“NO-ONE understands men better than the women they don’t marry,” declares Lizzie Burns, the eponymous narrator of Gavin McCrea’s debut novel Mrs Engels.

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew made eight changes as the Magpies attempted to edge closer to the knock-out stages of the Europa League in Belgium.

An Irish family celebrated the birthday of a man missing for three years in the Netherlands with a protest at the Dutch embassy in Dublin yesterday.

FREDERICK Engels is settling down in his temporary accommodation at Deauville ahead of an attempt for Group One compensation in tomorrow’s Darley Prix Morny.

TOMORROW’S Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh promises to be one of the hottest juvenile races of the season and trainer David Brown sends Frederick Engels in the hope of interrupting Aidan O’Brien’s domination of the Group 1 contest.

The Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Gimcrack Stakes at York on August 19 has attracted a classy entry of 61 juveniles.

DUTCH food scientists are developing strategic links with Cork-based researchers in Teagasc Moorepark and in UCC, despite the competition that exists between them in terms of bringing projects to market.

GIVEN the appalling state of the economy, our democratically-elected Government had no alternative but to impose the most severe restrictions on public expenditure.

INEVITABLY, the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising last week found both the Fianna Fáil-led Government and Sinn Féin outbidding each other to exploit the event in order to justify their contemporary political programmes.