Irish boxer Paddy Barnes is guaranteed at least an Olympic bronze medal after his victory at the Worker's Indoor Arena in Beijing today.

John Joe Nevin and Irish captain Ken Egan are through to Saturday's finals at the 2008 European Union Championships in Poland following impressive semi-final victories in Cetniewo this afternoon.

BISHOP Donal Murray of Limerick has given the go-ahead for a parish revival plan in Southill.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association have named a 10-man squad for next week's training camp in France.

Newly-qualified Irish 2008 Olympians, Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce will be targeting treble gold today just 24 hours after securing their places at the 2008 Olympics at the second and final Olympic qualifier for European boxers in Athens, Greece on Friday afternoon.

The Irish squad will train with their Italian hosts, France, Greece and Lithuania today at their Santa Maria training base in Perugia, Italy.

A 48-year-old man has appeared before a special court sitting in County Louth, accused of three separate arson attacks on two churches in Dundalk over the weekend.

DARREN SUTHERLAND got his international boxing career back on track with a medal-winning performance at the multi-nations tournament in Zagreb last night.

DARREN SUTHERLAND packed eight months of frustration into five minutes of boxing last night before he stopped Eddie Healy (Portlaoise) midway through the third round of the middleweight semi-final at the National Stadium.

DARREN SUTHERLAND insisted yesterday he is well on the road to a complete recovery following a career-threatening eye injury sustained during an international contest against Russia at the National Stadium earlier this year.

DARREN SUTHERLAND (St. Saviours OBA) added the national senior title to his CV with a power-packed performance that overwhelmed Edward Healy (Portlaoise) in the third round of their middleweight final at the finals of the National senior championships last night.

ST. Michael’s, from Athy, will have five boxers in the national senior boxing championship finals, next Friday night.

ANDY LEE made a triumphant return to the National Stadium when he launched another defence of the national senior middleweight title he won two years ago with a very impressive 19-8 victory over Hugh Joyce (St. Michael's, Athy).

LIMERICK’S Andy Lee is on course to become the star of this season’s national senior boxing championships with just Eamonn O’Kane blocking his route to the 75kg (middleweight) title at the National Stadium tomorrow night.