Their achievements at Bandon Show last Sunday hold out promise of another good year for top national exhibitors Seamus Lehane and Ricky Barrett.

Willie Mullins is refusing to look beyond Sunday’s BHP Insurances Irish Champion Hurdle with his brilliant performer Hurricane Fly.

CATTLE dried with paper towels after every wash, twice daily dusting down and rubber mats underhoof – little wonder brothers Kevin and John Walsh were named Ireland’s top two dairy farmers for 2010 at the annual National Dairy Council (NDC) Quality in Citywest, Co Dublin, yesterday.

WITH a loud cry, the first Irish baby of the decade arrived at Waterford Regional Hospital at 28 seconds past midnight.

THE campaign is well under way for the election of the next president of the Irish Farmers Association.

WEST Cork exhibitor Seamus Lehane had a highly successful visit to Limerick Show, where he took both the young horse and filly championships.

A climbing website has posted an alert that Irish climber Gerard McDonnell has disappeared hours after reaching the summit of K2 in the Himalayas.

A Co Limerick man has become the first Irish person to reach the peak of the world's most dangerous mountain.

THERE was keen early season competition in the various horse and cattle classes at Bandon Show last Sunday.

WITH nearly 400 entries, the 2007 Charolais National Show in Carrick on Shannon resulted in Co Cork exhibitors Kevin and Cynthia Foley from Killeagh exhibiting the overall champion female, Royal Pivoine, and the senior and overall reserve champion male, Royal Vangogh.

BREEDING came to the fore in the Irish Horse Board-sponsored Limerick Lady championship at the Limerick Show.

THE rivalry between West Cork horse breeders was at its best during the Clonakilty Show, where they vied for most of the top honours in the showing classes.

WELL-KNOWN showbusiness personality Mark Leen was among the protestors outside a cinema in Tralee where The Da Vinci Code was shown last night.

CORK Summer Show revived memories of its glory days last weekend, reverting to a two-day event, and bringing back cattle and sheep classes after an absence of a couple of years.

A Co Limerick man died after "irreversible and irrevocable" injuries to the brain caused by a heavy object, a murder trial jury heard today.

A "profoundly deaf" young man was left for dead in an isolated country laneway after being badly beaten with a hatchet, a murder trial jury heard today.