The season may have ended in disappointment for the Kerry footballers with defeat to Dublin in an All-Ireland final replay but off the field, there was plenty to celebrate.

Keeping Kerry’s most talented young players at home and preventing further footballers from signing AFL contracts represents a “huge challenge” for the county board, according to chairman Tim Murphy.

Maurice Fitzgerald was best man at his wedding and four other takeaways.

The minister for health, Simon Harris, published a strategy document — a 10-year plan to reform the health service — last week. 

There is a politician who could fix the health service. She does not currently hold public office, but maybe she will someday, writes Michael Clifford.

TOM Keane is a man to whom anybody who gives a fig about the country should listen, says Michael Clifford.

We’re punch-drunk from scandals, especially those surrounding An Garda Síochána, writes Alison O’Connor.

Healthcare in Ireland faces an “apocalyptic scenario” if radical steps are not taken to change it, says cancer expert Dr Tom Keane.

There were no trains or Bus Éireann buses operating out of Limerick, causing chaos for commuters.

The problems of the Irish healthcare system are not too big to fix, the former director of the State’s cancer control programme told an Oireachtas committee.

The Electric Ireland Leinster MFC began on Saturday with most of the headlines dominated by the plight of the Kilkenny team.

Leinster Colleges SAFC final - St Benildus College (Dublin) 2-7 Marist College (Westmeath) 1-6: Goals in the first quarter by Paddy Flaherty and Joe Rafferty proved pivotal as St Benildus claimed a first provincial title in Saturday’s Leinster Colleges final at O’Connor Park.

Corn Uí Mhuirí (Munster PPS U18½ AFC) semi-finals

Participation numbers continue to drop, but the Munster Branch of the GUI celebrated another good year in 2015, with Gary Hurley, John Murphy, and clubs Tramore and Dooks presented with awards during the annual delegates’ meeting at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, last week.

A Limerick man with a flooring business in Co Tipperary was yesterday before Limerick District Court on charges of robbery and attempted robbery from four service stations in the Limerick area and two burglaries in Adare.

A huge volunteer search effort helped in the recovery yesterday of the body of a man who had been missing from his home in Cork for over a week.

The acting head of the HSE has been overpaid more than €160,000 since 2006.

A husband and father was laid to rest at the weekend following his death from legionnaires’ disease.

A 66-year old man from Limerick has died after contracting legionnaires disease while on holiday in the US.

A retired Limerick man has died from legionnaires’ disease which he caught when he and his wife went for a meal in a hotel in Chicago during a visit to the US last month.

He says he didn’t jump, definitely wasn’t pushed, and that his departure was simply because the HSE CEO role was not part of the latest health service revolution.

The Board of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has appointed Tony O’Brien as Chief Executive with immediate effect.

Ongoing failures in the management of Ireland's childcare services have prompted the Government to create a new post to take responsibility for the area.

THE HSE has appointed a rank outsider to replace Prof Brendan Drumm as head of the health service — and has given him a salary almost €100,000 higher than planned.

THE person who replaces Prof Brendan Drumm as HSE chief executive when his five-year reign comes to an end this summer should be given a seven figure salary, a leading expert has claimed.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has admitted the HSE has still to identify a successor to its outgoing chief Professor Brendan Drumm, adding that the position is a “very difficult and tough” job.

A PRIVATE clinic contracted by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide radiotherapy services to public cancer patients in the south-east is to cease taking new referrals from May 1.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney’s firm favourite to succeed Prof Brendan Drumm as head of the health service has dropped out of the running for the top management post.

The front-runner in the race to be the new HSE chief executive has reportedly withdrawn his name from consideration.

DESPITE outgoing chief executive of the HSE Brendan Drumm openly admitting to struggling with the high profile-nature of the job, 34 people have applied to take up his €320,000-a-year basic salary post.

THE health minister has indicated her support for Professor Tom Keane to succeed Professor Brendan Drumm when the job of chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) becomes vacant next year.

THE new chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) can expect a pay cut of up to 25% when he or she replaces outgoing chief Prof Brendan Drumm whose term ends next year.

IRELAND’s new cancer centres are coming under pressure because of a huge increase in the number of women routinely referred by GPs, the director of the National Cancer Control Programme, Prof Tom Keane, revealed yesterday.

AS the country’s leading cancer expert comes out in support of the Health Minister’s call for a ban on sunbeds, a survey has found that staff operating the tanning devices have no knowledge of the dangers they pose.

The country’s cancer tsar today backed Health Minister Mary Harney’s call for a blanket ban on sunbeds.

PLANS to reconfigure cancer services under the direction of cancer ‘tzar’ Prof Tom Keane have angered a number of hospital consultants, among them cancer specialists.

The Heritage has all you’ll ever need — and then some, says Tommy Barker.

CANCER patients at a Dublin hospital could face long delays for radiation treatment because almost a third of the treatment staff may not have their contracts renewed when they end in June.

THE option of giving unedited copies of the Monageer tragedy to an Oireachtas committee is being considered, Health Minister Mary Harney has said.

Patients with urgent cancer cases will be seen within one month by the end of the year, Health Minister Mary Harney claimed tonight.

SIX out of every 10 GPs in Ireland believe patients are delaying visits to their doctor as a direct result of the economic downturn.

AN electronic online service funded by the Health Service Executive is to be used to streamline the cancer referral process between GPs and hospitals, Ireland’s cancer control chief said yesterday.

THE Health Service Executive is denying that the country’s cancer tsar, Tom Keane, encountered serious problems in trying to kick-start the country’s reformed cancer programme and that the HSE tried to limit its success.