Witnessing Rassie Erasmus’s reaction to defeat last Friday night was as instructive as it was surprising.

Cork Midsummer Festival runs this weekend and next. Here are some of the early highlights:

A new stage production puts a contemporary twist on Kipling’s classic, writes Colette Sheridan

Spice manufacturer McCormick has abandoned takeover talks with Premier Foods, saying the UK maker of ‘Mr Kipling’ cakes and ‘Bisto’ gravy demanded too high a price. Premier Foods shares plunged as much as 31%.

Admit it. You weren’t expecting Waterford to have begun the season with such a flourish. You weren’t expecting them to be two from two. You might not have been expecting them to struggle, to be instantly mired in Second Season Syndrome, but you surely weren’t anticipating that they’d do a job on the All-Ireland champions at Walsh Park, then travel to Páirc Uí Rinn and breeze past the hosts.

Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper and Garry Cooke put an Aprés Match spin on the general election of 1982 on  RTÉ One, on Wednesday at 10.35pm.

It is no longer possible to shield children from the world, according to Michael Morpurgo who tells Colette Sheridan of his journey from schoolteacher to best-selling author and how his stories inform as well as entertain. 

He might not have won it all – in fact the only medal he has in the cabinet is an old Division 3 medal from his early days with Preston – but Kevin Kilbane has certainly seen it all in football.

Disney is developing a live action adaptation of 'The Jungle Book'.

First week of the Tour. Establish a rhythm, stay upright, refuel smart, get through it.

ON New Year’s Eve, Kanye West interrupted his Atlantic City concert to announce an urgent bit of news. “Stop the music,” West demanded.

Life Saving: Why We Need Poetry, Introductions to Great Poets

Rosenheim & Windermere

THE hard work begins now.

OKAY, hands up. Never mind the never-ending saga of Manny Eboué’s infuriating naivety, I take full responsibility for the injury-time fiasco at the Emirates on Sunday.

Barclays set the pace on the London market today as it kicked off the UK bank reporting season with a bumper profits haul.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Economic gloom and a huge jobs cull from banking giant Citigroup cast a pall over the London market today.

Banking stocks were among the heavy fallers in London today as recession fears again dominated the thoughts of investors.

TAKING a paperclip and turning it into a house sounds like a cheesy magic trick or a phoney instance of resourcefulness on the 1980s TV show MacGyver. Canadian Kyle MacDonald, however, has pulled it off.

Taking a paperclip and turning it into a house sounds like a cheesy magic trick or a phoney instance of resourcefulness on the 1980s TV show MacGyver. Canadian Kyle MacDonald, however, has pulled it off.

A retired British army leader tonight hit out at counterfeit Irish republicanism for endangering the future of peace on the island.

CLAUDIO RANIERI yesterday revealed how he has drawn strength from the Rudyard Kipling poem, If, during the ten turbulent months since Roman Abramovich swept into power and cast the manager’s future at Stamford Bridge into doubt.