I SPENT a good deal of last weekend at the Special Olympic Games in Limerick. And a glorious weekend it was. A wonderful, intimate, family-focused opening ceremony on Thursday night was followed by three days of intense competition in the variety of sports in which Special Olympic athletes compete. A lot of the Games was centred on the University of Limerick campus, and the place couldn’t have been more welcoming.

Four men have appeared in court following an arms find in Co. Kildare over the weekend.

Dundee United today dramatically abandoned efforts to bring in Pat Fenlon as their new manager after accusing Bohemians of “excessive” compensation demands.

Laois chalked up their first win under new manager Liam Kearns this afternoon as they made use of a second half wind advantage to secure a 1-11 to 0-7 O'Byrne Cup first round victory over Kildare.

Michael O’Brien thinks it will take “a good horse” to beat his Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle fancy De Valira at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Bray Wanderers 0 Drogheda United 2

The State of Illinois has opened a marathon series of clemency hearings for nearly every prisoner on death row in what could be the most sweeping review of capital punishment in US history.

Naas Circuit Court has fined a company £200,000 in connection with the death of two of its employees on a construction site in Newbridge, Co Kildare, three years ago.

Gardai in Dublin are seeking information on the whereabouts of a missing man.