In the week that the FAI's 'Festival of Football' took over Co Meath, it seems one kid from the Royal County can claim to have the longest kick in the game.

Robin Dawson is determined not get ahead of himself as he takes a two-stroke lead into the third round of the Flogas Irish Amateur Open at Royal County Down.

An adorable six-year-old is winning hearts on the internet as she sobs she wants to be 'a Dub' and not 'a Meath.'

IT’S not nostalgia. The Yellow River, a collaborative project between poet Gerard Smyth and painter Seán McSweeney, delves deep into the pair’s memories of Co Meath, but Smyth, selecting words with the care to be expected of a poet, balks slightly at “nostalgic”.

Royal County Down has a habit of punishing aggression but big hitting Douglas man Peter O’Keeffe kept his love of attack in check to open with a fine 70 in the Flogas Irish Amateur Open in idyllic conditions at the firm and fast Newcastle links.

Every golfer in Ireland knows the bounty of courses we have on our island. There are 330 18-hole courses and approximately 80 nine-hole courses. It makes for rich pickings. So how do you pick a top 100?

World No 1 Rory McIlroy continued a frustrating Players Championship trend in finishing just a few shots shy of victory for a third year running on the TPC Sawgrass course.

Twixtmas, you say? What’s that when it’s at home tucked up with a hot water bottle and a hot whiskey?

Marie Toft enjoys an adventurous blast from the past in the historic surroundings of the Royal County.

Fota Island Resort chief executive Jonathan Woods has called for more international sporting and music events to be staged in Munster following the overwhelming success of the Irish Open in Cork at the weekend.

In a visitor attitude survey carried out by Fáilte Ireland in 2010, 20% of overseas visitors said their holiday decisions were influenced by film and television. Film tourism, or “set-jetting”, has become big business by raising the awareness of previously little known tourist destinations, and prompting a surge of visitors to their locations.

On a weekend of championship shocks, the unfortunate reality for once mighty Meath was that this stalemate probably wasn’t one of them.

You’ve heard Sigmund Freud’s line about the Irish being immune to psychoanalysis.

By the time I had this week’s mart report completed, I had heard of stock being re-housed in Cork because of the wet, a scarcity of grass in Meath because of the cold, and a mart in Kerry that takes in foreign coach tours on mart days!

WHEN Gerry McEntee strides out to patrol the Páirc Táilteann sideline tomorrow it will be a homecoming in more ways than one.

VICTORIOUS European Solheim Cup captain Alison Nicholas was crowned the queen of Killeen Castle and the emotions flowed as freely as the rain and the champagne in County Meath yesterday evening.

EUROPE will have a Cork factor working in its favour at Killeen Castle this week — Douglas caddy Roy Clarke.

THE countdown to the first Solheim Cup on Irish soil is down to days and the man who invited the best lady golfers in the world to County Meath can’t wait.

EUROPEAN captain Alison Nicholas unveiled her very own Seven Nation Army in Dublin yesterday then revealed she has borrowed some inspiration from Ryder Cup heroes Ian Poulter and Colin Montgomerie in how to defeat the Americans.

TEENAGE Irish golf sensations Lisa and Leona Maguire get another look at what life is like in the paid ranks at Killeen Castle today — but they’re in no rush to join the professional game.

“MAY you live in interesting times” is an old Chinese saying that has a certain resonance in Meath football at present.

MIGHT I suggest that the “Rebel” County” swap monikers with Meath, the “Royal County”?

GAA chiefs remain in the dark about Director General Paraic Duffy’s plans for his much anticipated paper on illegal payments to club and county managers.

MONAGHAN secretary Sean McKenna is confident the senior squad will row in behind new football boss Eamonn McEnaney, despite the disillusionment amongst some players over the controversial end to Seamus McEnaney’s reign in charge.

ON THE road home from scouting Meath’s All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Mayo, Kerry’s management team of Jack O’Connor, Eamon Fitzmaurice and Ger O’Keeffe began swapping war stories from their respective scrapes with the Royal County.

THE Meath football team of 2009 are beginning to defy all handy categorisation. For a county whose rivers have run dry for a decade now, we would have thought getting to the last eight of the All-Ireland Championship would’ve sated the appetite and anything after that was for embellishment.

ROYAL County Star is the one to beat in the best race on the card, the Summerfest Chase, at the first stage of the Killarney Festival tonight.

ROYAL County Star, trained by Tony Martin and ridden with typical confidence by Davy Russell, landed the featured Enhance Marketing Chase at Punchestown last night.

GIVEN their senior record, and the exceptional results of St Pats (Navan) at colleges level, it’s hard to believe that Meath have only three All-Ireland minor football titles to their credit — 1957, 1990 and 1992.

A 21-year old woman from Co Meath has been crowned the new Miss Ireland.

TROUBLED pop star Michael Jackson is hiding away in an old country pile in Co Meath, a location he has chosen to mastermind his forthcoming album.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy has set his sights on Tiger Woods' course record in the Irish Close at the European Club.

GRAHAM Geraghty is enjoying the Eamonn Barry revolution in the Royal County and believes Meath can build on their weekend O’Byrne Cup Final victory over Offaly.

The Labour Party will not raise personal taxes if it is part of the next Government, it was claimed today.

The Labour Party returns to its roots in South Tipperary this week where TDs and Senators gather to plan a strategy to form the next government with Fine Gael.

THESE are the last lines of a Patrick Archer poem that honours a Curragha blacksmith who gave his life for Ireland.

THE Government and Meath County Council seem to have a two-forked approach to the development of the Royal County.

“GAME over,” he declared at 2.15pm on Saturday. The Irish rugby team was losing 18-9 to France and watching its grand slam hopes evaporate.

Fine Gael tonight crowned a new Dáil TD in the Royal County after Shane McEntee secured a historic victory in his first ever election.

I’VE always believed that when one received an invitation, it was polite either to accept or decline graciously.

Meath football star Trevor Giles is on the road to a full recovery and could be back in Royal County training within a fortnight after a groin injury.

Controversial Meath county board chairman Fintan Ginnity has been returned for an 18th consecutive year in the position.

YESTERDAY Margaret Sheridan underwent surgery in a Dublin hospital, but tomorrow she will endeavour to be in Nowlan Park to cheer on her beloved Seneschalstown in the All-Ireland senior ladies football club championship final.

THERE were ructions in Meath last autumn. After their most disappointing summer in quite some time, the supremacy of Sean Boylan was challenged.

Australian Ian Stanley goes into the last round of the £501,000stg British