Why did nobody think of it before? The inaugural Richard Harris International Film Festival gets underway in his hometown of Limerick this weekend (Dec 6), 11 years after Ireland’s greatest Hollywood star of the 20th century passed away.

Former rugby star John Hayes has been appointed a brand ambassador by Irish Hereford Prime.

JOHN HAYES admitted the words of Roy Keane a few years back were very much in his mind as he contemplated last night’s farewell appearance for Munster at Thomond Park last night.

WHEN Shane Williams breached the Australian defence for one last international try deep into added time in his international swansong at the Millennium Stadium recently, you felt that justice had been served. Wingers crave attention.

WARREN Gatland put the Wellington boot into Ireland’s World Cup dreams here today as green dreams of the Webb Ellis Trophy went up in smoke.

THE season finale that everyone, with the possible exception of Declan Kidney, wanted has been delivered with Leinster and Munster successfully negotiating their way through their respective Magners League semi-finals over the weekend.

IT’S the start of another frantic month which will end with the Guineas and after watching Laughing Lashes work at The Curragh yesterday, I can report that she is very well. Pathwork has done three pieces of work to date and they both appear to be on course for Newmarket.

KEVIN MORAN of De La Salle says he and his colleagues are more determined than ever to win the Waterford senior hurling title, having collected their first county only two years ago.

IN the Dáil on Thursday, former ceann comhairle John (‘The Bull’) O’Donohue described Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore as a “gadfly flying around the smelly tail of an old cow” (Irish Examiner, July 8).

JOHN HAYES looked like he would be happier in front of a firing squad than answering a spate of questions at yesterday’s press conference in Killiney at which the hero of the hour was chosen to play his 100th match for Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday.

WITH The Strapping Bull gone to his eternal, er, reward, we came to the couch last night concerned for The Skinny Rat.

LEINSTER played the game to a standard any team would have been proud of while Munster produced their most shambolic performance since the bad old amateur days, resulting in an inevitable outcome at a packed RDS on Saturday night.

THE story of “The Bull” who became a “Lion” provided a delightful backdrop to Cappamore Show in Co Limerick yesterday.

John Oxx’s brilliant colt Sea The Stars features among 17 entries for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh on Sunday following the confirmation stage.

IT might be a tad overwhelming being the sole Ulster representative in the Ireland tight five locked in by four giant Munster men, but Rory Best admits he couldn’t be in more comfortable surroundings.

JERRY FLANNERY yesterday paid tribute to his front-row partner, John Hayes, praising his longevity as a prop, enduring professionalism and attention to detail in a remarkable career for province and country.

CAPPAMORE farmer John Hayes, plays his 90th international for Ireland against France at Croke Park on Saturday, an amazing achievement for a man plying his trade in the most physically demanding position on the pitch and not least when you are three months into your 36th year.

IT was at the Stade Chaban Delmas — then the Stade Lescure — that John Hayes scored a memorable try for Munster in their famous defeat of Toulouse in the 2000 Heineken European Cup quarter-final.

THIS morning 30 young Irishmen will wake up in Bordeaux. Like so many millions of Irish people before them they will wake in a foreign place, their hearts full of hope, their ambitions fervently shared by everyone they left behind at home.

SO there I was, a soccer man at a rugby match in GAA headquarters and, at the end of a memorable evening, the thoughts of one famous Ulster man were uppermost in my mind.

ON the same course where he hopes to represent Argentina in the World Cup in November, Ricardo Gonzalez won the Seville Open yesterday thanks to a 40-foot birdie putt on the final green.

THE big-hitting Argentinian golfer known as “The Bull” charged to his second European tour title yesterday.

ON the rare occasion in nature when a bull goes head-to-head with a rabbit, the outcome is inevitable — until yesterday.