What do Vladimir Putin and lingerie have in common?

Saunter around Croke Park before throw-in on match day and you will invariably come across photographers and cameramen harvesting some of the tribal colour with shots of fans funnelling into GAA Headquarters.

Name: Pat Walker

From fashion designers to actors and businesswomen to models, the next generation of young Irish people has thrown up some significant talent across a range of professions. These young people are among a pool of highly-accomplished achievers whose remarkable successes to date are bucking recessionary trends and putting their country back on the map.

Industrial unrest is brewing at Dublin department store Arnotts where the pension scheme is to be wound up meaning “upwards of 50%” of entitlements for existing workers could be lost.

PERHAPS ominously for Kerry people, it’s been 16 years since Hill 16 last witnessed Dublin in an All-Ireland final.

MORE THAN 70 medals were awarded to show gardens at Bord Bia’s Bloom 2011 in Dublin yesterday.

STUDENTS of racing could well apply the sametechniques used in selecting horses to pick out winners of fashion competitions.

AFTER the first two days of the National Hunt Festival had failed to throw up a winning favourite, punters could have been forgiven for holding bookies in the same regard as bankers.

Arnotts has declined to comment on speculation that 'X-Factor' sensation Mary Byrne was paid more than €20,000 to open their sale in Dublin yesterday.

IT wasn’t exactly jingle bells all the way at the nation’s cash registers yesterday as retailers reported a slow start to the traditional Christmas sales.

THE country’s retail sector continues to be ravaged by the downturn after sales plunged to a 25-year low in 2009.

THERE was an “oh my god” moment for Tipperary town woman, Yvonne Ellard, when she won the top fashion prize at the Blossom Hill Ladies’ Day at the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show yesterday.

ARNOTTS is a name long synonymous with Dublin even prior to the company’s 18-year sponsorship of the Dublin GAA teams.

Dublin's jersey sponsors for the new season have yet to be confirmed, despite the capital's footballers having their first competitive fixture of 2010 next Sunday.

MOBILE phone giants Vodafone last night confirmed that they are in sponsorship negotiations with Dublin GAA chiefs.

A planning decision on a billion-euro revamp of one of Dublin city centre's busy shopping areas is expected today.

A PLANNING decision on a multi-million-euro revamp of one of Dublin city centre’s busy shopping areas has been delayed.

A planning decision on a multi million euro revamp of one of Dublin city centre's busy shopping areas has been delayed, it emerged today.

AN POST is leading a group of objectors appealing a €750 million redevelopment plan by Arnotts city centre department store.

SHARES in Boundary Capital, the investment vehicle controlled by Niall McFadden, will begin trading on the Dublin and London stock markets.

THE devil is in the detail. Ask Croke Park operations manager Alan Gallagher. Just as staff in Jones Road put one little issue to bed, another pops up.

Arnotts is on the look-out for a development partner to work on a revamped 'Northern Quarter' in Dublin city centre.

A DUBLIN family who founded a DVD and video games distributor are €23.5 million richer after selling the company to DCC.

LARRY TOMPKINS has laughed off suggestions that he is poised to take over as football manager in Tipperary.

Once seen as the preserve of only provincial and All-Ireland champions, the team holiday is fast becoming a common January past time. So who is going where in 2003? Mark Gallagher and Colm O’Connor investigate.