The Cork International Choral Festival kicks off today with plenty of events lined up to keep everyone entertained. Check out some of the highlights here. 

Cork will come alive with the sound of music next week as 5,000 singers arrive from all over the world for the annual International Choral Festival.

1. Funny Side Up

Gibert O’Sullivan, Tommy Tiernan, and a wealth of opera, musicals, and theatre are just some of the highlights at Cork Opera House this year.

Acclaimed soprano Cara O’Sullivan has revealed that a leg wax led to a cancer diagnosis.

When Cara O’Sullivan was diagnosed with nodes on her vocal cords, she knew that the slightest slip during the operation would end her singing career, writes Jo Kerrigan

BIGGEST hurling story of 2015, thus far? No question there: Henry Shefflin’s retirement.

Heavy school bags are set to become a thing of the past in a school with its eyes on the future.

Olympia, Dublin

The trial of a 30-year-old Sligo man accused of murdering a pensioner has heard that injuries to the deceased were “a horrendous sight to behold”.

London 2-7 Carlow 0-13

Carlow have one championship debutant for Sunday’s Leinster SFC first-round meeting with Westmeath at Cusack Park in Mullingar (3.30pm).

One of the files in the state papers just released by the Department of Foreign Affairs relates to the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in Aug 1979.

SIX unanswered points in the final 10 minutes steered St Kieran’s to another Leinster trophy after they came from behind to deny a gallant St Brendan’s, Birr at Balinakill yesterday.

Wexford Festival Opera will mark a significant milestone with a typically elegant programme of events, says Nicki ffrench Davis.

THE GAA’s “men in white coats” won’t exactly become a thing of the past as their new kit remains predominantly white, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

AT THE dawn of the millennium, things looked good for Waterford rugby club Waterpark.

CHILDREN’S Minister Barry Andrews said he hoped to have a new childcare services ‘tsar’ appointed before the end of the year and there was no need for a national audit of foster care services.

THERE were strong calls yesterday for new teachers to be given more hours, amid fears that those struggling for work could suffer mental health problems while retired teachers take substitute classes.

An retired man running a "forgery factory" making fake bank statements and payslips for loan applications, car documentation and ID cards has been given a suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The Leinster Under-20s recorded their second victory of the season when they beat the English Counties 22-9 at Rugby Lions RFC, Birmingham on Saturday.

Irish peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon say they are very happy with the progress of their mission in the area.

It emerged today that the senior Irish officer in Lebanon, Lt. Col. John Molloy, contacted his liaison officer in the Israeli Defence Forces to express his concerns about nearby attacks six times prior to the destruction of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike.

GLEN ROVERS, Blackrock and Sarsfields will have new managers at the helm this season.

There is to be more competition in the Gaelic games market after Waterford sportswear firm Azzurri became the latest firm to be granted a licence to make helmets by the GAA.

Evelyn Ring

TWO boxes of tissues were left on the bare table among the microphones and other props you expect to find in an Oireachtas committee room. As the room emptied out at the end of the hearing, they remained the only physical reminders of the traumatic testimony that had expired.

A YOUNG Kanturk man helped Ireland to an impressive fourth place in the International Young Butcher Competition in Zurich.

THE GPA are to enter negotiations with GAA president-elect Sean Kelly with regard to player recognition at official level during his three-year term in office.

UCC 2 UCD 1

A former priest was jailed for a year today after being convicted of assaulting two schoolboys.

LAOIS became the latest county to break from the monopoly O’Neills once held over GAA gear when they announced a three-year deal with Azzurri sportswear in Portlaoise last night.

Osama bin Laden declared before September 11 that there “is going to be a fight against Americans”, at an Afghan training camp attended by suspected members of a New York terror cell, prosecutors said in court papers.