Is it not ironic that in the week the much lauded coach of Connaught stresses the importance of community links, Munster are more or less pulling out of their biggest community. 

Children’s sports fields should be as quiet as libraries, according to sports experts as screaming parents, says Richard Fitzpatrick, are doing enormous damage to children’s fragile self-esteem

Aidan Desmond is All-Ireland Junior C champion after completing a unique sporting triple, in two sports, over two days, culminating in an emphatic win over Conor O’Neill in Sunday’s final at Drogheda.

The first small signs of the economic recovery being felt by consumers in a personal way have been detected by the latest Red C consumer mood monitor.

Earnings at Paddy McKillen’s Irish restaurant, pub and nightclub entertainment group last year increased by 28% to €2m.

Rents have risen in every county in the past year, bringing the national average to almost €1,000 a month and making renting almost twice as expensive as buying in some areas.

The luxury Maybourne London hotel group — which is the source of a bitter dispute between Irish developer Paddy McKillen and the billionaire Barclay brothers — last year returned to pre-tax profit.

Around €44m was awarded following public liability accidents last year.

Credit conditions for SMEs are deteriorating, with the time it takes for firms to receive payments getting longer, according to ISME’s latest Credit Watch Survey.

Mayo football manager James Horan has vigorously denied “disgraceful” reports of a rift between him and selector Donie Buckley.

Gardaí have appealed for information after the father of Ireland and Leinster rugby scrum half Eoin Reddan was held up and robbed by at least one man in his home last night.

IBRC has argued that the taxpayer should not have to pay the costs of Paddy McKillen’s legal action aimed at preventing his loans being sold by the IBRC special liquidators to the Barclay brothers.

The multi-million-euro battle for control of three of London’s most prestigious hotels pitting Irish businessman Patrick McKillen against billionaire brothers David and Frederick Barclay has finally been resolved.

Nama has generated €16.5bn in cash and redeemed €7.5bn of senior bonds since it was established in 2009, according to its 2013 end-of-year statement.

Insolvencies among corporates fell by one fifth in 2013 compared with the previous year with all sectors, apart from the motor trade, seeing a pick-up, according to the website insolvencyjournal.ie.

One of the UK’s best-known business families claimed a “resounding victory” yesterday in a long-running legal battle over control of a £1bn (€1.18bn) company which owns three of London’s most famous hotels.

A British parliamentary proposal to give Ireland the loss-making Ulster Bank in return for Nama’s lucrative, London property portfolio would be rejected by the Government if it ever becomes a firm offer.

Despite a significant amount of dissent, rank-and-file gardaí have voted to invite Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to speak at their annual conference.

Fianna Fáil has waded into the email exchange controversy between the secretary general of the Department of Finance, John Moran, and representatives of billionaire investors David and Frederick Barclay.

There has been a 20% fall in the numbers of business failures in the first three months of 2013 compared to the same period last year.

A property developer is waiting to hear whether he has won the latest stage of a legal battle with two of the UK’s best-known businessmen over control of a £1bn (€1.16bn) company which owns three of London’s most famous hotels.

ONE of the main criticisms of Nama when it was set up was that the Government had created a monster that lacked transparency and accountability. As of Wednesday night, it got a whole lot bigger. However, the circumstances of the merger with IBRC means there is unlikely to be the same backlash.

A British judge wants lawyers to write less in a case involving Irish property developer Patrick McKillen’s battle for a control of a £1bn (€1.16bn) firm that owns three of London’s top hotels.

Hotels and restaurants are getting to grips with the recession with a 16% year-on- year drop in business failures in the hospitality sector, according to data compiled by insolvency accountants kavanaghfennell.

Elizabeth Dunne

Nama became aware that confidential data had been misappropriated by one of its employees, Enda Farrell, on Aug 12 but the agency did not notify the gardaí for another month, its chairman, Frank Daly, told the Oireachtas committee on finance.

Dublin-based property developer Patrick McKillen who lost a British High Court battle with two of the UK’s best-known businessmen — the Barclay twins — is facing a legal bill of about £20 million (€25m), a judge was told yesterday.

The jobs market across most sectors is set to remain sluggish over the last three months of the year.

An Irish property developer has lost a High Court battle with two of Britain’s best -known businessmen.

The National Asset Management Agency is free to transfer loans without restriction, according to the English Court of Appeal ruling on the transfer of the Maybourne Hotel Group to the Barclay Brothers.

Pub owners are drowning under a sea of regulation and a glut of cheap alcohol being sold in supermarkets.

Property developer Patrick McKillen has told a judge that former British prime minister Tony Blair acted as an “honest broker” who he felt could “smooth over issues” for him in his court battle for control of three of London’s leading hotels.

Property developer Patrick McKillen has told a High Court judge in London about the hundreds of millions he had borrowed from banks.

Bono joined two businessmen and a billionaire Saudi prince on a yacht in the south of France as a multimillion-pound deal to sell one of the world’s most famous hotels was finalised, a British High Court judge was told yesterday.

Billed as an Irish-British grudge match, Paddy McKillen is taking on the Barclay twins — owners of the Ritz London and ‘Daily Telegraph’ among more — for ownership rights to London’s most prestigious hotels, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

A property developer embroiled in a High Court battle with two of Britain’s best-known businessmen has been accused of having “convenient amnesia”.

A businessman regarded as the face of Coroin, the hotel group, regularly used hotels owned by the firm and ran up a large unpaid bill, developer Patrick McKillen told the High Court in London yesterday.

Two billionaire brothers have been keeping afloat the developer Derek Quinlan, once one of Ireland’s richest men, a British court heard yesterday.

SHOWJUMPINGIRELAND (SJI) has decided that its regions can use their 2012 allocation of sports development funding for non-sporting activities, including administration.

DEVELOPER Patrick McKillen, who holds 36% of Maybourne Hotels Ltd, is suing fellow shareholders Daily Telegraph owners David and Frederick Barclay in a dispute over a deal involving the landmark London hotel operator’s debt.

THE National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has sold the combined loans of three prestigious London hotels previously owned by Irish investors for more than €800 million.