So much for ‘Alan Hardaker’s ginger stepson’, as I used to dub the unloved League Cup. Unloved by United, anyway. After yesterday’s gripping final, could we finally be said to be warming to this weird tri-handled pot?

The Red Army are on proper full-scale excited manoeuvres week, via massed visits to Blackburn, St Etienne, and Wembley, with the scent of silverware in spring nostrils.

Laura Hickey first recalls being in pain at the age of 6 as she sat on her dad’s knee having anti-inflammatory cream rubbed into her joints.

Wayne Rooney opens up his life to the TV cameras for a major documentary, Rooney — The Man Behind The Goals, on BBC One on Monday.

All the latest news and events from the worlds of music, comedy and film.

If you have a child aged five upwards, chances are you’ll know all about Minecraft. Mother-ofthree Caroline Delaney attended a convention where she learnt that its appeal is far greater than she’d ever imagined

Two months short of her fourth birthday, the little girl from Castlegregory, Co Kerry, who can not talk or walk, yesterday settled her High Court action against the HSE with an interim payout of €2.5m to cover the next three years.

A bride and groom in Canada captured wedding photos they will be telling stories about for years to come.

Cafe Rua,

WILL there be truth now, or will we go on hiding?

SANDRA Collins, 29, had just gone to the shop for sausages on the night she vanished in the town of Killala, Co Mayo.

The endless energy and determination of a mother who died suddenly two weeks after the birth of her seventh son was remembered at her funeral yesterday.

“LET’S HAVE a chat,” said the sports editor, who, newly returned from holidays, usually has a new broom air about him for the first couple of days back in harness.

Coleen Rooney appears as a fashion authority figure in her first ad fronting a £4.5m (€5.45m) campaign for retailer Littlewoods.com, it was revealed today.

Doctors say an 11-year-old boy has undergone pioneering surgery to successfully rebuild his windpipe using his own stem cells.

AN 11-year-old boy from the North has become the first child in the world to have pioneering surgery in which his windpipe was rebuilt using his own stem cells.

THERE was a numbed silence across a Donegal peninsula yesterday evening as hearse after hearse made the journey from Letterkenny General Hospital to Fahan, Buncrana, Clonmany and Ballyliffen and families prepared for the first of eight funerals today.

A FEW weeks ago in the quarter-final of the Leinster SHC between Galway and Wexford, we were treated to some magic.

THERE is a certain grim fascination to be had in the examination of a building collapsing around your very ears.

A South African man has failed in his appeal against his conviction for the murder of his Irish wife at their home in Co Meath more than four years ago.

CHRISTMAS will come early for the supporters of AC Milan this evening when the club’s new loan signing, a certain David Beckham, is officially unveiled before the game against Udinese in the San Siro.

Jennifer Hough unravels a mystery that connects a mummified hand, gold bullion and a retired Limerick man.

A South African man has been found guilty of murdering his Irish-born wife at their home in Co Meath shortly before Christmas, 2004 at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

The son of a woman whose husband is on trial for her murder, has told a trial in the Central Criminal Court that his mother was afraid of his father.

FOR many women there’s nothing quite like the feeling of strolling through town on a Saturday with a Brown Thomas shopping bag hanging from their shoulder.

RACEHORSES, stamps, artists, chefs and fashionistas. It seems there is nothing or nobody that doesn’t want to be associated with Ryder Cup guff… er, golf.

COLLEEN SHANNON of Kerry is the bookie’s favourite to win the Rose of Tralee contest.

The international contestants in this year’s Rose of Tralee festival got a perfect introduction to Irish weather today as they attended their first event.

SO young Theo Walcott is off to Germany this summer, and not on a school exchange programme either.

A South African man was jailed for life today after he was found guilty of the murder of his Irish-born wife.

The trial of a South African man accused of murdering his Irish born wife has heard the couple’s children that they never saw their father strike their mother.

The trial of a South African man accused of murdering his Irish-born wife heard that the accused told another man that he was going to kill his wife days before she was found dead at their home.

A South African man today pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife.

IF the couple who spend together stay together than the precarious engagement of England footballer Wayne Rooney to former checkout girl Colleen McLoughlin is surely the perfect match.

A DUBLIN mother-of-eight and her pregnant daughter are still full of Christmas cheer as they enter the fifth day of a frosty 10-day vigil in search of the ultimate holiday bargain.

BRITISH AIRWAYS was back to 95% of its scheduled service at Heathrow last night as the airport recovered from a catering row that spoiled thousands of holidays.

Desperate passengers were enduring a fourth day of misery at Heathrow today as efforts continued to clear huge delays caused by a catering row.

RORY CLEARY, fresh from finishing top flat jockey jockey at the Galway Festival, was on the mark again at Tipperary last night when guiding Nic’s Colleen to a smooth success in the Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Handicap.

PAT FLYNN, whose horses are in good shape right now, has prospects of a double at Ballinrobe this evening with Hidden Cave and Nic’s Colleen.

Wayne Rooney and his girlfriend Colleen McLoughlin have landed a £500,000 (€719,000) deal with Coca-Cola.

A BEAUTIFUL singer has answered Ireland’s Call to be part of our rugby World Cup challenge in Australia.

OUR daughter, Colleen Ann Meehan Barkow, aged 26, perished in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.

ELITE athletes, we are led to believe, have the best of everything. The right conditions, the right equipment, the best of surroundings and the finest management back-up money can buy.