“IT’S the little luxuries you miss,” sighs James Ryall, looking at his Lucozade Sport bottle as he prepares to take a gulp heading to Graigue-Ballycallan training.

KILKENNY defender James Ryall has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.

KILKENNY defensive duo Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall last night denied suggestions that they have made a decision to retire from inter-county hurling.

Newspaper reports confirming the retirement of three inter-county hurlers - Waterford's Tony Browne and Kilkenny duo Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall - have been rubbished by official sources.

LONG-SERVING Kilkenny hurling defensive pair Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall have brought their inter-county careers to a close in the wake of last Sunday’s All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary.

THE death recently occurred, in his 90th year, of Jack Ryall, Fellfort, Watergrasshill, in Co Cork.

‘SHOCK and awe’ is a term employed for a warfare doctrine conceived in 1996 in the United States’ National Defence University by Messrs Ullman and Wade; in plain speak, however, it’s called ‘rapid dominance’, and is designed ‘to overwhelm the opposition by the use of massive firepower, superior battlefield awareness and dominant manoeuvres, an intimidating display of force to paralyse the opposition’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight.’

Kilkenny 3-22 Cork 0-19

COMMUNITY leaders should consider talking to drug dealers who are terrorising residents of a Dublin flats complex, a local drug worker has suggested.

Mexico is temporarily suspending all non-essential activity of the federal government as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped.

Ten students who were recently in Mexico have tested positive for influenza, New Zealand’s health minister said today.

Waterford 2-17 Kilkenny 1-16

ONE of the biggest challenges for people fitted with prosthetic limbs is getting used to the absence of a sense of feeling, an Irish medical expert said yesterday.

A SCARCITY of beds for patients in need of rehabilitation is inflating waiting lists and exacerbating the acute beds crisis, according to the chairwoman of the medical board at the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH).

Kilkenny 1-16 Cork 1-13

NATIONAL LEAGUE champions Kilkenny have made wholesale changes on their team to play Galway in the All Ireland Hurling quarter-final in Thurles on Saturday.

A serious muscle injury could be about to bring the inter-county career of Kilkenny defender James Ryall to a premature end.

Galway 0-10 Kilkenny 1-16

Kilkenny 0-19 Cork 0-11

THEY came in their hundreds yesterday with dusty heirlooms wrapped in black bags and newspapers all hoping that things left in the attic for years might be worth a fortune.

Munster 1-21 Leinster 2-14

Kikenny 3-26, Wexford 0-5

Waterford 0-17 Kilkenny 2-16

Waterford 0-17 Kilkenny 2-16

Kilkenny 1-14 Cork 1-11