Ireland, ever-present in the tournament since it started in Wales in 2008, will face a baptism of fire this evening when they open their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign against France at Stade Aime Giral.

Ireland begin their Pool C campaign against hosts France in Perpignan next Wednesday.

A year which began with a frustrating hamstring injury which sidelined him for four months has taken a massive upward swing for newly appointed Irish U20 captain Caelan Doris.

Is it a sign?

Michael started life as a journalist. He worked for Hot Press, writing news-based stories, and eventually moved to Magill. He was at the stage of securing a staff job, but he’d always wanted to study law.

One51 — one of three warring shareholding blocs in the shrinking NTR conglomerate that covers wind farms, water treatment and roads investments – last night hinted at a significant looming event in the long-running battle over the future of NTR.

NTR – the wind farm, water treatment and roads investment conglomerate — has said it is still on course for another tens of million-euro payout to its warring shareholders later this year —after completing the sale of wind turbines in the US.

June Rodgers performs some of her hilarious characters in her new show, says Richard Fitzpatrick.

Dublin-based renewable energy investor NTR has sold two of its American company’s wind farm assets for a combined €221m.

The search is on for Ireland’s most loveable tree. Finalists for the inaugural National Tree Huggers Contest have been selected from across the country.

NTR will sell its US wind energy assets and buy out the interests of One51 and Pageant Holdings.

NTR has come under increasing pressure to sell its US-based wind farm assets and cease plans for its €50m European wind investment initiative.

Blackrock College 14 Belvedere College 10

Kids are building their technology skills as schools sign up in their hundreds to a digital teaching programme.

A regency rent table is among the feature lots at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on Sunday week (Apr 7) at 4pm. The auction will feature a collection from Ummera House, Timoleague, home to the Cresswell family. It was amassed over two generations.

The new CEO of Bord Gáis Michael McNicholas is taking a €750,000 pay cut to take up the position.

If China can have a Year of the Snake, Ireland might yet be celebrating the Year of the Tree.

The weather gods were not shining for the final series of races of the Kinsale YC Spring Series.

Easter Monday dawned overcast and breezy for the second week of the KYC Spring Series.

There is a real urgency to take investment in renewable energy to a new plateau and Jim Barry, as he moves from NTR to BlackRock Alternative Investments, is getting an opportunity to make a new name for himself, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

WHY aren’t political parties supporting Irish jobs by using Irish-made panelboard in their billboards instead of the cheap throwaway Chinese plywood that I see dotted around the Irish landscape?

MORE than 1,000 sailors took to the water at Crosshaven on a mild and sunny autumn weekend, three-quarters of them competing in the opening session of the O’Flynn Exhams Autumn League Series from the RCYC.

I HAVE always liked George Lee. During his time as RTÉ economics reporter he presented economic issues in a fashion that those of us with very basic formal education and knowledge of economics could understand.

IT gives life. It takes life. We can have too much of it or we can have too little of it. We love it and we hate it.

AS a young boy holidaying on my uncle’s small farm in Rhode, Co Offaly, I often accompanied him as he cleared overgrowth and silt build-up from the drains and streams around his land.

I WAS in Paris on Wednesday, November 18, 2009.

OUR forests, peatlands, lakes, rivers, seas and coasts are places of wonder, diversity and beauty.

HE was a man renowned for his finer tastes, but the sale of Charles J Haughey’s art collection tonight is set to attract a party of bargain hunters.

George Redmond told gardaí he regularly received large sums of money from people representing development companies his corruption trial has been told.

“COCK-UP” read the underside of the Rebel fan’s sombrero, where in normal circumstances it would have read “Up Cork”.

A crowd of several thousand Cork GAA supporters marched in Cork City last night to express their anger that an agreement has yet to be found in the ongoing dispute between the Cork County Board and its players.

INVESTORS who hitched their star to One51 have been through some exciting times, thanks to the freewheeling style of its chief executive Philip Lynch.

NTR, which recently sold its 50% stake in the West Link toll bridge to the State for €600 million, saw its net profits fall to €14m for the year to March 31, 2007.

WHEN a leading Irish chief executive says the next election should be fought on the looming energy crisis facing the country, it is a fair bet that something quite serious is afoot.

THE battle for control of Jurys Doyle took a fresh twist yesterday when British property billionaires the Reuben brothers were booted out of the race.

The board of Jurys Doyle hotel group has received a possible offer proposal from board members Eileen Monahan, Bernadette Gallagher, Walter Beatty, Elizabeth Nelson, who have presented one with Ann Roche. Between them, the consortium or their families already own 42.3% of Jurys Doyle.

SOARING revenues from wind energy and waste management helped NTR record first-half turnover of €169 million, a 34% increase on last year, the infrastructure developer said yesterday.

THE Doyle and Beatty families could prove pivotal in the fight for control of the Jurys Doyle Hotels Group.

SINCE day one the markets have said the shareholding of the daughters of PV Doyle and their close associates would ultimately determine the future of the Jurys Doyle Group.

CONDITIONS were quite horrible for the final race of the PC Scaffold May Mid Week league at Kinsale, southerly winds of 20 knots gusting, a big swell, poor visibility and rain-like needles to compound the misery.