Events are taking place all over Ireland today to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rising. 

Michael Collins never lived in the Georgian house in the West Cork town of Clonakilty, which is being painstakingly restored as a museum dedicated to the life of Ireland’s best known freedom fighter.

The invasion of a lonely West Cork farmhouse by a group of armed men, a shooting, and the lucky escape of a family member are some of the ingredients of a family secret which has been kept under wraps for nearly a century — only to be revealed tomorrow.

It’s a story which has made grown men cry; a member of the Beál na mBláth ambush party who afterwards reconciled with Michael Collins’s brother now lies next to him in a West Cork graveyard.

While reflecting on Tuesday’s first round Sigerson Cup rout of Cork IT, Billy Morgan revealed the UCC management had spent several hours the night previous deliberating over a starting XV.

Former Cork selector Ger Cunningham, who left Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s backroom team at the end of last season, has been named the new manager of UCC’s Fitzgibbon Cup team.

Three of John F Kennedy’s great-grandparents came from West Cork — now Clonakilty locals are gearing up to investigate a possible blood-link with Michael Collins.

Midleton 2-18 Bishopstown 0-08

Where once Cork could field All-Ireland fifteens without leaving the city boundaries, now the Rebel hurling strongholds are flung far and wide, from Senior to Junior, says Michael Moynihan.

It is the long-awaited fulfilment of a dream for many families and teachers in a West Cork town.

John Creedon is to follow in the footsteps of Michael Collins in a new documentary, writes Dan Buckley

A Michael Collins Autumn School — along the lines of the internationally renowned Yeats Summer School — will be held for the first time this year.

UCC capped a superb week by claiming their third successive All-Ireland Freshers (1) hurling crown, to complement Saturday’s Fitzgibbon Cup triumph, in an absorbing decider against UL in Mallow yesterday.

KILFEACLE defeated arch rivals Clanwilliam to book their place in the semi-finals of the Munster Junior Clubs Challenge Cup with a 30-7 victory.

COILLTE refutes the allegations made by Dr Roderick O’Sullivan (The Irish Examiner Letters, March 5).

If Cork complete the fabled three-in-a-row on Sunday, they will have achieved it with only 17 starters this season. But, as Diarmuid O’Flynn discovered, when you have exceptional players, they can take you a long way.

IT is always an unenviable and invidious exercise to compare teams and players of different eras.

THE Munster finals of the Irish Mixed Foursomes get under way at Monkstown on Saturday, with Nenagh facing Newcastle West in the first of the semi-finals at 9am.

St Brogans, Bandon 3-7 Scoil Phobail, Sliabh Luachra 0-11