedly pursued Lance Armstrong throughout his career have dismissed the disgraced Texan’s TV confessional as a futile, desperate bid to mount one last climb — this time, out of the gutter he has mired himself in.

Villarreal, Norwich City, Fyffes, Big Bird, Coldplay, jaundice sufferers, my true love’s hair.

Triple Major winner Pádraig Harrington believes cycling can recover from the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

Journalist Paul Kimmage, a former Tour de France rider and long-time critic of Lance Armstrong, was so frustrated by Oprah Winfrey’s line of questioning of the drugs cheat that he said he “wanted to put (his) boot through the television”.

Now Lance has been outed as a cheat, the journalist has taken aim at British Mod-God Wiggins.

RIGHT now, somewhere in Ireland, someone’s giving their name and telling everybody in the room how they stole from dying relatives or spent their children’s Holy Communion money or sold the curtains for drink.

Pat McQuaid breezes into the hotel foyer, unruffled by the mayhem of Christmas shopping.

UCI president Pat McQuaid has dismissed Greg LeMond’s challenge to his authority as “populist” and destined to fail.

Irish author and campaigning sportswriter Paul Kimmage has hinted that disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong may come clean about his drug-fuelled rise to the top of the sport.

A pressure group formed to try to force change on world cycling's governing body, the UCI, will meet for the first time in London this weekend.

One of the sponsors of the international cycling union (UCI) is suing the organisation for $2m (€1.55m) claiming they mismanaged the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

Six days after the Union Cycliste International (UCI) suspended their defamation case against author and journalist Paul Kimmage, the Irishman launched a counter-case of his own last night against UCI president Pat McQuaid and former UCI president Hein Verbruggen, accusing the pair of slander/defamation, denigration and “strong suspicions of fraud”.

Irish journalist Paul Kimmage has lodged a criminal complaint against International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid and honorary president Hein Verbruggen in a move which will subject the leadership of the world governing body to further scrutiny.

The UCI and its current and former presidents, Irishman Pat McQuaid and Dutchman Hein Verbruggen have suspended plans to sue Irish journalist Paul Kimmage.