Irish parents have been urged to play traditional games with their children to help combat the obesity crisis among children.

Medical experts have urged people to destigmatise obesity by changing the words used to describe it.

Still reeling from the decision to make Wonder Woman a UN ambassador for gender equality, Suzanne Harrington pays tribute to the real wonder women of our time.

Westport House in Co Mayo has been bought by a local family who have pledged to retain all staff and spend €50m on developing the estate over the next five years.

The promoters of a film festival which celebrates Richard Harris in his native Limerick, has accused the city’s cultural establishment of snubbing the event after the city council gave it just €200.

GALWAY-based poet, Rita Ann Higgins, has written a poetry collection (her tenth) that never bores. 

Ireland’s Alcatraz-style visitor attraction unveils its €5m revamp this weekend as the country gets set to bask in bank holiday sunshine.

Your weekly guide to some new family friendly products online and in the shops.

Noel Welch travels west to the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel and Estate, where fly fishing for salmon and trout, clay shooting, and walking are among the many outdoor pursuits on offer.

Obesity can reduce life expectancy as much as smoking, but most people do not realise this.

TO SAY that Westport House has been in the family for generations doesn’t quite capture Lady Sheelyn Browne’s impressive lineage — her connection to the 400-acre Co Mayo estate goes right back to her 14th great-grandmother, the “most notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland”, pirate queen Grace O’Malley.

The Restaurant, Belleek Castle,

Hot on the heels of his takeover of Dublin’s Beacon Private Hospital, billionaire Denis O’Brien has reopened the historic Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara.

NOBODY can forget that heartstopping seven minutes during Eurovision 1994 when Ireland, quite suddenly, became the centre of the cultural universe. None of us, indeed, could have predicted what would swirl upwards and outwards from that brief entr’acte. But it happened, and a legend was born.

REAL pirates didn’t have the luxury of fresh pizza when they were attacked by the munchies after a morning spent splashing and screeching. But thankfully wannabe pirates in Mayo don’t have to go plundering and pillaging for their lunch after working up an appetite on the zipwire, log flume or pedalos.

Lillie Dixon, who weighed 38kg when she was just six years old, is one of more than 300 children to benefit from a unique family-based childhood obesity treatment programme.

Seán McCárthaigh experiences some of the diverse attractions on offer in Westport.

I believe that anyone who is born by the Atlantic is constantly drawn back there.

A man, described in court as "very lonely", has avoided a jail sentence today, for having 71 pornographic images and videos of young girls on his computer.

IT’S A dark and moonless night on the west coast.

Sheelyn Browne of the Westport House and Pirate Adventure Park discusses her working day with Niamh Hennessy

TERRY DEARY’S Pirate Tales series scores high again on the laughter scale with his latest book The Pirate Queen (A&C Black; €5.92), featuring our own feisty Grace O’Malley.

AS I STAND at the Mulranny Park Hotel in Co Mayo on day one of a weekend trip, my eye races over the empty spaces, trying to comprehend the beauty of the interlocking mountains, the sweep of the sea, the sense of boundless landscape.

BANDON’S gut-wrenching loss to Three Rock Ladies was the only bit of bad news on a productive day for Munster women’s hockey in Irish competitions.

JOHN OXX, enjoying a modest campaign by his high standards, can saddle Karasiyra to land the Listed Lenabane Stakes at Roscommon tonight.

ANTE-POST favourite Twice Over heads a select field of six runners set to go to post in tomorrow’s Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

PAT SMULLEN gave Grace O’Malley a quite magnificent drive to land the Group 3 Kerry Group Noblesse Stakes at Cork yesterday.

Grace O’Malley put up a courageous performance to come out on top in a fantastic three-way finish to the Kerry Group Noblesse Stakes at Cork.

AKDARENA, trained by Jim Bolger and carrying the familiar colours of Miss Kirsten Rausing, scored a runaway win in the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes at Naas last night and will now bid for classic glory.

RADHARCNAFARRAIGE – it would be interesting to hear how an English commentator might pronounce her name – gets the nap to land the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden at Naas tonight.

RTÉ’s latest online offering is a bit like the Eurovision: a cynical mix of talent and trash where the thrill is all in the voting.

Check out our tips from today’s horse races across Ireland.

Michael Bell could not be happier with the progress Sariska has made since her defining moment at Epsom, as she prepares to bid for a Classic double in Sunday’s Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh

BEAUTY O’Gwaun will get her crack at the big time when she tackles the Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh on Sunday.

YEATS heads 10 acceptors for the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on Thursday.

THE company that produces the Riverdance stage show returned to profitability last year as a result of strong sales in Europe.

NO man is an island – but the clued-in and fascinating Nadim Sadek has gently re-created one for himself and his family in Mayo’s Clew Bay.

MICHAEL Halford’s Invincible Ash can continue her climb up the ladder by taking the Hibernia Steel Products Ltd Race at Dundalk tonight.

THE company that produces the Riverdance stage show saw its losses drop by more than €5.5 million in 2007.

LEAVING Certificate students may be spared some stress in future after the Education Minister yesterday said she would seriously consider changes to exam timetables.

President Mary McAleese has given her seal of approval to a new Broadway show from the producers of Riverdance, despite its slating by US theatre critics.

IF Granuaile were alive today she would probably tie up her hair, grab her cutlass and lead a band of pirates to lay waste the Hilton Theatre on Broadway where a musical tribute to the Irish pirate is floundering.