Cork have made two changes to their starting team for Saturday’s All-Ireland intermediate hurling decider against Galway.

Club championship fixtures in Cork and Kerry have been thrown into chaos due to the drawn Munster SFC final.

Waterford 1-21 Cork 1-11: Shane Bennett didn’t travel on the team bus to Páirc Uí Rinn, his father Pat transporting him across the border.

Fermoy 1-9  Cill na Martra 0-10: Goalkeeper Liam Coleman expertly converted three crucial second-half frees as Fermoy came from behind to defeat Cill na Martra in the first round of the Cork IFC on Saturday night in Ballincollig.

As the 64,246 paying spectators made their way to Croke Park that blustery day nearly half a century ago, there was not one burning question of the day but two.

Fermoy 2-11 Ballinora 4-03

A six-strong senior boxing team, due to represent Ireland at a multi-nations tournament in Moscow, were left stranded yesterday morning after a mix-up with their passports.

This period Portobello terraced home has a new look thanks to good design and the right use of materials, Tommy Barker reports

An injury-time point from sub Daniel Mangan helped St Colman’s, Fermoy snatch the Munster Colleges SBFC (Corn an Uachtaráin) title in dramatic fashion at Knocknagree yesterday.

ST COLMAN’S, FERMOY were easy winners against Abbey CBS in this Munster Colleges S‘B’FC semi-final (Corn An Uachtarán) in Ballyporeen yesterday.

The winter solstice has been celebrated at Newgrange for the past 5,000 years Carl Dixon reports on the hope it represents

CONTROVERSIAL businessman Denis O’Brien won Ireland’s lucrative second mobile phone licence because shamed former communications minister Michael Lowry meddled in the selection process.

I AM a contract cleaner. I work in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin.

GAVIN O’MAHONY is set to captain the Limerick senior hurlers this season.

Today saw Kerry claim top spot in Division 3A of the National Hurling League thanks to a comfortable 23-point win, while London and Derry also triumphed in their matches.

EOIN Doyle and Shay Barry started the New Year as they ended 2009, with a double at Tramore, highlighted by the victory of course specialist The Fonze in the featured Waterford & Tramore Racecourse Supporters Chase, a race in which he finished third last year.

WHEN the Christy Ring championship was first introduced a few years ago, along with the Nicky Rackard Cup, the idea was to give the teams in the lower divisions a real target, a prestigious title at which to aim, with the further aim of raising the standards in all those divisions.

SENATOR Margaret Cox’s decision to resign from Fianna Fáil, a week after opting to vote against the Finance Bill, has been surrounded by much controversy.

A two-goal blast from Sean McBride saw Derry get off the mark in NHL Division 2A this afternoon as they beat Armagh 2-13 to 0-9 at Celtic Park.

THE weekend decision by the GAA’s annual Congress to allow weaker hurling counties to “import” five players from stronger counties has evoked mixed reactions.

THE weekend decision by the GAA’s annual Congress to allow weaker hurling counties to “import” five players from stronger counties has evoked mixed reactions.

ESAT Digifone would never have signed the country’s second mobile phone licence if the Department of Communications was unhappy financier Dermot Desmond had come on board, entrepreneur Denis O’Brien told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

FORMER Communications Minister Michael Lowry has been exonerated from any involvement in speeding up the process of awarding the tender for the State’s second mobile phone licence, his senior counsel argued before the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

ACCOUNTANT Donal Buggy told the resumed Moriarty Tribunal hearing yesterday the Department of Communications asked him to carry out a financial analysis of the Denis O’Brien-led Esat Digifone consortium just days before the State’s second mobile phone licence was issued.

MICHAEL Lowry’s predecessor as communications minister wanted civil servants to waste no time in selecting a winner to run the State’s second mobile phone system, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

NEARLY €5 million was paid by the State to the Danish firm that is refusing to testify about its role as independent consultants to the second mobile phone project eight years ago.

FORMER civil servant Fintan Towey yesterday denied the reason department officials took no notes of a key meeting with Esat Digifone was to conceal what was being discussed before the GSM2 licence was issued.

THE speed at which Michael Lowry announced Esat Digifone as winner of the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence surprised former top civil servant Fintan Towey, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

FORMER senior civil servant Regina Finn told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday there was nothing sinister in not keeping an official record of a key meeting with Esat Digifone representatives on May 3, 1996.

MICHAEL LOWRY would have been equally happy if the Persona consortium had won the competition to run the State’s second mobile phone network, according to a member of the civil service team that evaluated the six bidders.

SENIOR civil servant Fintan Towey viewed a letter showing Dermot Desmond’s early involvement in Esat Digifone as the consortium’s attempt to boost its prospects of winning the State’s second mobile phone licence competition.

JUST weeks before civil servants chose Esat Digifone as winner of the State’s second mobile phone licence competition, Michael Lowry was under pressure from bidders who were concerned “the competition was sewn up and the media favourite had the licence in the bag”.

FORMER civil servant John McQuaid, a member of the team that selected the winner of the State’s second mobile phone licence competition nearly eight years ago, told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday there was “a fairly hard argument” on whether more time was needed to improve the draft evaluation report two days before the result was made public.

SENIOR civil servant Ed O’Callaghan told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he was never put under political pressure in his life.

FORMER Communications Minister Michael Lowry announced that Esat Digifone had won the GSM2 licence competition two days after civil servants had been given a further week to finalise their evaluation report, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

A CIVIL servant has told the Moriarty Tribunal that at no stage in the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence was he subjected to any influence intended to compromise his independence.

A SENIOR civil servant told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he didn’t believe former Minister Michael Lowry interfered with the process by which Esat Digifone was selected to operate the country’s second mobile telephone network.

SENIOR civil servants didn’t tell former Communications Minister Alan Dukes that financier Dermot Desmond had held a 25% share in the consortium that won the country’s second mobile telephone licence, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

SENIOR civil servant Martin Brennan told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he would have probed Dermot Desmond’s link to the second mobile phone licence if he had known about the financier’s part in an earlier controversial property deal.

ROWS between the Irish and Norwegian partners threatened Esat Digifone’s survival less than a week before the consortium was granted the licence to operate the country’s second mobile phone network, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

THERE was nothing strange about Telecom Minister Michael Lowry warning ESB it faced being forced to allow ESAT Digifone to site mobile phone masts on the company’s land, a senior civil servant claimed yesterday.