The woodwork exams taken yesterday afternoon went down well with Junior Certificate students who spoke to Noel Scott.

From betting on the success of YouTube videos to analysing legal bills, the latest start-ups to take part in the National Digital Research Centre’s LaunchPad 9 programme defy easy classification.

One of the richest tournaments on the European Tour schedule, the $5m (€3.7m) Dunhill Links, is on this week over three outstanding links courses on the east coast of Scotland — but just three members of the 2012 European Ryder Cup team are competing.

Charles Haughey was only “mildly impressed” by Mary McAleese as President and, three years before his death, made disparaging remarks about Bertie Ahern’s intelligence.

A Fianna Fáil Senator has used the debate on education at the party's Ard Fheis to call for a continuation of pro-life policies.

The Leaving Certificate higher-level physics exam was a bit different in style to other years, according to Teachers’ Union of Ireland subject spokesperson Michael Gillespie.

A Wicklow resident who was paid €60 to hold nearly half a million euro worth of heroin has been sentenced to seven years in jail, with three suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.

The chief executive of private facility Clane General Hospital in Co Kildare expects the hospital to return to profit this year.

The head of one of the country’s largest construction firms said yesterday that most of the main opportunities for the group lie outside of the country.

Mike Ruddock’s Ireland remain on course for an U-20 Six Nations Grand Slam after seeing off Italy at Dubarry Park last night.

BILLED as a project that would “transform our economy”, the two successful Your Country Your Call projects have hired just a single member of staff, over a year after the two winners were announced.

THE eastern section of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx contains a little haven of the GAA known locally as Paddy’s Field.

DEATH or prison is the only fate that awaits any Irish youth who joins a gang, former gangsters warned yesterday.

DIVISION 1A: Blackrock College 20 Old Belvedere 29

Education chiefs vowed tonight to increase pressure on schools to improve sex education after a shocking survey revealed three-quarters of teenagers are not taught the subject.

AIB LEAGUE DIVISION 1 SEMI-FINAL:

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THE degree to which Fianna Fáil was both vexed and jealous about the arrival of George Lee into politics was summed up in a couple of scenes from Leinster House this week.

BERNARD JACKMAN insists the appointment of Munster coach Declan Kidney as Ireland coach was a “no-brainer”.

Old Belvedere 33 UL Bohemians 18, Anglesea Road

SENATOR Terry Leyden (Letters, March 28) said I failed to “appreciate the importance of protecting parliamentary privilege” (Letters, March 12). Nothing could be further from the truth.

SENATOR Terry Leyden (Letters, February 28) is correct in saying TDs and senators should avail of parliamentary privilege in their “duty in the Oireachtas to fight for, and to be a voice for, those whom we represent”.

Blackrock College 17 Old Belvedere 11

The new Northern Ireland Assembly must cut the corporation tax rate to the same level as the rest of Ireland to create a one-island economy, an Oireachtas Committee said today.

THE Revenue Commissioners and farmers’ organisations have been accused of making no effort to inform farmers on how to collect huge amounts of unclaimed VAT.

THE kindness of strangers to a newlywed Irish couple trapped in devastated downtown New Orleans helped keep a line of communication open to their worried families back home.

August 9, 2005

Shareholders of Cement Roadstone Holdings Plc should withdraw their investment from a “wall of shame” security barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank, it was claimed today.

A national registry of wills should be established to prevent thousands of Irish people losing out on their inheritances, a former Government minister said today.

Fianna Fail may have the beginning of another grassroots rebellion on its hands, following an extraordinary outburst against the Hanly Report, from a former junior minister.

IN THE Honeywell estate (aka Moneywell), one of the more salubrious areas of Ennis, No 2 is for sale.

SHOPS and businesses ripping off consumers will be named and shamed in the Seanad in an effort to bring down prices and encourage competition.

An anti-war protestor has thrown paint over Fianna Fail Senator Terry Leyden outside Leinster House in Dublin.