I was always entrepreneurial. When I was 10 I started my own golf ball business.

The Hong Kong company that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort in Cork recorded losses of €386,827 last year as it further invested in the resort.

Pre-tax profits at the four-star Kingsley Hotel in Cork fell by 29%, to €465,259, last year.

A visitor to Cork's Fota Wildlife Park got more than she expected when she made the trip to the popular attraction.

Cork’s landmark Arbutus Lodge is spacious and packed with original features. It is also Pure Cork, writes Tommy Barker.

DEVELOPMENT land on the grounds of the five-star Fota Island Resort, with full planning in place for 88 houses, half of them pitched at the “executive family market” goes to market this week for Fota’s owners the Kang family, via agents Lisney, guided at €4m.

EAST Cork food and retail businesses are making huge cost savings and having positive impacts on the environment and staff morale thanks to Savour Food, a new food waste reduction programme.

Spend this midterm getting your spook on, with Ciara McDonnell’s pick of the best events taking place on Halloween week.

Fota Island Resort promises fantastic course conditions as they host the return of the Irish Examiner Group and Society Teams Golf Trophy this month.

Once upon a time, Santa was a quick visit in a department store, at the end of a day of shopping. How times have changed. From Beyond to Winterval, Ciara McDonnell and Vickie Maye round up the best festive experiences. 

Ho ho hold on. It’s still September, but Christmas was very much in the air over the weekend as gangs of mainly teenage girls got into full festive spirit at the Elf Factor auditions.

More than 60,000 people visit Fota’s Christmas attraction each year. Marjorie Brennan checks out the preparations for Santa’s arrival

A warning to those of a sensitive disposition: this piece is unavoidably littered with the c-word.

Operating profits at the Chinese-owned firm that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort in Cork fell last year by 37% to €232,845.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

The products that we’re liking this week.

The shortlist for the first Irish Sports Industry Awards was announced this morning.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly — the countdown to Christmas is officially on.

The Chinese-owned firm that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort hotel in Cork recorded pre-tax profits of just over €113,000 in its first year in business.

A West Cork retreat offers women the chance to indulge in personal reflection and fine food, writes Colette Sheridan.

The Rochestown footballers are excused from their final three classes on Wednesday afternoon.

A Waterford-born businessman who has lived in Australia for the last 30 years has emerged as the successful buyer of Waterford Castle, paying over €6m for the luxury hotel, set on an island on the River Suir just below the city.

There are many things you don’t expect to do in your 20’s, and becoming Santa’s not-so-little helper would have topped my list, had I even considered it a possibility.

Fota Island Resort is in the market to welcome back the Irish Open to Cork "in the not too distant future", as the city and county prepares to bid for a number of spectacular international sporting events on the back of a successful staging of the European Tour event.

Last year at Fota Island Resort’s Santa experience, six men proposed to their partners, inspired — and perhaps emboldened — by the spirit of Christmas created there. A tough act to follow. So what’s going on down there this year?

An un-named Chinese investor has stitched up a deal on Fitzgerald House, an 11,600 sq ft property facing Cork city’s English Market and adjacent to the dramatically just-painted up Singers Corner, where - coincidentally - a commissioned mural by artist Johnny Bugler depicts a floral Chinese pattern, as seen on old Singer sewing machines.

IRELAND’S signature castle hotels have been changing hands with aplomb this year – think Ashford Castle, and now Adare Manor on the hook for c €40m, while this week the illustrious roll-call is joined by the more modestly priced Waterford Castle.

Waterford Castle, a hotel and resort on an island in the River Suir two miles from Waterford City, has just been publicly placed on the international market guiding over €4.5m.

A hotel which had to close following extensive flooding five years ago will reopen today following an almost €5m investment.

Newlyweds who were grounded when their aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after a suspected fuel leak passed the first big test of their married life together — with flying colours.

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.

The 97,000 fans who thronged the magnificent Fota Island Resort over the last four days had it all. The weather, the big names, the course looking better than an airbrushed postcard.

Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell may have come up short in this year’s quest for an Irish Open victory, but both would be delighted to give it another shot at Fota Island Resort after a hugely successful week in Cork.

Rory McIlroy will go into today’s Irish Open first round at the Fota Island Resort unburdened by matters Olympic and determined to finally make a mark on his national Open.

Rory McIlroy has never even seen Fota Island, let alone played it. But if the hard work of organisers is anything to go by, he and his fellow players will be wowed not only by the three championship golf courses set in beautiful parkland, but also by the structures in place to make this week’s Irish Open one of the best ever.

As 156 golfers and 100,000 fans prepare to descend on Fota Island Resort, Dave Kenny says staff are ready for the challenge

As the Irish Open golf championship returns to Fota Island, Dan Buckley samples one of the resort’s other highlights — the spa.

It will not just be Fota Island Resort inviting Irish golf to party in two weeks’ time, the Irish Open hosts’ fellow Corkonians are also getting in on the act as a nation of golfers descends on the county for the prestigious European Tour event.

For a moment there, Paul McGinley had the cream of European golf within arm’s reach as the European Tour staged its flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, on home turf at Wentworth.