Spring break in the National Football League, and after three rounds of drama including timekeeping issues, ridiculous red cards and a fixture list designed by Jared Kushner, there exists much food for thought, even if the conclusions are pretty much the same.

Dublin’s five-in-a-row-winners will head into 2020 without their “father-figure”.

Waterford hurling supporters can anticipate a side encouraged to play “off the cuff from time to time”, according to new manager Liam Cahill.

Monaghan defenders Dessie Mone and Vinny Corey have retired from inter-county football.

Half an hour or so after full-time in Mullingar, a round of applause that seemed to go on and on rose up from the losing Garrycastle dressing room. It can only have been for one man, Dessie Dolan, as the Westmeath great pulled the shutters down on a 22-year senior club career in bittersweet circumstances.

Ballygunner sharpshooter Pauric Mahony paid tribute to his team-mates for their win over Patrickswell in Sunday’s Munster club semi-final — and to his younger brother Michael in particular.

Brighton and Hove Albion’s loss was Ballygunner’s gain

Three-time All-Star Conor McManus has insisted that Monaghan won’t “disappear into the sunset” as some expect following the end of the Malachy O’Rourke era.

Irish-based businesses are recruiting and expanding across a wide range of sectors. Here is a selection of people who have moved into interesting new roles.

Last Monday’s Irish Grand National evoked plenty of memories for Roy Craigie, many of them from long before he enjoyed an 11-year stint as Fairyhouse general manager up to 1999.

Former Brighton & Hove Albion player Dessie Hutchinson nailed a late free from 40 metres as Gailltir edged An Rinn 1-5 to 1-4 on a miserable Sunday afternoon in Kill.

Eoghan O’Donnell has claimed that the Dublin hurlers have gathered their strongest panel in years as they chase a Championship breakthrough.

Desmond Duffy has been found not guilty of the murder of Desmond Sullivan at the home they shared in Somerville Park, Rathmines, Dublin 6 on May 23, 2016.

A sense of belonging and a need for order are two of the reasons why so many Dublin fringe players remain involved, Ciarán Kilkenny believes.

When Dessie Scahill puts down his binoculars at the end of the Curragh Derby meeting this afternoon he will surely do so with a sense of real sadness.

Sinn Féin cannot say how many of its elected members are receiving special pay deals.

Strange days. The RTÉ panel, not exactly a trio of giggly teenage girls at the best of times, are being sexist. Male-on-male sexist, that is.

Strange days. The RTÉ panel, not exactly a trio of giggly teenage girls at the best of times, are being sexist. Male-on-male sexist, that is.

An elderly man sustained first-degree burns after he slipped and became stuck between his bed and a radiator.

Nearly 900 pints of homemade alcohol was confiscated from prisoners in Irish jails last year, new figures have revealed, writes Darragh McDonagh.

Nearly 900 pints of homemade alcohol was confiscated from prisoners in Irish jails last year, new figures have revealed.

Dessie Dolan and Joe Brolly have controversially suggested Pat Spillane was to blame for Dublin forward Diarmuid Connolly’s 12-week suspension, writes Ciara Phelan.

There was salsas, cha-chas, foxtrots, and Viennese waltzes — and at the end of it all, Dancing Dessie is still standing.

Theresa Lowe will be re-reacting the famous Irish quiz show, Where in the World.

North Leinster games manager Alan Mulhall cites the involvement of inter-county players in management positions as one of the prime reasons Moate Community College and St Peter’s College Wexford make up the novel pairing in today’s provincial colleges “A” final in Portlaoise (1pm throw-in).

Captain Conor McManus admits the departures of Dick Clerkin and Paul Finlay will affect the Monaghan set-up, but has put it up to his younger team-mates to make up an experience deficit in 2017 and make amends for this year’s disappointment.

Former INLA man Dessie O’Hare is to fight extradition over his alleged role as the head of a gang accused of the “terrifying” imprisonment of a Dublin family, a court heard today.

Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson has sent a letter in support of the Jobstown protestors in Dublin.

On Monday morning, a trifle unexpectedly, a great old pal rang. He was literally bursting with enthusiasm.

Garrycastle have not ruled out organising a helicopter for Dessie Dolan to ensure he fulfils his Saturday Game duties after their Westmeath SFC quarter-final today.

Seán Potts has had a front row seat for the GPA’s journey from the margins to a seat at the table in Croke Park. There’s been setbacks, turbulent episodes and cheap shots along the way — and there’s probably more to come. But he’s saying farewell to an established inter-county players’ voice now...

Louth captain Adrian Reid says that today’s game against Meath “is our Leinster final, make no mistake about it.” But he doesn’t say it for purposes of revenge. You know - Joe Sheridan, Martin Sludden and all that.

When Willie McCreery saddled a double at the Curragh last Saturday it was further evidence that here is a trainer who is rapidly going places.

As the celebrities of the world stampede one way in cowardly dereliction of responsibility, the county men march heroically against them, their hands up for duty.

Leinster U21 football

Aoife Lane has just completed a year as head of the Women’s Gaelic Players Association. Twelve months of lessons learned. How has it been?

A full house of 30,000 will watch Galway play Dublin in Boston in Super 11 hurling. It provides a platform to present hurling to larger audiences, writes Donal Óg Cusack from Boston.

Setting his new TV crime series in Wexford gave Billy Roche a different dynamic to work with than the usual Dublin shows, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

A family heirloom, stolen nearly 20 years ago in a robbery, has turned up in perfect working order on grassland only a mile from where it was taken.

And there you were, thinking you’d never see him or Westmeath again, when who springs up in Croke Park and on your screen but himself. 

This is the principal’s office but not as you know it or him.

The GAA.ie have published an interview with former Charleville hurler, Dessie Fitzgerald, who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2011 while playing for his club.