There is really nothing in The Menu’s world to beat the breaking of bread with old friends, family, and neighbours and, equally, with strangers who might have the potential to become part of those previously listed tribes, which is why he is always delighted to make mention of Street Feast (May 5), Ireland’s annual day of street parties and community lunches, which last year saw 130,000 people take part in over 1,280 street feasts.

A dispute between a wind farm company and a farmer, over an agreement about access to his land, has taken a twist, after another wind farm company claimed it also had an agreement with him.

The addition of three new restaurants to the Irish Michelin portfolio elevated interest in the international food guide’s prestigious accolade.

O’Grady’s Irish bar rests on the High Road in Seven Kings near Dagenham.

The Menu has always found Castletownshend in West Cork an intriguing spot and relishes the prospect of an evening there for some fine dining courtesy of one of his most beloved chefs, Caitlin Ruth, of Deasy’s Harbour Bar & Restaurant.

Ballygunner 4-20 Passage 1-12: The memory of the late Pat Flynn was honoured in style by his Ballygunner clubmen as they claimed a thoroughly convincing third consecutive senior county title in front of a disappointing 3,811 Walsh Park crowd.

The new director general of RTÉ has pledged to invest in and support investigative journalism as the state broadcaster strives to earn the nation’s trust in everything it does.

Na Piarsaigh (Limerick) 2-18 Ballygunner (Waterford) 2-11: Na Piarsaigh’s greater experience and physicality served them well yesterday in Semple Stadium, as they turned on the afterburners in the second-half to beat Ballygunner to the Munster Club senior hurling title.

“I imagine people weren’t expecting us to win in Waterford this year,” says Ballygunner selector Gary O’Keeffe.

The Connemara Mussel Festival (May 1-3) picked up one hell of an accolade last year.

It was panic stations on Friday and Aiden O’Sullivan was an oasis of calm, says John Riordan.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the repatriation of Roger Casement’s remains, writer Ryle Dwyer (Irish Examiner, February 23) called the ‘Black Diaries’ controversy “an irrelevant distraction over the greater part of a century”.

The GAA man who brought half of a Cork village to work in Dagenham in Britain has passed away aged 83.

I agree with Brian McDevitt that group chairman Brian Kerr’s salary is too much for his work in Rehab.

One of the country’s most dynamic care facilities for the elderly faces a funding shortfall of €1m a year, in part due to the Government’s Fair Deal scheme for those in nursing homes.

Vincent Kiely is the John Cronin Cup champion following his last shot win over John O’Donoghue at Cobh on Sunday.

Conor Counihan is to be invited to remain on as manager of the Cork senior football team, should he so wish.

They didn’t call Paddy Martin The Champ for nothing.

ELECTIONS campaigns can blissfully spin in their own space as if happening on another planet.

A €1 MILLION refurbishment of an Alzheimer and care for the elderly centre in Cork is due to be completed next March and a special fundraiser is being held to defray the cost.

TABLE soccer, a giant gladiator jousting bed, a rodeo bull and a hotel that turns into a casino… and that’s just for the adults.

THE High Court yesterday granted an injunction against three objectors to overhead ESB power cables in a row involving a West Cork windfarm.

THERE were no miraculous comeback this time as National Cup champions UCC Demons remained on course to retain their Super League crown when they put a poor first quarter behind them to defeat Gleneagle Lakers 120-109 at the INEC Killarney last night.

Dublin City Council has increased Pay and Display parking charges in the city centre in the face of increasingly high demand for on-street parking, it emerged today.

I HOPE Dublin city council will listen to the appeal by Andrew Green (Irish Examiner letters July 5), to restore the audio/tactile system on traffic lights for blind people.

DE-CONVERTED is the term used by auctioneer Tim O’Sullivan to describe this once four-bed but now three-bedroomed house at 7, Abbotswood Avenue.

YOUR correspondent Tim O’Sullivan (Irish Examiner letters, December 2) reminds us of the extreme bias of Dr Fenton Howell and his fellow-travellers at ASH.

IF I lived in Cork city I would like to have the new footbridge over the Lee named after Adi Roche for her wonderful work for the Chernobyl children.

NOW that it’s not possible to be swallowed up in a black hole, perhaps Stephen Hawking might either shut up and come down to earth or else go up there and prove it.

DUBLINER Ben Dunne may have found an opponent to take him the distance for his seventh professional fight at Mohegan Sun, Mashentucket, Connecticut, tonight when he will face Terrell Hargrove who boxes out of Mohamed Ali’s old gym in Louisville, Kentucky.

MARY Gallagher’s excellent letter on Orwell’s prediction of political correctness (Irish Examiner, May 2) in regard to the ‘New Word Order’ article (Irish Examiner, April 30) speculates that the thought police will follow the language police.

ACCORDING to the late Eamonn Kelly, St Patrick never came to Kerry because the Cork people stole his donkey.

MICHEÁL Ó’Nualláin’s letter on Aosdána (Irish Examiner, Dec 28) poses the question - what’s the difference between an academic and a non-academic? Any closed club – and Aosdána seems to be just that – is elitist and has nothing to offer the ordinary citizen. Isn’t it time now that we came out of our boxes?

THOMAS Brennan’s letter, ‘Smoke ‘em out’ (Irish Examiner, Nov 1), is a fine example of prejudice.

LIOS na gCrann is an apt description for a house that’s shrouded in trees.

I was encouraged and privileged to be present when the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuiv, addressed Kerry County Council in Tralee recently.