In an emotional message, Larry Stogner announced that he was being forced to retire after 39 years following a diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Motor Neurone Disease.

Larry Stogner has been presenting the six o’clock news on North Carolina station ABC11 since 1976.

Football Association of Ireland boss John Delaney has submitted to the icy deluge of an #IceBucketChallenge - and dedicated it to Roy Keane.

It’s the middle of August, but don’t be surprised if a sudden flu epidemic descends on RTÉ soon.

It takes more than an opening-day pasting by the bookies to keep punters away from Galway, as Tuesday brought big numbers and big spending to Ballybrit.

Very few events can cause more than 16,000 people to fall silent, but when a crowd has come to the races to acclaim a queen, only to watch her carried out on her shield, a shocked hush is the only appropriate response.

Love/Hate, twerking and a long, hot summer — Dave Kenny takes a tongue-in-cheek look back at the year that was.

Award-winning TV chef Neven Maguire will rustle up some delicious delights in Cork this week to help launch a fundraising cookbook featuring the favourite recipes of an array of Irish celebrities.

Rodger Sweeney is hopeful both Fiery Oscar and Shamiran can make their presence felt in the Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle (3.45) at Galway.

After four days of wind, rain, winners and losers, weary punters were running on fumes after the madness of Ladies’ Day — Galway style.

It was the kind of gathering Colm Murray would have loved.

One of Ireland’s best-known sports broadcasters was today remembered as an enthusiastic and articulate reporter gifted with a marvellous memory and unique voice.

Normal service was resumed for the Galway Plate as rain of biblical proportions battered bedraggled punters.

NOTE: A correction to this article is published at the end of the text.

The boisterous Galway racing crowd stood for a minute’s silence in tribute to legendary racing broadcaster Colm Murray.

Colm Murray’s passing was greeted with sadness in his native Moate, Co Westmeath, where the broadcaster was fondly remembered yesterday.

Colm Murray was honoured by a People of the Year award in September 2012 in recognition of his efforts to further medical research into motor neurone disease, writes Dan Buckley

The warm, kind and very generous tributes that followed news of broadcaster Colm Murray’s death yesterday said everything about a man who was admired and loved by so many people.

No event was complete without the ‘Murray treatment’, says Jonathan Mullin

RTÉ broadcaster Colm Murray has passed away at the age of 61.

Best man duties have been taken to a new level by a lad who recruited famous faces to make his speech for him.

The nominees for the 2012 Horse Racing Ireland awards were announced yesterday and includes a new category – Racecourse of the Year.

Heroic, inspiring, and selfless acts were rewarded at Ireland’s answer to an honours system.

Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden said she was “shocked and distressed” following her diagnosis with motor neurone disease, but vowed it would be “business as usual” as far as her work was concerned.

MOTOR Neuron Disease in all its horror was brought to life by Colm Murray.

NEW PHASE, winner of the contest a year ago, repeated the trick at Cork yesterday when landing the Follow Us On Facebook Hurdle.

The lonely, but successful, life of a laptop gambler

THE sun is shining; the Taoiseach is gallivanting for Washington and Tracy Piggott is smiling so much she could be galloping down to Thomond Park of a Friday night.

ON a night you wouldn’t have put a dog out in never mind two makeshift inter-county football teams, nobody expected thrills in this rearranged O’Byrne Cup opener.

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Alex Ferguson saysthere is “absolutely no chance” of him replacing Giovanni Trapattoni as Republic of Ireland manager.

MORNING gamble Questions Answered, owned by the bookmaking Graham family, landed a tidy touch in the featured Tim Duggan Memorial Handicap Chase at Limerick yesterday, providing local trainer Eric McNamara with back-to-back victories in the race, won last year by Larkwing.

I WRITE in praise of Colm Murray’s interview on last Friday’s Late Late Show.

IRISH racing has plenty to be positive about despite a testing year but “radical changes” must be made if some race tracks are to avoid going to the wall.

THERE WAS no doubt about the biggest sensation of the week – Colm Murray’s discovery that in China they use chopsticks. But Drogheda United ran the RTÉ man close.

MICHAEL FOLEY has won the Boylesports Irish Sports Book of the Year Award for ‘Kings of September’, his account of the 1982 All-Ireland football final in which Offaly foiled Kerry’s bid for a historic five-in-a-row.

CONGRATULATIONS to the BBC Radio 5 Live newsreader who recently added to the gaiety of a nation with the following breaking news item: “Andrew Flintoff is to see a renowned joint specialist in Amsterdam.”

THAT was a rather thought-provoking article on Cheltenham by Alastair Down in the Racing Post on Tuesday.

It wasn’t all media spin, doom and gloom with the Lions in New Zealand. Hector Ó hEochagáin and Apres Match regular Risteard Cooper followed the tour for six weeks in New Zealand, and have produced a special ‘Chasing the Lions’ DVD. Brendan O’Brien gets a sneak preview.

PAT SMULLEN, who will ride Grey Swallow in the King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Newbury today, enjoyed a timely boost at Fairyhouse last night when completing a double for his boss Dermot Weld on Gripping and Wildnerness Bay.

SO farewell then Rodney Marsh - you’re not on Sky Sports any longer.

OLYMPIC gold medallist Cian O’Connor was at the centre of a second doping scandal last night when it emerged a horse he rode at the Rome Grand Prix in May had tested positive for a banned substance.

POPULAR Wexford handler Paul Nolan enjoyed far and away his biggest success to date when Say Again produced a smooth performance to take the Guinness Galway Hurdle at Ballybrit yesterday, before an all-time record crowd of 38,882.