The GAA’s newly-appointed national match officials manager is open to the idea of more technology being used to assist referees, but has questioned just how far it can go.

The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating whether Google has breached the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the way it processes user data to provide personalised online advertising.

Summer is almost upon us but forgive me if I’m not of a sunny disposition. The standard of hurling refereeing is slipping and I fear it could have a major bearing on what we see in the coming weeks.

The GAA are set to return to naming a panel of 14 referees across their top two hurling championships.

Tipperary GAA chiefs were forced to cancel a recruitment course for new referees in Thurles last night due to a lack of numbers.

Aaron Gillane was the hero as Mary Immaculate College booked their place in this year’s Fitzgibbon Cup final when they held off the NUIG challenge at Cusack Park in Ennis..

Sean Carey was the toast of Moyle Rovers as his injury-time goal knocked arch-rivals and holders Clonmel Commercials out of the county senior football championship in a thrilling semi-final at Cahir — Rovers won 2-7 to 0-11.

They were struggling for consistency all through the Munster minor round-robin, but Tipperary finally found it on the big day.

Tipperary 4-15 Cork 1-14: Tipperary blitzed Cork for a crucial first win of the Munster MHC round-robin which keeps alive their hopes of progressing.

Upperchurch-Drombane caused a bit of a stir with a 0-20 to 1-13 win over a fancied but understrength Drom-Inch in the Tipperary SHC first round at Templetuohy on Saturday evening.

Cork manager, John Meyler, is facing up to the prospect of being without Conor Lehane, as well as Seamus Harnedy, for Sunday’s crunch clash against Tipperary, in Semple Stadium.

When John Kiely announced his extended panel for the 2018 campaign, 10 of the 38 players listed were from the Na Piarsaigh club.

It doesn’t take Marcus Horan long to highlight the most notable contrasts between his playing days and the current crop of men proudly wearing the red of Munster.

It might be considered adding insult to injury in Kilkenny, but Brian Cody faces a possible 12-week ban for an exchange with fourth official Justin Heffernan during the first half of Saturday’s qualifier.

Pat O’Connor wonders does a ‘holy trinity’ of officials exist for September Sunday?...

Cork IT 3-11 University of Limerick 2-19: UL’s greater balance in front of goal took them past Cork IT last night and into the semi-finals of the Fitzgibbon Cup.

Clara 2-12 O’Loughlin Gaels 1-13: Let’s start at the end, if only because there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. At the very end, after the hurly-burly was done, after the battle was lost and won. That’s where the backdrop to Clara’s second Kilkenny SHC title in three seasons, and third ever, was painted.

The clock read 58 minutes when thousands of jubilant Limerick supporters, having rolled down from the Ryan and Kinane Stands, occupied every blade of grass on either sideline at Semple Stadium.

Johnny Ryan is in line to referee next month’s All-Ireland senior hurling final. The Tipperary man is understood to face competition from Wexford’s James Owens.

James Owens improved his chances of refereeing his first senior All-Ireland hurling final with an impressive handling of the Galway-Cork All-Ireland quarter-final yesterday.

Match of the day in a busy weekend of divisional senior hurling championship games was the Mid Tipp clash of county champions, Thurles Sarsfields and divisional title-holders, Drom-Inch at Holycross yesterday.

There are increasing doubts that the HawkEye score detection system will be ready for the Munster SHC quarter-final between Clare and Limerick in Thurles on May 24.

Prayers were offered at the funeral Mass for Johnny Ryan for all who have lost their lives in farm accidents over the years.

A brave Irish girl, who captured hearts on both sides of the Atlantic as she battled a rare childhood cancer, has died.

A large crowd is expected to pour into the parish of Clara, Co Kilkenny, tomorrow for the funeral Mass of Johnny Ryan, father of All-Ireland winning captain Lester Ryan, who died in a farm accident on Wednesday.

IT is tragic that the first farm death of 2015 has been recorded so very early in the year. It is doubly so because the victim, Kilkenny man Johnny Ryan, was an ardent advocate of working in safety on the farm.

Farmers have again been warned they may lose EU grants if the number of farm deaths does not improve.

The GAA world was plunged into shock yesterday by the death of the father of Kilkenny’s All-Ireland winning hurling captain in a fatal farm accident.

A farmer killed in a work place accident in Kilkenny has been named locally as the father of All-Ireland hurling winning captain Lester Ryan.

During the summer, a highly-regarded team official from a Munster county approached this column with a query.

The furore over Brian Cody’s criticism of Barry Kelly last weekend has shed some light on a little-discussed phenomenon in the GAA, the shadowy world of county-referee incompatibility, where it can be claimed without fear of contradiction that a certain county has issues with a certain official.

The battle to become Galway senior hurling manager next season has been cut to a two-horse race between current manager Anthony Cunningham and his former selector and coach Mattie Kenny.

The GAA will undertake a recruitment drive to increase the number of inter-county hurling referees.

Joe McQuillan will referee Dublin’s All-Ireland senior football semi-final clash with Donegal on August 31 — the eighth time in four Championships he has taken charge of a game involving them.