Positive news can be in short supply these days.

Bandon mart manager Tom McCarthy, never one to shy away from a good headline, had one for me on Monday.

Recent kingpins of the Corn Uí Mhuirí, Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, appear to be nearing the end of their reign as HHS Bandon blew them away on a wet Fossa pitch todayin the opening round of this year’s competition.

Bandon mart manager Tom McCarthy had high praise for the encouraging spirit of weanling exporters and farmer buyers who he said were, “showing tremendous confidence in these times, when it is so badly needed.”

The Gigginstown House bull sale last Saturday scaled new heights, with a purchaser from West Cork, John Applebe, describing the sale as “another step up”.

We had a bad shower on Saturday. It started at about half past two in the afternoon, and didn’t finish until Monday at 7pm.

I didn’t go to the Grand National on Saturday. I was working. But I heard it on the radio, which is the same thing really.

I hear Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is going under the knife this week. His heart is giving him trouble.

“The Friesian bull is back,” Bandon mart manager, Tom McCarty, said to me at a busy sale of calves on Monday, and he was right. Up from nothing, like the phoenix from the ashes.

The change in the weather earlier this week was about as welcome as Conor McGregor at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago on Sunday.

When reporting on the subject of mart prices, and specifically the Friesian bull calf at the marts, I suppose I am fairly biased.

Was every citizen of Tournafulla in Dromcollogher on Saturday to witness the club’s first-ever Limerick Junior A hurling title?

Such is the state of Niamh Rockett’s left knee that she doesn’t really know if there will be another game after this one.

The elusive snow leopard - long considered endangered - has been upgraded to "vulnerable," though conservationists warned the new classification does not mean they are safe.

The last of the great Anglo-Irish writers, Molly Keane, who died 20 years ago today, has been the chief focus of the 13th Cork World Book Fest — a six-day literary jamboree currently packing out both the Central Library and Triskel Christchurch.

Angus heifers and bulls were flying high at Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Angus Sale on Saturday last.

An unauthorised car park in Cork’s tech jobs hub will shut down within days after a bizarre planning situation which saw a local authority initiate an enforcement action against itself.

From Rory Gallagher to Frank O’Connor, there’s an eclectic mix in a new anthology of Cork writings, says Colette Sheridan

All seems to be quiet in the marts this week. Perhaps “too damn quiet” as they say in the cowboy films, just before the Indians attack.

A garda suffered a flying kick to the chest resulting in a heavy impact from an assailant’s metal prosthetic leg as he arrested the man for trying to assault his own girlfriend.

I’d say there were more Cork fellows back in Gortatlea mart on Friday than there were up in Thurles on Sunday. And I’m sure they had a better day out to boot.

The only regret I had in Bandon mart on Monday was that I’d didn’t have my cheque book with me.

It was all about Michael Creed in Macroom mart on Saturday last, with talk as to what kind of Minister for Agriculture he might make.

From Skibbereen to Gigginstown, it has been quality all the way at the cattle sales.

I looked at my cattle today while wearing my boots. It was the first time this year that I was able to venture into the field wellington free.