At this time of the year, there is no better atmosphere in Irish sport than in the Tralee Sports Complex around 8pm on a Saturday night.

Champions Coalisland were sent crashing out in a gripping Tyrone SFC semi-final yesterday as 2015 champions Trillick secured a 0-13 to 0-12 win.

This eagerly anticipated affair didn’t disappoint as East Kerry overcame a strong second-half comeback by Austin Stacks to run out six-point winners and dump the Tralee club out of the championship.

The curlew is on the brink of extinction in Ireland unless the Government invests significant resources in protection measures.

To curve or to swerve — that is the question.

Rosscarbery antiques fair offers plenty of variety, writes Des O’Sullivan.

For their week-long residency in Perth’s Duxton Hotel November two years ago, the Ireland International Rules team had their own recreational area in the lower ground floor.

Disadvantaged people — our people, whether they are unionists or nationalists — must not be further disadvantaged, writes Victoria White

Kieran Donaghy has hit back at Seán Cavanagh’s remarks about Kerry supporters’ behaviour during the counties’ 2012 All-Ireland qualifier in Killarney.

When David Clifford reduced the deficit to one point in the 72nd minute of the league final, the game hinged on the next Mayo kickout.

Former Kerry stars Aidan O’Mahony and Kieran Donaghy rolled back the years in the County League this weekend.

Joe Canning has no problem findings targets.

Austin Stacks dethroned Dr Crokes to secure the Kerry senior club championship title for the first time since 2016 at Austin Stack Park yesterday.

Kieran Donaghy has challenged Kerry to stand up when it truly counts in the Championship and to prove their credentials by delivering in a major game.

He also picked his favourite ever score.

In a town like Tralee and a county like Kerry, mention or sight of a football is never far away.

Three years ago the Tralee Warriors did not exist, though the idea of an amalgam of the various clubs in the town was beginning to ferment in the mind of a fella called Kieran Donaghy.

Things didn’t finish up for Darran O’Sullivan as he would have liked, either with Kerry or when he last played against their opponents tonight, Mayo.

KieranDonaghy has issued a call to arms to Garvey’s Tralee Warriors’ fans ahead of tomorrow night’s Super League meeting with table toppers Templeogue (Tralee Sports Complex, 7.30pm).

The Galway senior hurlers will be aiming to lean on Kieran ‘Star’ Donaghy’s basketball expertise as much as his experience of big football days, according to forward Conor Cooney.

The game was played without the controversial hand-pass rule which had just hours earlier been ditched by Central Council, and Sunday’s FBD Connacht League final between Galway and Roscommon at Tuam will also be played without the ill-fated regulation.

Hula Hoops Men’s National Cup semi-final: Pyrobel Killester 76 Garvey’s Tralee Warriors 70

Tralee is buzzing for hoops. The Complex is gripped by Saturday night fever. Even football people are backing the basketball team in their droves and they’re not just following the Star. First cousins Darren and Fergal O’Sullivan are important figures in the Tralee success story. Ahead of tonight’s National Cup semi-final with Pyrobel Killester at the Mardyke Arena, they explain how a town became united behind the Warriors

Amy Lewis Drainage, farm intensification, upland burning, land abandonment, afforestation have decimated curlews

Holders Templeogue are out of the Pat Duffy Men’s National Cup after losing 92-103 to Garvey’s Tralee Warriors, in Inchicore.

He’s not exactly tormented by his decision, yet Kerry great Tomás Ó Sé has admitted he retired too early from the inter-county game in 2013.

Kerry football is experiencing one of their greatest exoduses as Darran O’Sullivan yesterday became the fourth player in five weeks to retire from the inter-county scene.

The same evening that both Kerry’s involvement in the 2018 championship and Eamonn Fitmaurice’s tenure as manager ended, the last two players to leave the home dressing room in the bowels of Fitzgerald Stadium were Kieran Donaghy and Darran O’Sullivan, writes Kieran Shannon.

It has been a landmark week for the Big Man, ushered in from the cold as Gaelic football’s saviour.

It’s almost 20 years since East Kerry were kingpins of football in the county and their stock of young talent threatens to bring them close to the summit this year.

Conor Gormley gave us ‘The Block’. Fifteen years later and its claim as the most iconic and influential split second in modern Gaelic football remains pretty robust.

Kieran Donaghy believes Kerry should discontinue their long tradition of the county champions selecting the senior team captaincy if they are to be as competitive as possible against the likes of Dublin in the future.

It wasn’t a shock but still there was a twinge of sadness when the news broke yesterday morning.

To appreciate the extraordinary journey and career Kieran Donaghy underwent before announcing his inter-county retirement yesterday on the 17th anniversary of 9/11, it’s worth rewinding to where he was when those planes crashed into those towers.

"I can definitely see him successfully managing Kerry teams in the future," said Éamonn Fitzmaurice.

In the end, it was all too comfortable for Kerry. But it mattered little, the result they needed from Pearse Stadium didn't materialise.

What has become of Kerry’s middle-aged? That’s been the standout quandary of the Super 8.

Ciarán Whelan, Colm Cooper and Seán Cavanagh expressed concern for Kerry's Super 8s prospects.

Five Munster finals, four wins and one draw; Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s championship managerial record against Cork is almost as good as it gets.

‘Throughout the spring, June 13 had hibernated in my head… In the dressing room just before going out I spoke to the players in a group. That was something I never did. This game was different. I spoke from my heart about who we were and what we were about and what we were going to do when we went out the door, what we had to do.’ — Paul Galvin, In My Own Words: The Autobiography

The Dublin footballers are every bit as defensive as Galway, Tribes captain Damien Comer has insisted.

Paul Geaney has admitted that it felt like he was playing for the Kerry U23s at times earlier this year.