The offices and the pitches and the gyms may be all but shuttered but sport persists.

The National Sports Campus in Abbotstown has been closed to the public as of 9pm last night but the facility remains open to business for Ireland's Olympic hopefuls and other athletes.

Here is a selection of people who have begun interesting new roles with companies in Ireland.

Ireland rugby Grand Slam winner Lynne Cantwell has been appointed to lead a major new drive to break down the barriers to women in sport.

Mary O’Connor is chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport. She is a former acting chief executive of the Camogie Association, holds 12 All-Ireland medals in camogie and ladies football, and is a driving force behind the 20x20 initiative.

The IRFU’s updated concussion guide for the amateur game, issued last week, is an indication of how sports’ governing bodies are striving to keep up to speed with the medical profession’s developing knowledge of the condition.

Good, but could do better. If Ireland’s performance at last year’s Olympic Games were a report card it would read as exactly that.

Olympic hero Paul O’Donovan has thrown another catchphrase into the mix ahead of today’s World Rowing Championship Senior Lightweight Single Sculls final in Rotterdam.

IT’S 20 years since this column sat down to complete the Leaving Cert – for a second, excruciating time – but it is probably some sort of twisted pseudo-tribute to that daunting time in all our lives that scraps of the information we had to learn by rote occasionally jostle their way back to the forefront of the mind when least expected, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Never mind the Republic of Ireland’s loss in Cologne, or Munster’s woeful experience in Edinburgh, Irish sport’s most damaging defeat is about to be recorded today, and in Leinster House, of all places.

No David Gillick, Derval O’Rourke down €28,000 despite almost medalling at the recent European Indoors and €12,000 set aside for Kenny Egan despite him having announced his retirement from the ring back in February.

Gary Keegan created the blueprint for the emergence of Ireland as a world force in amateur boxing, so it is no surprise that when his time with IABA came to an end, he would be earmarked to apply his expertise and energy to the country’s entire sporting environment.

AS examples of naked political opportunism go, few can match Charlie Haughey’s decision to call for the government’s private jet 24 years ago and make a dramatic dash for Paris.

A CALL to curb the powers of the Irish Sports Council (ISC) was met with broad support by public representatives from across the political spectrum at Leinster House yesterday.

THE country’s sports sector suffered a considerable cut amounting to €23.5 million in yesterday’s budget, well over a fifth of it’s entire worth in 2010.

HORSE RACING IRELAND (HRI) and Special Olympics Ireland have had their funding for core activities reduced by a combined total of €350,000 in the latest round of grants to the country’s national governing bodies (NGBs) for the Irish Sports Council.

Vital information about the consortium awarded the contract to build the €63m National Aquatic centre which would have resulted in its exclusion from the tendering process was withheld from the Taoiseach and members of the Government, the High Court heard today.

THE future of the GAA inter-county player grants scheme looks increasingly uncertain with confirmation yesterday that it will not be included in the government’s 2009 grant package for sport due to be announced next week.

THE future of many sports may be threatened by the growing trend of ‘local’ clubs relocating to greenfield sites, say a leading Irish consultancy firm.

IRISH SPORTS COUNCIL chief executive John Treacy reiterated that it is the responsibility of the GAA and other national governing bodies to provide the proper education on drugs and anti-doping procedures to their members.

Brendan O’Brien

THE IRISH Sports Council yesterday announced grants of €6.29 million for 53 organisations.

IRISH athletes will not have to endure the same bitterness, rancour and open back-biting which soured the aftermath of the Sydney Olympics, Irish Sports Council chief John Treacy pledged yesterday.

The Irish Sports Council announced today that four sports - sailing, boxing, equestrian and rowing - are to receive major grants to finance their preparations for Athens 2004.

John Treacy, chief executive of the Sports Council, has said Richard Burrows’ challenge to Pat Hickey for the Olympic Council of Ireland presidency is healthy for Irish sport.