Following the shock decision to cancel the Andy Lee-Billy Joe Saunders fight at Thomond Park, a former mayor of Limerick speculated yesterday that ‘the Hand of God’ could have played a part, as it did for footballer Diego Maradona in 1986.

I AM increasingly convinced that events move in cycles. Our current economic difficulties, particularly the unsustainability of the public finances seem to mirror the 1980s — increased borrowing, political procrastination, public sector conflict and, ultimately, cutbacks.

THE floods which have inundated large parts of the country may not have been caused by the collective tears of a nation distraught at Ireland’s exit from the World Cup – but they might as well have been as both incidents have left a trail of devastation in their wake.

Doctors in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires reported progress today in treating Diego Maradona for alcohol abuse and other excesses that prompted the soccer great’s latest trip to hospital.