When he died on a WW1 battlefield Basil Maclear was an Irish rugby star and acknowledged by many of the early game’s greats

An axe murderer is still at large one year after killing a man in Belfast in a frenzied attack, police have warned.

When the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan described statements made during the whistleblower controversy as “disgusting”, it brought an episode of the comedy show Fawlty Towers to mind.

So long, Simpsons and ta ta, Del Boy — Mrs Brown’s Boys are the country’s favourite TV family.

There’s no faulting the ambition of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness (12A).

Arsene Wenger’s tormenters are circling for the kill now. There is a Shakespearean vibe around North London. A great man is on the verge of being driven demented by betrayal and changed circumstances.

An Australian dog managed to survive for a month locked inside a house after his owner died by drinking toilet water.

Michael Moynihan and Enda McEvoy argue both sides of the debate

WITH a maniacal manager, language-challenged waiter, hamster on the loose and racist Major in residence, it’s not the first place that springs to mind for a romantic weekend getaway.

FOLLOWING the luxury of four qualifying from all first round heats, the pressure will begin in the Ladbrokes.com Irish Derby this evening at Shelbourne when it will be just three to survive to the third round.

IN response to Micheal Job’s letter on non-poisonous ways of dealing with rats and mice (May 24), I was reminded of the famous scene in Fawlty Towers where Manuel has a “Siberian hamster” for a pet and Basil is trying to tell him it is a rat: “Ever hear of the Black Death, Manuel?

John Cleese has criticised hotel-room technology after he found it impossible to close a pair of curtains.

GOVERNOR Eliot Spitzer’s resignation became official yesterday, paving the way for Lieutenant Governor David Paterson to take the oath of office and become New York’s chief executive.

Brian O’Driscoll wants to get over the disappointment of Ireland’s RWC campaign. The best way to do that? Lead Leinster to Heineken Cup glory. Brendan O’Brien spoke with the national skipper.

The hotel that inspired the classic comedy series Fawlty Towers will welcome four of the cast at its million-pound relaunch tomorrow.

Phoenix Nights: Brian Potter: “Garlic bread – it’s the future, I’ve tasted it.”

A DUBLIN councillor and his girlfriend were killed in a Beijing road accident yesterday as they travelled to see the Great Wall of China.

JOHN Cleese’s comedy career is no more. It has ceased to be.

MARWOOD TYPE, owned by the Enniscorthy partnership of Davey Morris and Pee Tobin, proved an impressive winner of the Rex Colgan Memorial Cup for bitches at Castletowngeoghegan yesterday.

One of the founding members of the North's Alliance Party, Basil Glass, died today.

BERTIE AHERN was behaving yesterday like he was top dog.

Fawlty Towers and Only Fools and Horses today emerged as the clear favourites to win the title of Britain’s best ever sitcom.

Nicky Henderson and Mick Fitzgerald entered the New Year in top form and the Seven Barrows team kept the ball rolling with a double at Plumpton today thanks to Old Bean and Non So.

WARM tributes were paid to the late co-founder of the Central Remedial Clinic, Lady Valerie Goulding, at her funeral Mass in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, yesterday.

A British paratrooper’s radically different accounts of killing a Bloody Sunday marcher were not put before the Widgery Inquiry, it was revealed today.

BESIDE the door of room seven on the second floor of Dublin's Rotunda hospital 30-year-old South African Tanya Dube lies watched by two plainclothes female prison officers.

A woman and her 10-year-old son hid from immigration officials in a Montreal church because she said she preferred a Canadian jail to a death squad at home in Zimbabwe.