One of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, will perform for one night, October 3, at The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, in the US, in commemoration of the works of Cork-born Captain Francis O’Neill.

My warmest thanks to the people of Bellaghy in Co Derry. After the interment of the poet Seamus Heaney, we received wonderful hospitality in the parish hall.

At home his kids called him head-the-ball, their fondness for Seamus Heaney the father more than a match for their awe of him as artist.

THE Temple Bar TradFest begins in Dublin this week. Promoted by the Temple Bar Company (an association of traders in the city centre), the acclaimed festival of traditional and folk music will begin on Tuesday and run until Sunday next.

Cher helped save the life of her friend after she suffered a "terrible seizure" at the star's home.

PATSY McGONAGLE will lead the Irish track and field team into the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Tributes poured in today to actress Natasha Richardson who has died after an accident during a skiing lesson.

JUST a week after winning the coveted Route du Sud in the Pyrenees, Daniel Martin returned to Ireland to claim the shamrock jersey of the national champion with another power-packed display on the Ballinacurra circuit, near Midleton, yesterday.

WITH three of Ireland’s four Olympic cyclists in the field, Sunday’s national road race championships in Midleton promise to be the most competitive in recent years.

NICOLAS ROCHE bids to succeed in one of the few races his famous father, Stephen, failed to win when he lines up for the national road race championship in Waterford on Sunday.

IRISH athletics is on the brink of unprecedented levels of funding, with Irish Sports Council (ISC) chairman Ossie Kilkenny telling yesterday’s Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) congress that the ISC is ready to respond to all objective approaches for aid now that new structures have been put in place.