A larger-than-life personality and true green Irish sporting hero was the last occupant of 5 Menloe Park; now, quite the scrum of viewing interest can be expected on this five-bed Blackrock home’s arrival on the open market.

The death occurred in his native Limerick yesterday of Paddy Reid, one of the country’s most celebrated rugby players.

The last time Ireland won back-to-back titles, they sailed home from Liverpool to Dun Laoghaire carrying nothing much more than the clothes they wore. And they travelled third class, with the selectors in first.

The late, great Karl Mullen once summed up Irish rugby as a combination of ‘boot, bollock and bite’ but if there is a dominant theme to sides in green these days it is the strength of their back rows.

As kids they played together in the same high school soccer and rugby teams in their native Cardiff.

A remarkable performance in the showjumping ring by Cian O’Connor has brought an unexpected boost to the Irish horse sport sector and should raise the profile of Irish breeders, riders and trainers, says Kyran Fitzgerald

“WE were out-Munstered by Leinster.”

Munster 6 Leinster 25

THE world of Irish rugby put aside thoughts of next Saturday’s Munster-Leinster match yesterday as it celebrated the life of the late Irish and Lions captain, Karl Mullen, who died last Sunday aged 82.

Post-war rugby star Dr Karl Mullen was an iconic figure in Irish sport, Sports Minister Martin Cullen said today.

Irish rugby legend Karl Mullen, who captained the team that won Ireland's first Grand Slam, has died at the age of 83.

IAN McGEECHAN let the cat out of the bag the other week when he expressed a preference for a forward to captain the Lions in the forthcoming tour of South Africa.

Wales 15 Ireland 17

JACK KYLE, the name synonymous with Ireland’s “golden generation” of the late 1940s and early 50s, believes the current generation can finally taste Grand Slam success on Saturday.

A Kildare father-of-two who sold heroin to an undercover garda in the city centre has been given a 18-month sentence by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

SPEAKING to a very obviously disappointed Marcus Horan on Sunday evening, I asked him which hurt more: the fact that they had lost this historic game at Croke Park, or the fact that they had lost a Six Nations match, and another chance at history, the fabled Grand Slam.

Showjumper Cian O’Connor tonight won the first gold medal for the Irish team at the Athens Olympics.

Cian O'Connor, the grandson of Irish rugby great Dr Karl Mullen, choked back the tears as Amhran na bhFiann rang out around the Markopoulo centre tonight, singling the end of Ireland's Athens medal drought.

FIRST there was Edward Forrest in 1894, then Louis Magee in 1899, Karl Mullen in 1948 and ’49, and, more recently, Ciaran Fitzgerald in 1982 and ’85.

MILLIONS of words have already been written about Saturday’s thriller at the Millennium Stadium, but none carry more weight than those of Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll after his side’s incredible 25-24 victory over the luckless Welsh.

PROP Pieter De Villiers has not been ruled out of international rugby union indefinitely after testing positive for ecstasy and cocaine, French coach Bernard Laporte insisted yesterday.

Jack Kyle has been named as the greatest ever Irish rugby player in a public poll.