Overcoming a phobia is the ultimate new year’s resolution. Vickie Maye, Pat Fitzpatrick and Breda Graham tell how they beat their fears of water, heights and flying.

So Michael D Higgins returns to the Áras with a strong mandate but a tarnished reputation. He will have to double down over the next seven years to ensure his legacy is not that of the Learjet president.

For me, this current Dublin team is the best ever and even now — a year out — there’s almost a certain inevitability about the five in a row.

Cork is set to host thousands of visitors this weekend with a large number of events taking place across the city and county.

Saturday will be Nemo Rangers’ 12th All-Ireland club final appearance. Their record to date: Won seven, lost four.

Despite the Brexit threat and our corporate tax structure facing challenges, one Irish industry has begun 2018 with a decidedly optimistic fanfare.

Fans at next summer's World Cup in Russia will not need expensive tourist visas and can enjoy free transport on match days - but only if they get organised, the hosts have warned.

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper has hinted that Ireland’s timing hasn’t been right as the country finds itself ranked behind “two masters of the universe in terms of putting on major world events” in the race to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Cliodhna Sargent is set to return to action for the first time since January following the birth of her first son, Dylan, in August with a World Cup spot very much the long-term aim.

A LONG-established, family-run pub between two of Cork city’s suburban sporting heartlands, rugby at Musgrave Park and soccer at Turner’s Cross stadium, has another claim to fame – it is the closest licensed premises to the grave of Fr Theobald Mathew, the Apostle of Temperance.

Donald Trump has said he has heard that Ireland is about to reduce its Corporation Tax rate to 8% from its current 12.5%.

Martin O’Neill believes all is not lost despite the Republic of Ireland’s first 2018 World Cup qualifying defeat.

The England 2018 World Cup bid team made a determined effort to win over former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and “often accommodated his wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules”, the Garcia report has found.

The England 2018 World Cup bid team made a determined effort to win over former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and "often accommodated his wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules", the Garcia report has found.

FIFA has taken the dramatic step of publishing a controversial internal report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process after it was leaked to a German newspaper this week.

Blatter claims €2m payment to Platini was the repayment of a debt.

Global football body FIFA has applied to US authorities for tens of millions of dollars in damages from ex-officials indicted there for graft and recognised for the first time executives had in the past “sold” votes in World Cup hosting contests.

Fifa’s ethics court is expected to ban Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the scandal-scarred football body’s most powerful leaders, today.

ENGLISH FA chairman Greg Dyke has said for the first time that the governing body will drop its backing for Michel Platini if FIFA’s ethics committee finds he behaved improperly.

Sepp Blatter yesterday brushed off a stunt by an English comedian to categorically state he will not stand in next year’s Fifa presidential election — and sent a ‘good luck’ message to Michel Platini, the man who is favourite to succeed him.

The head of FIFA’s inspection team for the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups has been banned from football for seven years after it was revealed he asked for favours from Qatar.

Sepp Blatter has insisted he has not resigned as Fifa president but the world governing body says the 79-year-old still plans to leave the position.

In the battle of the broadcasters both RTÉ and TV3 have come out swinging, announcing details of new content with sport as the centrepiece.

Swiss prosecutors investigating corruption at Fifa have identified 53 suspicious bank transactions, the attorney general said, stressing that a complex investigation may take a long time to unfold.

You’ve gotta love June: it’s always been a month to savour for those sports fiends among us equally blessed and cursed with a varied palate.

Fifa’s communications director Walter De Gregorio has been fired days after making a joke on Swiss television about the world governing body.

FIFA has handed over a second batch of computer data to the Swiss attorney general’s office, which is investigating the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

A businessman who was indicted by US authorities in connection to the Fifa corruption case has turned himself in to Italian police.

Jack Warner’s legal battle against extradition to the United States on corruption charges could ’possibly last years’ and even end up being heard by the Privy Council, the Attorney General of Trinidad has said.

The head of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee has reportedly claimed Russia and Qatar could lose the right to host the World Cup if evidence emerges of bribery in the bidding processes.

A defiant departing FIFA president Sepp Blatter is continuing to press forward with his plans for reform within the damaged organisation despite calls for him to have no further involvement.

Qatar World Cup organisers insist the crisis at FIFA will not affect their preparations for the tournament in 2022.

The corruption charges engulfing soccer’s governing body have heaped shame and humiliation on the game, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said yesterday, although he flatly rejected calls to resign over the scandal.

Former Fifa vice president Jack Warner turned himself over to police in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, shortly after they issued an arrest warrant at the request of authorities in the US, where he was one of 14 people linked to international soccer indicted on corruption charges.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, has said the election to choose a new president for international organisation Fifa should be postponed following the arrest of soccer officials in Zurich.

Q&A

FIFA was plunged into crisis on Wednesday morning after Swiss authorities made early-morning arrests of six football officials and opened separate criminal proceedings over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Sometime in the future, when professional sport has been closed down altogether, people will probably look back at the time America’s finest legal minds produced a rebuttal website on behalf of the New England Patriots that contained these sentences:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has accused UEFA of lacking the “courage” to provide a challenge to his leadership, and called on the European governing body to be “respectful” of his wish to continue in the role.

FIFA says it is in advanced talks with companies to replace a number of sponsors whose contracts have expired.

Three major FIFA sponsors have ended their relationships with world football's governing body, it has emerged.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is committed to standing for a fifth term in office, despite another turbulent year which has seen his leadership questioned time and again.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out revisiting the controversial vote that awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has ruled out revisiting the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after the world governing body’s executive committee agreed unanimously that an "appropriate" form of the Garcia report should be published.