Successful flood defence schemes in two North Cork towns brought great relief to householders and businesses during the current deluge.

The growing Munster contingent in Pau is settling into life in the top flight in France and showed at the weekend they have what it takes to cut it amongst the best in the richest rugby league in the world.

Tonight’s SHC fourth round clash between Midleton and St Finbarr’s in Páirc Uí Rinn (7.45pm) is just the clubs’ second meeting since 2005, but for older spectators it is sure to recall memories of an epic rivalry in the 1980s.

FOR a superb outdoor experience, salted with a bit of history, none will serve better on this Bank Holiday Monday than a coastal walk from picturesque Courtmacsherry village to Coolbawn (aka Blind Strand) on the Seven Heads.

Kilkenny will vigorously fight any proposed punishment against Brian Cody for his remarks about referee Barry Kelly.

The man accused of invading a GAA pitch and attacking Paul Galvin with a hurley at the weekend is facing a two-year ban.

Welcome to your Wednesday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

Kerry GAA chiefs last night scrutinised referee John Sexton’s account of Sunday’s controversial county senior hurling championship final.

Paul Galvin was attacked with a hurley during the Kerry senior hurling county final between Lixnaw and Kilmoyley yesterday.

Kerry GAA chiefs are investigating a violent attack with a hurley on former football star, Paul Galvin, during yesterday’s Kerry hurling final in Tralee.

EVEN on a relatively windless day, the breakers that ceaselessly pound the fragile shoreline at Rossbeigh, on the Ring of Kerry, can look menacing.

Moorefield 2-14 Sarsfields 0-13

He returned ‘home’ expecting to attend a retirement party for his brother Liam, but former Cork dual star supreme Brian Murphy was the centre of attention at the Nemo Rangers complex on Saturday night where he was honoured for his remarkable sporting achievements.

Salmon and trout stocks in West Cork rivers “are almost gone” due to fish farming around Bantry Bay, according to a former National Parks and Wildlife Services manager.

TWO new, outstanding nature books from Gill & Macmillan arrived in the post this week.

ONE of the country’s youngest trawler captains said he hopes a new fly-on-the-wall TV series will help people appreciate the risks and difficulties facing the Irish fishing fleet.

There will be many star trackers in action at Tralee tomorrow night.

I’M something of an optimist by nature but I can’t help but detect a number of very positive signs on the Irish greyhound front that provides renewed hope for the future of the industry.

It’s another massive weekend to savour with the highlight being the final of an absorbing looking Sporting Press Irish Oaks at Shelbourne Park on Saturday.

WHEN the prosecution’s forensic expert Geraldine O’Neill recounted how she examined the hall-marked cocaine recovered from Dunlough Bay it was possible to make different calculations about the street value of the bales which had been floating in the Atlantic.

Diesel instead of petrol was put into the powerful engines on the RIB boat that was found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, the expert who examined the wreckage said today.

A MARITIME historian’s efforts to identify a 17th century wreck which hebelieved to be a historic slave ship led to his appearance in court yesterday.

IT was celebrations all round, yesterday, for a group of Kerry anglers who helped save a swan’s nest from rising flood waters during recent torrential rain.

AUTHORITIES investigating the unlawful killing of about 45 seals off the Kerry coast, yesterday declined to disclose details of an anonymous letter believed to have named at least one of the alleged culprits.

THE National Salmon Commission yesterday called for a census of the seal population and said a cull may be necessary.

A SMALL number of angry fishermen are under suspicion for the unlawful killing of around 45 grey seals — a protected species under the 1976 Wildlife Act — in west Kerry.

Cork Constitution 20 Buccaneers 6

Buccaneers 32 Lansdowne 14, Dubarry Park

Garryowen 10 Buccaneers 28

WILD celebrations in Castle Avenue. The AIL has certainly mattered in this part of North Dublin this year. Clontarf have looked like the best team in the competition and, when the chips came down with the rain on Saturday, they proved it, beating Buccaneers 20-6

Cork Con 27 Buccaneers 23

Cork Con 27 Buccaneers 23