The BBC has apologised to viewers after decathlon great Daley Thompson made an anti-Irish joke.

There was Irish success in four Bafta categories in London last night.

Irish comedian Brendan O’Carroll, star of BBC1’s Mrs Brown’s Boys, saw off competition including Rev and Fresh Meat to win the Situation Comedy category.

LEADING sports injury therapist Gerard Hartmann will open a new clinic at one of the most famous high altitude training camps in Kenya next week.

Actress Helen Mirren looked unusually demure when she collected an award for her fashion sense.

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Irish singer and charity campaigner Bob Geldof has come fifth in a poll of great British heroes.

YOU can never have too much jewellery, even if you’re an elite sportsman.

Jo Pavey will compete in the ‘Visit Scotland’ Great Edinburgh Cross-Country event on January 14.

KELLY HOLMES choked back the tears as she revealed the tragedy behind her decision to retire from athletics.

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes today announced her retirement from athletics.

Kelly Holmes will declare this morning whether she is to compete at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Swimming, cycling and running — all in the same event. Little wonder the sense of achievement for a triathlete is so immense. Simon Lewis spoke to seven-time national champion Ger Hartmann about a special event in Cork next week.

JER O’DONOGHUE (Leevale) returned to his native county to claim his qualifying standard for next year’s European track and field championships last night when An Riocht AC unveiled their magnificent new €1.8 million facility with the Lee Strand International at Castleisland.

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes insists her final track appearance in Britain on Sunday will not herald her departure from the sport.

GERARD HARTMANN will anxiously watch tonight’s final of the women’s 10,000m at a Sports Bar in Limerick along with the double Olympic champion, Kelly Holmes.

OLYMPIC long jump champion, Dwight Phillips, was among the early arrivals as the stars for tomorrow’s BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke began to assemble yesterday.

KELLY HOLMES has pulled out of Saturday’s BUPA Cork City Sports at the Mardyke because of the Achilles tendon problem that forced her out of the European Cup the weekend before last.

Kelly Holmes has pulled out of Saturday’s BUPA Ireland City Games in Cork.

Kelly Holmes is confident she has overcome a minor injury problem and will be in top shape before competing at the Cork BUPA Ireland City Games next weekend.

THEY may have reclaimed their position in the top division but British athletics suffered a stunning blow at the European Cup match in Leiria, Portugal, yesterday, when Paula Radcliffe trailed in a remote second to Volha Krautsova from Belarus in the women’s 5,000m - a performance that must throw her plans for the world championships into turmoil.

DAVID GILLICK will have the A standard for the world championships in Helsinki as his target when he lines up for the 400m at the European Cup in Leiria, Portugal, on the weekend of June 18/19.

PAUL McKEE came through his first 400m race since 2003 without any problems on Tuesday night and now has his sights set firmly on the BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke on July 2.

Brendan Mooney

IF Geraldine Hendricken is ready to run, she will be at The Mardyke on July 2.

MARK CARROLL has confirmed his participation in the men’s 3,000m at the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 2 while his fiancée, Amy Rudolph, after a sensational 10,000m debut, drops back in distance to oppose double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes in the women’s 1,500m.

Brendan Mooney

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes announced today this will be her final competitive season.

Football star Paul Gascoigne made an emotional appearance at the British Book Awards as his autobiography won a top literary prize.

DOUBLE Olympic champion Kelly Holmes will compete at the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 2.

Kelly Holmes has revealed her frustration at being forced out of this weekend’s European Indoor Championships through injury.

FIVE athletes have been added to the Irish team for the European Indoor Championships in Madrid next month.

Yelena Isinbayeva broke the world pole vault record indoors and outdoors, as she easily cleared a height of 4.88m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham.

Bon Geldof has been voted the celebrity most likely to inspire British people to get involved in charity work.

Prince Charles and Sharon Osbourne chatted backstage about the burglary at her country home and the health of her husband Ozzy at a celebrity gala.

Athletics golden girl Kelly Holmes was named Britain's Amazing Woman 2004 today in an internet poll.

Teenage sensations McFly were crowned the kings of the Smash Hits Poll Winners’ Party tonight after scooping five awards.

Boy bands Busted and McFly will battle it out for the most gongs at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.

For the first time since their record-breaking win, Europe’s Ryder Cup team are all together at a tournament – the Volvo Masters at Valderrama.

Jamelia was crowned queen of the Mobos tonight as she scooped three awards.

Jamelia looked every inch a superstar tonight as she arrived for the Mobo awards.

Wimbledon stars Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany have hit back at critics of their game at the premiere of their new movie.

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CLIVE WOODWARD will seek to raise the contentious issue of international training days with the home nations in a bid to ensure the Lions head on their journey to New Zealand as the best prepared squad ever to leave these shores.