He’d know plenty about it already but the last couple of trips up the M18 from Ennis have given Louis Mulqueen great insight into the Galway psyche.

Cuala (Dublin) 1-17 Liam Mellows (Galway) 0-11: The champions of the last two years will meet in the All-Ireland club hurling final, but it will take a monumental performance from Na Piarsaigh to deny this Cuala team a two-in-a-row.

As he watched his former Galway colleagues reaching the peak on All-Ireland final Sunday from the Croke Park press box in his brief as an analyst, there was plenty of mixed emotions for David Collins, writes John Fogarty.

Liam Mellows 3-12 Gort 1-15: There have been few more joyous vistas in Pearse Stadium than that witnessed yesterday as Liam Mellows ended their 47-year wait for a senior Galway hurling title.

Jockeys Sean Quinlan, Stephen Mulqueen and Derek Fox were banned for 10 days after they failed to pull up during a voided three-mile novice handicap chase at Perth.

While expressing disappointment with referee Diarmuid Kirwan’s decision to award Tony Kelly an equalising free deep in stoppage time, Waterford boss Derek McGrath hailed the resilience of three men who carried personal grief into yesterday’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final.

A teen thief broke into a secure car park at a Garda station and stole items from four privately owned Garda cars along with a stab vest from the station.

A Limerick man wrote off a car when he attacked it with a hatchet, a court heard.

A 15-year-old girl was subjected to a vicious hiding in a daylight brawl in what a judge described as a disturbing attempt at "summary justice".

Back in late 2013 when the memory of Clare’s intoxicating All-Ireland breakthrough was all that existed in the close season vacuum, the mind throbbed with possibilities.

Tomorrow, Clare and Limerick cross swords, a term used advisedly. Louis Mulqueen will be in the Banner management team, and he’s also realistic about what to expect so early in the summer.

A man arrested in a busy town square after smashing a TV set with an axe has claimed he was engaging in “conceptual artwork”.

Clare’s player strengths lie in the fact that they are high achievers on the field and off it, according to the county’s coach Louis Mulqueen.

Clare senior football captain Gary Brennan has emerged as a target for Davy Fitzgerald’s hurlers.

A man has been arrested in connection with the death of a pensioner over three years ago.

Cusack Park in Ennis is the headquarters of Clare GAA, the field on which the All-Ireland senior hurling champions of 2013 were fired and forged.

Clare star Tony Kelly has backed manager Davy Fitzgerald to keep a lid on the hype that has swept through the county following September’s stunning All-Ireland senior hurling championship success.

Last Saturday night, Clare’s All-Ireland winning captain Patrick Donnellan spoke of a magnificent unbreakable bond between this Clare team and their manager, Davy Fitzgerald.

It began with a phone call 11 months ago. Louis Mulqueen got in touch with Shane O’Donnell’s father looking for his son’s number.

Clare's All-Ireland winning manager Davy Fitzgerald has spoken about the brains behind the game-plan which ultimately led to the Banner men lifting the Liam MacCarthy Cup yesterday.

Louis Mulqueen on what drives the Banner.

A leading Irish deaf group has warned Government cutbacks mean it must rely on charitable donations and the bequeathed wills of supporters in order to keep its services running.

Whether it’s a team of battle-hardened veterans like Brian Cody’s Kilkenny or a team of tyros like Davy Fitzgerald’s Clare, the ongoing challenge is to have their heads right for every game.

Fingers crossed on the double for Clare senior hurling selector Louis Mulqueen in advance of this evening’s Bord Gais Energy Munster U21 hurling final against Tipperary in Semple Stadium (7.30pm).

Even among seasoned hacks it’s a major point of discussion coming into the Munster SHC semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday — who should be favourites?

We all know how nervous players can get before big games.

From crafts to cookery along with culture, craic, and ceol — that’s what the Ring of Cork has to offer.

Last Saturday Dublin and Limerick were fighting it out for a place in the Allianz HL Division 1A next year, this Sunday it’s the turn of Clare and Cork to avoid the dreaded drop.

Model and star of the infamous Horse Outside video Madeline Mulqueen was attacked by a man in Limerick on Wednesday night.

Giving TDs and Senators free hand-held tablet devices such as iPads will save the taxpayer money, Oireachtas officials claim.

The death of a 92-year-old pensioner in Co Limerick almost three years ago has been upgraded to a murder inquiry.

The suspicious death of a Limerick pensioner three years ago has been upgraded to murder.

A man was yesterday jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to possession of a pipebomb that was thrown into a house containing five children.

A bomb was thrown through the front window of a house in Limerick with five children inside, two of them toddlers. It landed on a kitchen table and, miraculously, failed to detonate, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

A 22-year-old witness in a murder trial told Gardaí he was in the passenger seat of a car when his friend, who was driving, reached across him with a gun and shot a man in front of him.

A key witness in a Limerick murder trial has told the Central Criminal Court that he saw his then 19-year-old friend shoot dead a young carpenter in 2009.

A COUNCILLOR forced to use a dinghy to access his flooded home has lodged plans for five detached houses close to his Ennis residence.

A CONTINUATION of the rain and howling wind that caused the cancellation of yesterday’s eagerly-awaited Champions Challenge celebrating 150 years of the Open Championship are predicted for the next four days.

Athlone: Opening the Eastern Door – Doing Business in China, is a day-long conference which will explore the challenges and opportunities for Irish firms doing business in and with China.

HERE’S a radical idea that Mark Mulqueen of the Oireachtas Communications Office (Letters, May 12) might like to share with his colleagues in Leinster House.

POLICE corruption will be one of the issues high on the agenda when delegates from forces around the world gather in Limerick today to share their experiences and methods in tacking crime.

Gardaí say they are treating as suspicious the death of a 92-year-old man found at his Co Limerick home on Friday.

DESPITE lengthy and torrential downpour just hours earlier, Andrea Corr and Brett Desmond were blessed with blue skies and glorious sunshine for their wedding in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare.

A Tipperary man who was caught transporting almost €2.85m worth of drugs and 27 working pistols, ammunition and silencers has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Patrick McCartan.