Expansion costs dragged the Irish divisions of two well-known international retail brands into the red last year.

Shares in European beer manufacturers Heineken and Carlsberg are relatively flat despite both reporting solid sales growth.

Born into 1980s Ireland, reared in its roaring Celtic Tiger, and graduating into its cataclysmic aftermath — my generation expected little of our governments and almost nothing of their budgets.

Joe Dermody talks PJ Tierney, Heineken’s brewery operations manager, and Sandy Boundy, Heineken Ireland communications and CSR manager.

QF9 was the call sign used by the Australian airline Qantas earlier this week for the first non-stop flight between Perth and London.

Brewing giant Heineken is toasting a multimillion-euro refurbishment which has transformed its historic Irish corporate headquarters into one of the funkiest office spaces in the country.

Shares in H&M fell by nearly 6% after the boss of the world’s second-largest fashion retailer warned that the company is falling short of its sales targets, with hefty summer discounts reducing quarterly profit by 20%.

Not for the first time in his career, Rory McIlroy is taking the long view of his game as he searches for answers to the increasing distance between him and his last major championship victory.

Theresa May and the rest of Europe still remain bamboozled about this Brexit conundrum.

Every year in Trinity College Dublin, John Scally, a lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religions, organises a conference on the ethics of sport, writes Paul Rouse.

A primely-set Patrick Street retail unit, being vacated by long-established fashion chain French Connection, is up to let with a reverse premium incentive offered to a new occupant.

Japanese and Scandi style have come together in the latest limited edition collection from Tiger which arrives in stores today. 

German fund manager Deka Immobilien Europa has acquired the Whitewater Shopping Centre in Kildare for €180m.

Pressure is on to return to the Celtic Tiger years with demands for tax cuts as Ireland’s economic growth looks set to outstrip China’s, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has said.

Trolley treat: Brand Newbies waterproof trolley seat cover will keep your little one dry and cosy on shopping trolleys, which are sometimes damp from being out in the rain. 

All-Ireland champion Aidan Murphy narrowly beat Killian Kingston in the last shot at Pouladuff to secure his place in the Munster quarter-final.

More outlets are opening on the country’s prime shopping streets, writes Peter O’Dwyer

The number of retail premises lying vacant fell considerably in the opening months of the year as a slight pick-up in sales growth enticed retailers back onto the country’s main streets.

Very few gave Tiger Woods a chance before the Masters began and he himself and just everyone else fully acknowledges he will leave Augusta tomorrow night without a fifth green jacket.

Samanth Subramanian

With less than a year to win back disillusioned voters, Kenny and Co have an uphill battle ahead

Heineken Ireland boosted its revenues by almost 6% last year as it continued to outperform a contracting beer market.

On Sunday, David Murphy beat Martin Coppinger by almost a bowl in the Denis McGarry Cup semi-final at Whitechurch, the feature score of a packed weekend that included four tournament finals and several cup ties.

Fascinated with Nordic Noir and Scandinavian street fashion, Michelle Doyle wasn’t disappointed with a visit to the Swedish capital where cool truly rules.

Tiger Woods suffered a nightmare on his comeback to golf as he trailed in last in the first round of the Hero World Challenge.

IT’S A Dealz, says East Cork estate agent Miah McGrath, holding out the prospect of a 10% return on a Midleton town centre investment, guided at €1.3 million, and with €140,000 a year income stream.

This week ghouls and ghosts haunt the Halloween wishes of Esther N McCarthy.

While the focus of a €82m cocaine seizure off the Cork coast has firmly shifted to Britain, gardaí are still trying to ascertain if the drugs shipment may have been unloaded here before being retransported across the water.

Four generations and 150 years on from the founding father of Heineken, the Dutch brewing family shows no signs of wanting to relinquish control.

From visiting cultural spots to exploring her favourite clothing label outlets, Michelle Doyle indulged her obsession with all things Swedish by visiting Stockholm in the cold of January.

More and more you hear the whispering in the golfing corridors; Is this it?

As the sell-off of a portfolio of three Irish shopping centres in Cork, Clonmel and Balbriggan moves to a second round, with three bidders reportedly all over €135 million, a second very sizeable portfolio of Dublin shops and offices comes for sale this week, guiding €123m.

The world’s best players will notice few changes when the British Open returns to Hoylake for the first time since 2006 this summer.

TOMORROW is the tender date for the sale of Cork City’s Victoria Hotel on St Patrick’s Street and Cook Street, with well over a half dozen parties expected to make offers on the historic 33-bed city hotel.

‘The Decade of Renewal’ is the title of a series of talks at Cork City Library, talks that organiser Johnny Hanrahan, of creative projects company, ‘Chameleon,’ describes as a communal taking stock. City librarian, Liam Ronayne, has a long-term library project entitled ‘History is to Blame,’ also examining the relevance of Ireland’s period of rebellion.

Victor Dubuisson looked shattered as he prepared to dash to the limousine waiting to whisk him to Phoenix airport and back to Cannes via London following his thrilling WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship tussle and ultimate defeat to Jason Day.

Lady Helen Restaurant, Mount Juliet, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny; 056-7773000; mountjuliet.ie.

A witness told a court yesterday that the manager of a post office who is on trial for perverting the course of justice had confessed to him that he had tampered with a urine sample in a drink-driving case.

A Securicor cash van driver whose family were held by an armed gang during a Tiger kidnapping six years ago told a trial that he could not drive at one point because he was crying so much.

Four Dublin men have gone on trial, accused of being part of an armed gang which carried out a “Tiger kidnapping” on a family eight years ago.