1. Are Dublin and Kerry as classy as they are made out to be or are they just cleverer when it comes to the dark arts?

It’s not just Marty McFly and Doc Brown who make a connection between 1985 and 2015. Like it was 30 years ago, Dublin and Kerry enter the football championship as the two favourites; Kerry as reigning kingpins and Dublin as the winners of the previous year. 

ACROSS the table is the face of modern gaelic football. The face and the physique.

AIB All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final

McGrath Cup Final

Austin Stacks need to capitalise on, as much as celebrate, their first Kerry football title in 20 years, believes former Rock Street great Ger O’Keeffe

The Nire 0-11 Stradbally 0-6

Waterford GAA chiefs have confirmed they will not lobby the province to bring Munster senior championship hurling to Walsh Park in 2015.

HE still spins around Killarney on his bike at 55, looking as fresh as paint, uncreased by the stresses of life and Kerry’s roller-coaster ride to Croke Park.

For many of the players honoured in Croke Park yesterday as ‘Stars of the 80s,’ an All-Ireland senior football medal simply eluded them, while for a few of them it was never more than a dream.

Cork County Council is to open two industrial-sized kitchens in Carrigaline before the year end which will be available to small-scale artisan food producers.

Motorists will shortly not be permitted to instantly renew driving licences in Cork due to new centralisation measures.

A Cork local authority is to become the first in the country to provide industrial-sized kitchens to help fledgling artisan food producers cook up more business.

It was the kind of send-off he would have loved — a packed house, music, humour, sporting people, and, most importantly of all, friends from all over the country.

Castlehaven 1-05 Stradbally 0-07

Stradbally 1-8 Nire 0-10

More start-up “cocoon centres” for businesses are to be created in Co Cork towns and villages — where a fully equipped office can be rented for just €50 a week.

Cork will host the country’s largest international business networking event next year as part of The Gathering.

One of the country’s largest local authorities collected a record €95.7m in rates last year, up more than €16m from the peak boom year — 2006.

“ALL for one and one for all,” the motto coined by Alexandre Dumas for his fictional Three Musketeers; it could instead have been coined for the very real hurling warriors of Effin.

NEARLY 30% of money paid out as a result of compensation claims against one local authority has gone to solicitors representing the injured parties.

IF you point your car south from Kilkenny city and travel on any of the major three arteries towards Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir or Clonmel, you’ll travel through Danesfort GAA country.

THE scoreline at the end flattered Midleton at Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday, yet, there was never any real doubt that they would be the team to face Ballymartle in next Sunday’s Cork SHC quarter-final.

THE mayor of Cork County has urged communities to apply for grants as part of a €1.25 million initiative designed to boost small enterprises in towns and villages.

BUSINESSES in Co Cork will not face an increase in commercial rates for the next four years.

HOUSEHOLDERS in Cork county are facing increases in the cost of living – and dying – because of new VAT charges.

PEADAR O’BRIEN, whose death has occurred in Dublin after a short illness, was one of the best known sporting journalists in the country.

CORK County Council is to invest €200,000 in the new Cork-Swansea ferry, the MV Julia, which is set to sail on March 1 next.

Meath SFC Final: Wolfe Tones 1-13 Seneschalstown 1-13 aet

WILLIAM KIRBY gives short shrift to anyone peddling the view that Austin Stacks’ storied tradition gives them a head start on the opposition.

JOHN KIELY last night expressed surprise and disappointment at not being re-appointed as Waterford senior football manager.

THE first batch of Roses bloomed in front of the television cameras last night ahead of tonight’s decider, which promises more thrills and spills.

COLM COOPER is the best forward of his generation and would make any team from any era, according to Mick O’Dwyer.

WITH almost €7 million in uncollected commercial rates in Cork county, businesses in financial difficulties have been urged to contact county hall’s finance department.

DUBLIN manager Pat Gilroy has handed debuts to two players for Saturday’s National league Division One tie against Tyrone at Croke Park.

Today in Tralee Golf Club there’s a golf classic with a difference. It’s a fundraiser for three hospital-related charities, organised by former Kerry All-Ireland winning captain Ger Power in memory of his daughter Jane, who passed away last year. He spoke to Michael Moynihan.

Gary Hurney and Liam Lawlor, two players who were recently called up to Justin McCarthy's injury-hit hurling panel, have been named in the Waterford side for Sunday's Munster SFC quarter-final meeting with Clare (Cusack Park, throw-in 3.30pm).

Waterford 1-15 Carlow 0-11

ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 4 ROUND-UP - Carlow 1-10 Tipperary 1-9, Dr. Cullen Park

A WEST CLARE contractor and a group of town councillors have challenged each other to traverse Kilrush’s Henry Street in high heels to resolve a dispute on whether the road is even.

A RECORD €85.7 million in commercial rates was collected by Cork County Council in 2007 and they estimate the figure will peak this year to €94m, but thereafter could fall due to an expected downturn in the economy.

Antrim footballers firmly made their long journey to Cusack Park, Ennis a fruitful one with a convincing 13 points victory over Clare by 1-13 to 0-3 this afternoon.