THE birds are back in the garden, not that they were ever gone.

WITH its traditional thatch and white-wash, the Sheebeen in Westport, Co Mayo, looks the picture of a quaint Irish pub, but its charms don’t stop there.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern opened the new corporate headquarters of McLoughlins at Northern Cross Business Park in Finglas yesterday, creating 20 jobs.

PAT DALY of Ballinhassig, Co. Cork will have one of the leading fancies for the Boyle Bookmakers Derby at Clonmel in February following the success of his impressive puppy Judicial Castlelu in the final of the Patsy Byrne Corn na Féile Derby at Abbeyfeale.