Irish firm Wilson Architecture has won a major design contract in China for over 1 million sq ft of HQ, lab and R&D buildings, as part of an enormous new 8.5 million sq ft bio-pharma campus.

Sales of publishing phenomenon EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey were not enough to prevent one of Ireland’s largest independent booksellers from going into the red last year.

A Cork-based architecture firm has beaten stiff European and international competition to land the tender to design a major new twin-tower 40-floor mixed-use development to be built in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian.

Over 100 crews will tackle tomorrow’s Gleneagle Hotel Killarney Historic Rally that doubles as the opening round of the 2013 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and final round of this season’s Southern 4 Historic Rally Championship.

Three local authorities have been criticised over indications that a contract to supply library books will be granted to a British company.

The director of an independent, Irish-owned book chain claimed yesterday that Ryanair’s baggage allowance is having more of a negative impact on traditional book sales than ebooks.

A CASE of back to the forests for the title protagonists of this season’s Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship that resumes tomorrow after an extended break due to the cancellation of the fourth round in Donegal last month.

REVIVED just three years ago, tomorrow’s Tyre Stop Kerry Rallysprint has already found a perfect niche in the motorsport calendar.

A DISGRUNTLED ex- employee who pumped almost six million litres of water into the industrial yard of his former employer has been ordered to pay €7,400 compensation to the owners if he wants to avoid jail.

OPERATING profits at independent bookselling chain O’Mahony’s fell last year by 32% to €189,795.

THIS year’s Circuit of Ireland Rally will feature a demanding 18-mile night-time stage as the centrepiece to what is the second oldest rally in the world.

DESPITE international acclaim, Frank McCourt was unsure what welcome he would get from his native city when he came back for the first book signing.

UP to 150 jobs are to be shed after the world’s largest pharmaceutical company announced it is to sell off one of its plants.

CORK CHAMBER has urged Finance Minister Brian Cowen not to turn a blind eye to the Cork Docklands development project in the upcoming Finance Act.

A STYLISH city centre bar was toasted at Cork’s top building design awards ceremony yesterday.

A CITY centre theatre is fuming over plans by one of Cork’s biggest bars to open a roof-top smoking deck.

CORK’S biggest bar opened last night creating 90 jobs and signalling the start of the rejuvenation of the city’s Grand Parade.

THE most dramatic moment on the 12th day of the Indaver hearing came when a planning consultant for the applicant company acknowledged there would be a material contravention of the 2002 Cork County Development Plan if the project goes ahead.

One of the oldest rallies in Europe, the Cork '20' International Rally has secured its first overall sponsor for almost 10 years.

Consolidating his lead role on the second run, Ray Breen went on to win the Cork Single Stage Rally, his first ever victory.

Ray Breen, in a Subaru Impreza, was the fastest driver through the first stage of the Cork Single Rally on the outskirts of Cloyne.

Andrew Nesbitt has won the first ever Punchestown Rally Master in his Cuisine de France Subaru WRC.

Punchestown Racecourse is the venue for the first rally action since the foot-and-mouth restrictions.