A member of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s divided Board of Directors has predicted that a dispute between the organisation’s two warring factions will end up in court.

Punches were finally thrown in the ring at the National Stadium last night as a mooted box-off to decide Ireland’s super-heavyweight representative at next month’s European Championships resulted in a split-decision victory for Dean Gardiner.

Boxing chiefs have conceded that suspended fighter Michael O’Reilly is unlikely to clear his name in time to make his first bout following a failed doping test.

Billy Walsh “has not tendered his resignation”, according to a statement issued by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) last night.

Maiquetia, the city in Venezuela where Paddy Barnes will tonight look to seal his place in next year’s Olympic Games, last made the news in 1999 when mudslides devastated the region and caused tens of thousands of casualties.

Ireland’s elite amateur boxers are to be catered for in a state-of-the-art training facility in the National Sports Campus.

The last time ex-Olympians met in an Irish elite welterweight final the winner went on to win an Olympic gold.

There’s been little time to sit back and relax for newly appointed IABA CEO Fergal Carruth.

John Treacy has called for Irishboxing’s new chief to be afforded time and space to make his mark on the organisation as the sport faces the prospect of losing its best fighters.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) has confirmed Fergal Carruth is the new chief executive of the organisation

Refusing to make the most of your potential is unpatriotic, declares body-builder Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) at the beginning of Pain & Gain (16s), especially if you’re a believer in the American Dream.

Michael Carruth has said he expects to see Billy Walsh and Zaur Antia re-appointed to their positions as head coach and technical coach of boxing’s High Performance Unit, but only after “a bit of niggling”.

Michael Conlan made his exit from the Olympic tournament at the hands of a very talented newcomer, Robeisy Ramirez, who won last night’s quarter-final clash on a score of 20-10.

It is 20 years ago this week since Irish boxer Michael Carruth won his gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics and he says he is happy to share the feeling with Katie Taylor, who made history by winning gold in London yesterday.

Irish Olympic medals are something like London buses — you wait for ages for one to come along and then three arrive together.

All eyes will be on Ireland's golden girl Katie Taylor when she makes her Olympic debut this afternoon.

The Olympic Torch has crossed the border on an historic visit to the Republic today in a symbol of the peace process.

Before her fight this morning she would have read the same Bible verses and listened to the same Christian songs on her iPod

Michael Carruth has raised the stakes for Ireland’s Olympic boxers by stating that anything less than a gold medal this summer will rank as ‘a failure’.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern failed to tell the truth about money paid into his bank accounts in the early 1990s, according to the final report of the Mahon tribunal.

The Mahon Tribunal has declared that years of video of witnesses giving evidence will never be released.

MICHAEL CARRUTH says that it’s about time he is replaced in the record books as the last Irishman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing.

THE long, sticky days hang on two tent-pole training sessions at the moment. One in the morning. One in the evening.

New Westmeath senior football manager Brendan Hackett has finalised his team of selectors for the 2010 campaign.

MICHAEL CARRUTH believes that more inter-county football teams could benefit enormously by welcoming an influx of expertise from various other sporting backgrounds.

FORMER Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has claimed the Mahon Tribunal could bankrupt him if it does not find in his favour.

In the first of a three-part series on Brian Cowen’s 12 months as the nation’s leader, Political Correspondent Paul O’Brien asks his friends and foes for their verdicts

OLYMPIC silver medal- winning boxer Kenny Egan last night admitted that he is still haunted at letting the gold title slip away.

THE tribunal was back as the most popular show in Dublin this week. But this time it was not as a drama but as pure farce.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is due back in the Mahon Tribunal this morning for more questioning about his personal finances in the 1990s.

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern angrily rejected a suggestion that he was wrong to claim last May that the Mahon tribunal had not given him information about sterling lodgments that could have saved his former secretary, Gráinne Carruth, from returning to give evidence.

BERTIE AHERN either has a very lucky touch with the gee-gees or his tribunal evidence is made up of the stuff horses leave behind them on the ground.

Bertie Ahern has told the Mahon Tribunal that although he learned that some lodgements to his bank accounts were in sterling before his former secretary took the stand, he did not contact her to tell her.

IT WAS a day of low life in high places.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has launched a stinging attack on the Mahon Tribunal during an interview with reporters in Dublin today.

DID he jump or was he pushed?

BY ANNOUNCING his departure date yesterday, the Taoiseach instantly removed the opposition and media chains from around his neck.

IN THE end, Bertie Ahern was laid low by the tale of two secretaries.

EVERYONE, it seems, is dampening expectations — even the opposition.

A CONSTANT in the Fianna Fáil defence of the money flying into Bertie Ahern’s bank accounts in the 1990s is that the sums involved were not very substantial.

IR£80,000