Straight into a new year and it’s just as we left off in 2014 with Irish horticulture getting stronger and stronger.

Giddy-up! Three national champion horse-carriage drivers have set off on an epic journey to drive a horse and trap the length of Ireland.

The mother of a 25-year-old Frenchman, killed in Ireland by a hit-and-run driver who later fled the country, has spoken publicly for the first time of the pain his death has caused, and thanked the people who supported her family.

Richard Curtis — the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love, Actually — is best known for his offbeat romantic comedies, but About Time (12A), which he also directs, is probably his quirkiest yet.

The craic will be 90 with his Galway father Sylvie this week but in Croke Park on Sunday, Conal Keaney will be keeping it strictly professional.

In America, the government fought back in the war against drugs by tightening federal policy so that anyone found in possession of narcotics could be persuaded to testify against friends in order to reduce their sentence.

AS legends go, this pair definitely fit the bill.

Perhaps most vitally, they boasted then a certain dash of JR’s winning lawlessness.

Tottenham’s customary late foray into the transfer market brought Clint Dempsey and Hugo Lloris to White Hart Lane, but it was unclear today whether the club had missed out on top target Joao Moutinho.

Moussa Dembele was today set to be unveiled as a Tottenham player as further doubt was cast on the future of Rafael van der Vaart.

Hamburg today vowed to do everything possible to re-sign Rafael van der Vaart from Tottenham before the transfer window closed.

With Galway, nothing they really want is won

Pete Finnerty had a neat way of summing up Galway’s failings a few years back.

After she completes the Dublin mini-marathon today, Sylvia Skelton will prepare her baby daughter for critical cardiac treatment at Crumlin Children’s Hospital.

One of the most loved actors the country has ever produced, David Kelly, died yesterday evening aged 82.

New Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has revealed he did not leave Real Madrid a year ago because his wife had developed breast cancer.

An "overwhelmed" Diversity remained stunned today at their shock victory in the Britain's Got Talent final.

Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) is a successful, part-time fashion designer with a handsome Wall Street husband Stephen, a 12-year-old daughter Molly (India Ennenga) and a coterie of loyal friends: women’s magazine editor Sylvie (Annette Bening), clucky mother hen Edie (Debra Messing) and sassy lesbian author Alex (Jada Pink Smith).

OLLIE FAHY, remember him? The former Galway senior forward is now 33 and off the inter-county scene for a few years but is still going strong with his club.

BBC1 is to screen its first black sitcom The Crouches later this year, it was announced today.

ST KIERAN’S (Kilkenny) and Gort Community Schools (Galway) have serious injury worries ahead of tomorrow’s All-Ireland Colleges SHC semi-final at Boherlahan (3.30pm).

A disqualified contestant is demanding Miss France is measured to see if she is tall enough to be the country's beauty queen.