Dermot Bolger felt strange portraying himself in his latest novel but, he tells Sue Leonard, it was a necessary bridge into his second novel about the extraordinary Sheila Fitzgerald

Nearly 100 boats have taken part in a cross-border flotilla on Carlingford Lough in memory of the crew of a rescue helicopter which crashed off the County Mayo coast.

A 13-year-old boy who sustained a serious brain injury on a rugby pitch was yesterday continuing to make a good recovery at Cork University Hospital.