Running 24 marathons in 24 days would take its toll on the fittest super-human.

When Ford was described by UCC President Professor Patrick G. O’Shea as “a Cork company with an American subsidiary”, it was a remark that perfectly captured the light-hearted mood during the visit of William Clay Ford Jr.

The 21st century has been a rollercoaster ride for the car industry, and Ford continues to look in the rearview mirror at the past with pride, while remaining firmly focused on the goals ahead.

From Model Ts to muscle cars — a fleet of historic Ford vehicles will lead Cork’s St Patrick’s Day parade as the company marks its 100-year connection to the city.

Ford has announced it is to hold a number of events throughout this year to mark the centenary of Henry Ford registering his factory in Cork city in 1917.

In just a few months it will be exactly 100 years since Henry Ford registered his company, Henry Ford & Sons in Ireland.

This year marks a milestone in the life of North Cork dealership, Cavanaghs of Charleville, as it celebrates 50 years as a Ford main dealer.

Take a seat, belt up and prepare yourself for a real blast as the new Ford ST200 hits the road. Declan Colley looks at the many wow specifications

The Ford Fiesta - the ‘Feshty’ as it is known throughout rural Ireland - is celebrating 40 years on our roads, having first being introduced in 1976, Declan Colley

The number of new car registrations passed the 100,000 mark over the first six months of the year — representing almost a quarter more sales than the same period last year.

On Wednesday Dublin Zoo will open a brand new orang-tan enclosure, a new €3m forest home that will replicate their natural habitat in Borneo. Still a construction site, Rowena Walsh wears her hard hat and goes behind the scenes to take a look.

Ford has just announced details of its all-new Ford Edge ‘upscale’ SUV which, the company promises, will deliver premium levels of comfort, sophisticated driver assistance features, and class-leading dynamics to greater numbers of customers in Europe’s best-selling vehicle segment.

The French government could pass a new law giving employees the right to ignore work emails outside working hours.

Ford has also revealed two hot Fiestas, both of which come with the 125bhp version of the acclaimed 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, as well as stiffer suspension, new gear ratios, and specially tuned steering. All standard.

Cavanaghs of Charleville has again been singled out for special attention by Ford Ireland when its aftersales and service division scooped the Ford Chairman’s Award for Customer Satisfaction.

The all-new Ford Mondeo has been awarded the maximum five-star safety rating by independent crash-test authority, Euro NCAP.

Kearys is celebrating the launch of Kearys’ Motorworld, the new state-of-the-art Nissan dealership on the Carrigrohane Road, and formerly the premises of Windsor Motors.

Eddie Murphy, chairman and managing director of Ford Ireland for the past 14 years, is to step down at the end of the year.

It might be two years late in reaching us thanks to a decision by Ford to completely move production from Genk to Valencia, but the new ford Mondeo has been launched across Europe and will be unveiled here in Ireland on October 28 next with the manufacturer hopeful it will spearhead its bid to regain the number one sales slot from Volkswagen.

Since the launch of the Ford Focus in 1998, some 12 million of them have been sold worldwide. In Europe alone 6.9 million Focus units have been sold and around 1.5m of them are built every year.

A young man who tragically lost his life in a road accident was attended to by his uncle who works in the emergency services.

Did you cry with your buddy while watching Fergie say farewell at Old Trafford?

This is Ussuri, a two-year-old male Amur tiger unveiled today as the latest addition to Dublin Zoo's big cat collection.

A forensic psychologist who runs courses on cyberbullying has said viral videos such as the Cork schoolgirl fight will serve to wake youngsters up to the dangers of posting their lives online.

For Irish teens, their ‘virtual’ world is as real as the rest of their lives. But has the unsupervised freedom we afford them online created a monster we can’t control, asks Claire O’Sullivan

IN the early days of the presidential race, Pat Kenny held an illuminating interview on the value of social media in an election campaign.

Dublin Zoo will be announcing the sex of the recently born baby gorilla later today and giving an update on how the new arrival is doing.

A BUNDLE of joy born at Dublin Zoo to western lowland gorilla Lena cannot be identified as a boy or girl as its proud mother is keeping the baby close to her chest at all times.

A baby western lowland gorilla is the latest arrival at Dublin Zoo, keepers revealed today.

WITH the country grinding to a halt in arctic weather conditions, the nation’s more exotic creatures seem to be taking it all in their stride.

PSYCHOLOGISTS are warning Facebook’s 500 million users that “the honeymoon is over” and that the social networking site “is not about playtime anymore”.

AN assistant principal officer with the Revenue Commissioners was awarded €60,000 because of age discrimination, according to the Equality Tribunal’s annual report for 2008.