THE two Irelands met a few hundred yards from each other near the South Main Street, Cork last night, where a 1,000-year-old Viking weaver’s sword was recently discovered by archaeologists at the historic site of the former Beamish and Crawford brewery.

Leading qualifier Mairead Martin (Kanturk) is safely through to the last 16 at the Irish Women’s Close Championship at Mullingar.

Tie hole drama was the order of the day when the finals of three Munster inter-club competitions were decided over the weekend.

Country came to town last Sunday as a tourist town celebrated its new streetscape after months of upheaval due to resurfacing and drainage works.

Sexton still shining in Lahinch.

Trainer Stuart Crawford made the long journey from his Co Antrim stable worthwhile when taking the featured Imperial Call Chase with Fine Rightly at an extremely busy Mallow racecourse yesterday afternoon.

The Henry de Bromhead-trained Sadler’s Risk belied his relative inexperience over fences when taking an eventful renewal of the Ladbrokes Munster National yesterday afternoon at Limerick racecourse.

Victorian with a Georgian twist, No 3 Main Street in Doneraile is a detached renovated property with the high-ceiling grandeur of another era.

Cork 3-7 Galway 3-4 (All-Ireland U14): The 34th edition of the Tony Forristal tournament opened at 10am on Saturday, and 10 hours later, Cork and Galway still didn’t want to go home.

Munster captured the Girls’ Interprovincial Championship but had to settle for second best at Ulster took the Ladies’ title at Wexford.

AIG All-Ireland champions Muskerry have made a spectacular start to their Barton Shield title defence.

WHEN Donncha O Dulaing says goodbye to the listeners of his RTÉ Radio 1 programme, Failte Isteach, tomorrow week (Saturday, April 25), he won’t consider it the end of his 51-year career with the national broadcaster.

Given there is invariably little between the teams at this stage of the various AIG Irish Cups and Shields competitions, it is not surprising the bookmakers have struggled to separate the qualifiers for this weekend’s Munster semi-finals and finals of the Senior and Junior Cups and Barton Shield at Shannon Golf Club.

Muskerry, Limerick and Doneraile are chasing elusive doubles at this weekend’s Munster finals of the AIG Irish Senior and Junior Cups, along with the Barton Shield, at Shannon Golf Club.

Castlemartyr in East Cork may have been founded in 2008 but they are already poised to win their first pennant when the Munster finals of the AIG Irish Senior Cup take place at Shannon GC next month.

On a weekend of unbelievable tension, resilient Cork Golf Club brought off magnificent double in the Munster provincial finals staged on the Mahony’s Point course in Killarney.

Michael Quirke (Doneraile) is the Irish Seniors Amateur Open champion after winning a three-hole play-off with American Bev Hargraves, whose final round 72 closed what had began as a four-shot gap.

Today’s Barton Shield final at Kinsale Golf Club promises to be a classic battle between youth and experience as the young guns of NUI Maynooth vie with Banbridge for an All-Ireland title at the Chartis-sponsored Cups & Shields National Finals.

The 2012 cups and shields get off to flying start at Kinsale Golf Club today with the Barton Shield semi-finals.

Kinsale Golf Club will continue its centenary celebrations in the grandest style this week when it hosts the Golfing Union of Ireland’s National Finals of the Cups and Shields, sponsored by Chartis Insurance.

AN on the premises house sale by Doneraile based Aidan Foley will take place at Marybrook House, Kanturk next Saturday (Sept 15) at 12 noon.

They look lovely and last so long — well looked after dairy show cows come up shining year after year, with top winners from 2010 taking the red rosettes again last Sunday at Tullamore Show.

Tramore were disappointed at losing to Lee Valley in the semi-final of the Barton Shield on Saturday but turned on the style yesterday in winning the senior title.

Visitors were treated to a show of top class horses at last Saturday’s Belgooly Show which required lengthy deliberations before the judges could name their supreme horse champion.

PRINCETON PLAINS, who failed to win a maiden over flights or on the flat, broke his duck in style with a last-gasp success in the valuable ladbrokes.com Handicap Hurdle at Killarney yesterday.

PEOPLE living in a north Cork town are celebrating victory after successfully persuading the authorities to give them a direct access route to a planned €800 million motorway.

A RARE National Dairy Show, two-in-a-row win kept the Barrett clan of Togher and Adamstown, Cork, at the top of Irish dairy showing last weekend.

CONTRASTING ends of the age spectrum were very much to the fore when East Cork defeated Dungarvan in Saturday’s Munster final of the Bulmers Irish Junior Cup at Castletroy.

BANDON and Doneraile bid for notable doubles when the Munster finals of the Bulmers Irish Senior and Junior Cups and Barton Shield take place at Castletroy this weekend.

Tony Hayes (K Club) set the pace after the opening round of the 54 holes Irish Seniors Amateur Close Championship, sponsored by Tourism Malaysia, when he shot a one under par 71 at Roscommon Golf Club.

ANDREW STRACEY (Littlestone GC, Kent), fired a final round 78 to win the Irish Seniors Amateur Open Championship at Bangor Golf Club yesterday.

ST COLMAN’S and CBS Charleville were latest winners of the TCH quiz.

Hurling great Davy Fitzgerald grabbed a shock win over Newlands’ Cian Curley in the South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at Lahinch today.

Former goalkeeper Davey Fitzgerald will miss Clare's All Ireland Hurling Championship quarter-final clash with Limerick tomorrow after cruising into the second round of the South of Ireland Amateur Open at Lahinch.

RETURNING to this litter-strewn country after a number of years’ absence brings with it the usual surprises, most of them unpleasant.