All-Ireland Club hurling champions Na Piarsaigh were again defeated in the Limerick SHC over the weekend.

St Francis College, Rochestown 0-23 Charleville CBS 2-12: St Francis College turned on the power in the second half of this crucial Harty Cup tie at Mourneabbey yesterday to qualify for the knockout stages in the new year. 

CBS Charleville 1-15 Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG 0-15: A tale of two halves in Fermoy yesterday as CBS Charleville held off a tenacious fightback from Gaelcholáiste Mhuire to claim their first set of points in the Harty Cup. 

Polish man Piotr Baram is back drinking on the streets of Ennis after remaining sober for more than 100 days.

Seamus Horgan (24, 5’11’’, 11-7 Tournafulla): “Like a lot of goalkeepers Seamus was also a very good outfield player but ended up in goals because he could be a bit wild out there!

Adare 1-18 Garryspillane 0-12

An ugly row is developing in Limerick after divisional club Emmets started with just 13 players in their championship game against Adare on Sunday.

Limerick club hurling side Emmets could only muster up 13 players for the start of yesterday’s Limerick SHC game against Adare.

Kilmallock and divisional side Emmets are the only sides left with 100% records after round two of the Limerick SHC.

“ALL for one and one for all,” the motto coined by Alexandre Dumas for his fictional Three Musketeers; it could instead have been coined for the very real hurling warriors of Effin.

OVER the past five years they have watched neighbours either side of the Cork-Limerick border rise to senior stardom.

A FOUR goal blast from John Fitzgibbon saw Adare book their place in the Limerick SHC quarter-finals and lay down a marker to all contenders in the remaining eight.

CHAMPIONS Kilmallock have one foot in the quarter-finals of the Limerick senior hurling championship after defeating Garryspillane in a repeat of the 2005 final.

LAST month Eamon Fitzgerald packed his things, said goodbye to his mum and dad and made his way to Sydney via Shannon, London and Kuala Lumpur. It will be some time before he returns and, in that, he wasn’t alone.

ENDA KENNY breezed into the new Limerick (county) three-seat constituency yesterday with Fine Gael sails billowed by the fair wind of the latest opinion poll.

THE final scoreline suggests a landslide, a one-sided game in which underdogs Bruree could barely keep the ball kicked out to St. Mary’s, but that would be too simplistic a description.

FOOTBALL may not be the main sport played in Bruree, but by tomorrow evening the club from the Limerick village could be the Munster junior champions.

THERE was a poignant moment before Sunday’s Munster club SHC final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, as referee John Sexton blew his whistle to end an impeccably observed minute’s silence to respect the memory of another John Sexton, his father, who had been buried the previous day.

OUTRAGED or pleased – how do you react to being installed as underdogs in a big game, despite the fact that you are a title winning team, and you have home advantage?

ONE of the top awards in the cattle section at Cappamore Show in Co Limerick was kept in the county.

The depth of Justin McCarthy's already understrength panel will be severely tested when Limerick take on Offaly in Saturday's All-Ireland SHC phase 2 qualifier in Tullamore (throw-in 7pm).

CHAMPIONS Adare got off to a winning start in their bid for a four in-a-row in the Limerick senior hurling championship.

LIMERICK hurler James O’Brien has handed a major boost to under fire manager Justin McCarthy by returning to the county senior squad this squad this week.

James O'Brien, who was among the players to withdraw from the Limerick hurling panel late last year, has become the first of those players to rejoin Justin McCarthy's squad.

SPIRITED performances by two young teams in this entertaining Waterford Crystal hurling tournament quarter-final in Kilmallock yesterday, the students eventually out-pointing a plucky Limerick side by three points, thus qualifying to meet UL on Sunday next.

UCC 0-19 Limerick 2-9

OFF the field, the raging inferno that is the Limerick hurling crisis burns on, yet between the white lines Justin McCarthy is attempting to plough on with the preparation work for the 2010 season.

JUSTIN McCARTHY last night defiantly vowed to remain as Limerick hurling manager despite increasing pressure to step down.

PRIDE restored and his own record of never having lost a game in Wexford intact. However, as euphoric as the Limerick hurling manager was in the aftermath of this hard-fought qualifier win in terrible weather in Wexford Park on Saturday, Justin McCarthy’s experience in the game was alerting him to bigger challenges next weekend.

CHAMPIONS Adare eased to a Limerick SHC first round win when defeating Knockainey, 3-14 to 0-9.

NO SHORTAGE of topics this week, is there?

KILMALLOCK held off a late Garryspillane fightback to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Limerick senior hurling championship.

THE five-man boxing team hold Ireland’s best chance of a medal — or medals — at this year’s Olympic Games according to team manager, Jim Walsh.

One of the most challenging protest events in Irish farming history has been recalled at a reunion in Co Limerick of some of the surviving participants of the famous NFA march to Dublin more than four decades ago.

Talented Limerick forward James O'Brien has decided to focus on the club scene for 2008 and has withdrawn from the Limerick senior hurling squad ahead of next year's league campaign.

ONE of the high points of the Irish sport horse breeding year again attracted big interest at Limerick Show.

THE 1,500 guests who will attend the lavish wedding of JP McManus’s only daughter Sue Ann next Saturday have been told “no presents please”.

A 60-COW dairy herd from Co Clare is the 2006 champion herd in the Limerick and Clare Friesian breeders’ club awards.