A nun from Derry has been confirmed as one of the victims of the weekend's earthquake in Ecuador.

The baby is named after Pope Francis.

If you happen to look skywards and spy a nun speeding towards the ground, don’t be alarmed — it’s only Sister Patricia bringing manna from heaven.

DUNDRUM surprised hot-pot Tornedo Shay to the tune of eight lengths in the Killarney Veterinary Clinic Race at the Kerry track last night.

EVERY so often RTÉ really gets it right and one thing recently which blew me away was a programme entitled: On God’s Mission, which details the life and work of some of the remaining Irish missionaries working with the world’s poorest people.

THE Henry de Bromhead-trained Days Hotel stormed away with the Lisronagh Maiden Hurdle at Clonmel yesterday.

The Knock Youth Festival opens today on the theme 'Walk by Faith'.

Eric Alston's King Of Eden landed a gamble in dramatic fashion under David Allan in the Complete Football Handicap at Newcastle today.

The Pope delivered his traditional Christmas Day blessing today, looking tired and unsteady but otherwise fine, hours after he was knocked down by a woman who jumped over a barrier in St Peter’s Basilica.

A nun has been found dead in her residence at a church in a small community on the Navajo Indian reservation near the Arizona-New Mexico border.

I DROVE to Clonmel on Sunday for the finals of an under-nines and under-10s football tournament. It was organised by Clonmel FC and brought together young footballers from the six Munster counties. They (and the rest of us) had a brilliant afternoon and we were made to feel really welcome by the Clonmel team.

Check out today’s tips for races from selected courses.

IT will be Ladies’ Day in earnest both inside and outside the manicured rings of the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show at the RDS today.

SMILING broadly, the French nun who claims she was inexplicably and suddenly “cured” of Parkinson’s disease thanks to Pope John Paul II, yesterday spoke to the media for the first time.

Silca’s Sister is to be aimed at the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot after finishing fourth in the Stan James 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday.

Mick Channon paid a huge compliment to his Stan James 1000 Guineas hope Flashy Wings when he compared her to his previous champions Bint Allayl and Queen’s Logic at his press morning at West Ilsley.

Silca’s Sister, Opera Cape and Palace Episode, three of Godolphin’s high-profile acquisitions last autumn, all came out on top in their respective racecourse gallops on the Nad Al Sheba grass today.

YOUNG women at a crossroads in life are being invited to live and work with nuns for a week.

Mick Channon will get tough with Flashy Wings in the next few weeks before making a decision on whether to give her a run before the Stan James 1000 Guineas in May.

A Christian Brother teacher who broke a boy’s jaw remained in the industrial school system for 13 years, the Child Abuse Commission heard yesterday.

Godolphin have strengthened their formidable-looking string for next season with the purchase of the Andrew Balding-trained With Interest.

Godolphin have bought Prix Morny winner Silca’s Sister out of Mick Channon’s stable.

MICK CHANNON now trains the first and second in the market for next year’s 1000 Guineas after Silca’s Sister was the surprise winner of the Darley Prix Morny at Deauville yesterday.

Eoghan O’Neill believes Always Hopeful has a “great chance” of success in the Darley Prix Morny at Deauville on Sunday.

A CATHOLIC nun said yesterday she staged a 12-hour protest against filming of controversial best-seller The Da Vinci Code at Lincoln Cathedral because it was heretical.

Thousands of Filipinos bid farewell today to the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin, a beloved spiritual leader who helped rally his nation to hold massive pro-democracy protests that ousted two presidents.

Sister Lucia Marto, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a series of 1917 apparitions in Portuguese town of Fatima, has died at 97.

A man was beginning a life sentence in the United States today after he admitted kidnapping and murdering a 67-year-old Irish nun.

THE exploitation of immigrant workers is being facilitated by government policy, according to the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

TWO men who stormed a church, doused parishioners with petrol and set them ablaze could be sentenced to death for the murders of an Irish nun and priest who died in the attack.

SISTER JOAN Bowles had been counting down the days to her niece's wedding, but yesterday her relations had to celebrate the marriage without her.

The funeral of Sister Philomena Lyons takes place in Ballybay, Co Monaghan later this morning.

Gardai in Co Monaghan have appealed for help from the public following the murder of 68-year-old Philomena Lyons in Ballybay on Saturday.

A murder hunt was underway today after a nun was sexually assaulted and strangled in the grounds of her Co Monaghan convent.

A nun was sexually assaulted and strangled in the grounds of her convent just hours before she was due at a friend’s 100th birthday celebrations, it emerged tonight.

Pope John Paul has elevated five people to sainthood, including Lebanon's first woman saint.

A Belgian jury was today beginning its deliberations on four Rwandans - two men and two nuns - accused of war crimes in the central African homeland.