A new film about Sean Mannion charts his amazing journey from Connemara teenager to South Boston boxing hero, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

IN a world where the idea of privacy is almost as quaint as a pony-and-trap jaunt from The Quiet Man, it may seem pointless to express concern over the announcement, yesterday, by Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty, that a person must have a public services card if they want to use the services provided by her department. 

Olivia Mehaffey had a mixed start on day one of the European Ladies´ Amateur Championship in Switzerland, going into this morning’s second round five strokes off the lead.

Shares in the John Teeling run Connemara Mining rose over 7% as international “value investor” Paul Johnson substantially increased his stake in the firm.

It’s been 21 years but the names of Pat Whelan and Seamus Harty aren’t far from Trevor Hogan’s lips when the conversation strays back to the 16-year old kid who wandered into the Nenagh Ormond club at the onset of his rugby journey.

Dear Orla MacConnell (11),

Pitbull: Reality Bites on RTÉ2 on Thursday looks at whether some breeds of dog have been unfairly demonised in Ireland.

Ruairí McSorley, who shot to internet fame in January with his reaction to a

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He was true to his word. He didn’t stop. The job may have finished up but the work didn’t. 

READING Star of the Sea is to experience a book of textures, the novel as collage. Joseph O’Connor’s modern classic is a book about books, but also a book about journalism, log-keeping, letter-writing, and 19th-century print culture. It leaps off the page with its multiple voices, but it certainly does not suggest that it is leaping towards a stage.

Purists are abandoning pools for the open-water beauty of the sea, lakes and rivers, says Nuala Woulfe.

We've found the cutest version of Danny Boy - ever!

The Republic of Ireland fell to a disappointing defeat against Serbia at the Aviva last night but nevertheless managed to make a dream come true for a young supporter.

As the actor’s family prepares to scatter his ashes in Connemara, Paul D’Alton on his colourful childhood with the O’Tooles

IN the year that the Cork writer Patrick Galvin died, my own Patrick Galvin was also in his final days. My father wasn’t distinguished or a man of letters: he had worked in the factories of Coventry from his early 30s, as a machinist, been widowed young and raised two daughters.

Men At Lunch, the documentary inspired by the iconic photograph taken during the construction of New York’s Rockefeller Center, received its cinematic release in New York yesterday, 81 years to the day since 11 steelworkers nonchalantly posed on a beam dizzyingly high above Manhattan.

YOU ON holiday? — a man out walking his dog asked, as we stepped out of the car on the quayside at Clifden.

Santa Montefiore spent summers in Connemara as a child: “Family friends rented a huge house there every year; they invited loads of people, and lots of children.

Actor Peter O’Toole has ‘chucked in the sponge’ and retired from stage and screen. Danny White looks at his life

Nostalgia is a great thing.

Mineral exploration firm Connemara Mining has reported a pre-tax loss of €397,121 for 2011; up by nearly €100,000 on the previous year, but has delivered an upbeat medium- term outlook.

Ireland eventing high performance manager Ginny Elliot yesterday stressed the importance of Barbury Horse Trials as she makes her final deliberations regarding her Olympic selection.

In no particular order or weight ... Paul Brady, Henry Shefflin, Myrtle Allen, Saoirse Ronan, the Gulf Stream’s micro climate, Seamus Heaney, Fiona Shaw, Martin Hayes, Graham Norton, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Rory McIlroy, Olivia O’Leary, Connemara, the Delphi and Blackwater valleys, Julie Feeney, John Hume, Lyric FM, Michael Noonan’s unflinching, selfless resolve at a moment of great personal tragedy.

A 70-year-old Connemara man who exposed himself to children attending an Irish college last summer and offered them money for sex has been given a suspended 11-month sentence with strict conditions attached.

I HAVE to return to the matter of the cost of dying issue mentioned here last week, because of the interesting width and depth of the responses received, and the new information that has accordingly come to hand.

SATURDAY

Saturday

Galway United and Salthill Devon meet in tonight’s Galway derby at Terryland Park, kick-off 7.45pm.

Teams for today's All-Ireland League ties.

Team news for this weekend's AIB League games

Lucan's Richard O'Donovan recorded a fine opening round of 70 to lead after day one of the Irish Boys Amateur Close Championship at Portumna Golf Club.

Coach Michael Bradley has chosen a 25-man Connacht squad ahead of their Magners League clash with Edinburgh in Murrayfield on Friday (kick off: 7.30pm).

An appeal by a Connemara man against his conviction for raping and abusing his daughter has been dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

An appeal by a Connemara man against his conviction for raping and abusing his daughter will be heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday.

An appeal by a Connemara man against his conviction for raping and abusing his daughter will be heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday.

A HARD-FOUGHT third division AIB league fixture at Musgrave Park ended in victory for the home side yesterday.

All the team details for the opening weekend of the 2007/8 AIB League.

THE lingerie model has gone from the undergrowth back to the underwear having been the first to get the chop in the Celebrities Go Wild reality TV show.

Limerick's Pat Murray fired a three under par 69 to share the first round lead in the East of Ireland Amateur Championship at Baltray.

Scrabo's Andrew McCormick put a poor start behind him to grab the early lead in the East of Ireland Championship at Co Louth.

Former Shamrock Rovers striker Stephen Grant fired a sensational course record 64 in the first round of the Radisson SAS sponsored West of Ireland Championship at Rosses Point.

A Connemara-born EU envoy in Macedonia is striving to take the tiny Balkan republic into the EU and Nato.

A CLASSY three year old took the young horse championship at Midleton Show for the Tinahely, Co Wicklow, exhibitor, Derry Rothwell.