“The column is where the stars of the 20th-century sports page usually conducted their business, and even with longform now in flower, there are still those scribes who feel the column’s magnetic pull.

In advance of his trip to Ireland, Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers looks back on his early days with The Specials, and tells Ellie O’Byrne about the musical subgenre he invented

Here's your morning bulletin.

I was working for RTÉ Radio 1 on the evening that Tipperary annihilated Galway in the 2010 All-Ireland U21 final.

I got talking to Joe McKenna in the Gaelic Grounds yesterday shortly after the final whistle. Joe was naturally on a high, as was the whole Limerick crowd, a good share of whom were down on the pitch basking in the warm afterglow of such an impressive win, writes Anthony Daly.

In a week when the ethos of Munster Rugby has been thrust under the spotlight, perhaps it is fitting the man who was the embodiment of such ideals and beliefs will be honoured forever in Limerick.

Galway football manager Kevin Walsh said he notices the circle of life as he calls players into his squad whose fathers he lined out with and against in his own career.

Try as hard as they might, world-class rugby players prefer to do their talking on the pitch rather than seek the limelight in the media — unless contract renewal time has come round again.

I won’t be alone among my peers in broadcasting, and indeed in the ranks of the many sports stars that he interviewed, in saying that Jimmy Magee moved easily from his status as hero of mine to becoming first a colleague and then a friend whose warmth, kindness, and good humour was as legendary as his memory, writes Tony O’Donoghue.

Iarla Ó Lionáird is from Cúil Aodha, Co Cork, and is vocalist with The Gloaming. He is currently preparing for a performance at Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry next Friday, where he will appear with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and others. See westcorkmusic.ie

Should next Saturday’s Champions League final resolve itself into a head to head contest between Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon, the outcome might not only decide the game but also the winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Slaughtneil (Derry) 1-10 - Sarsfields (Galway) 0-11: A record attendance witnessed an Ulster team winning the AIB All-Ireland Camogie Senior Club Championship for only the second time as Slaughtneil proved strongest on the home straight after a ding-dong battle with a resolute Sarsfields.

In 2008, Paul the Octopus was hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth, England, before being moved to a tank at Oberhausen, in Germany.

Prehistoric’ was one of the kinder words used by critics of Jack Charlton’s brand of football when he was manager of Ireland but in the foreword he has penned for a newly published biography by Colin Young, the man himself makes the claim that, au contraire – or, more likely, ‘bugger that’ – his Ireland team actually laid the foundations for the game as we know it today.

BLANKETMEN, first published in 2005, has been reprinted in 2016 with a new foreword by Richard English. 

There but for the grace of God go I — the inevitable thought that crossed Conor Phelan’s mind when he learned of Anthony Foley’s sudden death last weekend.

Michael Moynihan has been in touch with PwC and collected the envelope. Opening it and seeing the bribe was not as big as expected, he decided to just release his much-anticipated End of Season awards, now known by absolutely nobody as the Moynies.

Tributes have poured in for Michael ‘Ducksie’ Walsh following the sudden passing of handball’s greatest icon yesterday.

A man wearing a bullet-proof vest and armed with a sawn-off shotgun roamed Limerick on his pedal bike, intent on shooting people, and yesterday he was jailed for five and a half years.

Amir Khan has insisted he would not be interested in fighting Floyd Mayweather if the American makes his expected return from retirement, even if he defeats Saul Alvarez to win the WBC middleweight title.

A man armed with a sawn-off shotgun roamed Limerick on a pedal bike in broad daylight, seeking to shoot people. He wounded one man on a busy street while the victim was chatting to a group including young girls, one with special needs.

Former Irish football player and manager Patrick O’Connell was last night officially honoured by Barcelona before the La Liga giants’ home clash with Real Betis.

It was without doubt the game of the year. The picture of the Tipp players prostrate on the ground as Galway celebrated said it all. The Premier came up just short and Galway won because they stubbornly refused to be beaten.

Yesterday in Thurles was my first time involved in a Munster final since I captained Clare in the 1999 decider against Cork.

Ahead of Sunday’s Munster final, Waterford manager Derek McGrath has described some of the current Tipperary hurlers as “some of the best players who’ve ever played the game”.

OVER the past decade UK-based MacLehose Press has earned deserved plaudits for its dedication to translating the most compelling foreign-language literature for an English-language audience.

Wartski: The First 150 Years, really is something of a jewel. Author Geoffrey Munn is a familiar face on the BBC’s Antique Roadshow, where he tenderly unveils precious jewellery and object d’art brought to the wobbling tables every season.

Handler Padraig Higgins has experienced a hugely-rewarding point-to-point season and the Ballynoe-based handler recorded his eighth success of the campaign by sending out Golden Crisp to record a hugely-popular victory in the winners of two at yesterday’s well-attended second stage of the two-day South Union Foxhounds fixture at Farrangalway outside Kinsale.

Clare and Limerick? The only differences between us are those little idiosyncrasies, those unique emblems, which distinguish us all as our own separate little tribe in the wider hurling family.

Watching the Dubs heading down the home straight yesterday was like watching the Grand National when you had 20 quid on some nag at long odds and you were just wishing it to fall over the line.

AIB All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final: Gort (Galway) 1-15 Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 2-17

The former President of Haiti, Jean-Claude Duvalier, has died.

Former captain Denis Byrne is expecting changes in the Kilkenny team to face Tipperary in next Saturday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final replay — as it appears increasing likely that Henry Shefflin will be included in attack.

ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL:

Anna Geary has compared being a Rose of Tralee contestant with lining out on the pitch.

By Robert Allison

Antrim 0-12 Donegal 3-16

This weekend offers Wexford a chance to stake a claim at the top table of hurling with a win over reigning Leinster champions Dublin after years in the wilderness.

Clare 1-14 Limerick 0-11

Ireland 1-15 Scotland 0-14

Michael Collins was vain, conspiratorial, and probably died a virgin, a UCC professor said on unveiling a plaque in honour of the former rebel leader in Bandon last night.