Cian Mackey might never have got to play in an Ulster final if he’d stayed in London two years ago and listened to the voice in his head telling him there was more to life than football.

When you smell a rat, it usually means something bad is going down

Your lunchtime bulletin.

Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime...

Humans - and not rats - could have been the cause for the spread of plague during the Black Death, a new study suggests.

A British model allegedly kidnapped in Italy was "humiliated" by her capture and did not make up the story for publicity, her former agent has said.

The chief suspect in the alleged kidnap of a British model in Milan has said he did not knowingly take part in any crime.

A British model who was allegedly kidnapped in Milan was too terrified to try to get away from her captor when he took her shoe shopping and to buy groceries, her lawyer said.

The wars of the rodents, like the Wars of the Roses, have been long drawn-out affairs. Nor do they show much sign of ending any time soon; a jihad against a newly arrived furry pest is underway in Cork, writes Richard Collins. 

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

Marty Morrissey has said GAA pundit Joe Brolly “crossed the line” when he referred to him as “ugly” live on air.

If you didn’t know already, it’s all Ulster’s fault. All of football’s current ills.

The TV-adaptation of Mantel’s novels excelled, but steadily lost viewing figures,, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.

Wayfaring Stranger

I have a friend who tells me detoxification is a load of bunk, and that if we were to truly store all of these toxins in our bodies then we would die from poisoning at a young age.

PLANNING a weekend that keeps parents and young children interested and content can be a challenge. 

Another season of intercounty Gaelic football action ended on Sunday but, unlike the fare in the final, these end of year awards wont let you down, writes Michael Moynihan

Louis Theroux spends time in the twilight world of Los Angeles' paroled sex offenders, who live under force of tough regulations on BBC2 at 9pm tonight.

You can learn a lot from a tooth.

THE plague, the rodent-borne infection that killed half the population of Europe during the 14th century’s Black Death, still afflicts thousands of people every year.

A strain of bubonic plague as deadly as the one that caused the Black Death could make a reappearance on Earth, scientists have warned.

Workers building a new railway in London have unearthed 13 skeletons thought to be victims of the Black Death plague that swept through Europe in the 14th century.

Milla Jovovich enjoys swordfighting when she is drunk.

TWO skeletons discovered with stones wedged in their mouths were buried this way around 1,300 years ago to prevent them rising from their graves to haunt the living.

The Making of the British Landscape: How we have transformed the land from prehistory to today

WAKE UP! by Katie Cleminson (Red Fox; €7.55) follows the day of a little boy whose imaginary friendship with an elephant, a cat and various other animals are all part of his activities – from being woken by an elephant, stretching like a cat, playing the violin like an octopus and eating like a hippo. An inspiring read-aloud for reluctant bedtimers.

SOME years ago there was a story in my local paper about a goat farm where most of the goats had been savagely attacked and killed during the night.

AUTHORITIES killed rats and fleas yesterday as they disinfected a remote farming town in north-western China that was sealed off after three people died of pneumonic plague.

A SECOND man has died of pneumonic plague in north-west China, in an outbreak that prompted authorities to lock down a town where about a dozen people were infected with the highly contagious deadly lung disease, a state news agency said.

A WOMAN in Los Angeles has been taken to hospital with bubonic plague.

CHICKEN FLU poses a “massively frightening” potential threat to humanity, a leading medical journal said yesterday.

Catherine Shanahan finds that the pledges of the Government have done nothing to stem the decline of a terminally ill health system.