Sunderland’s five-year sleep walk towards relegation may be complete but some supporters are looking forward to life outside the Premier League.

Peer-to-peer lending — which invoilves pairing potential investors with businesses in need of capital — continues to grow in Ireland as an alternative source of finance for the SME sector.

Three little pigs tucked into a pile of grain dumped by protesting farmers outside the EU Commission’s offices in Dublin yesterday.

Whatever happens in Croke Park tomorrow, Kerry will be nourished by its western extremities for the foreseeable future. Dingle and An Ghaeltacht are fertile breeding grounds for the nascent talent coming through the system. Who’s responsible is less important than facilitating the unimpeded movement of the conveyor belt. Five-time All-Ireland winner Tommy Griffin is better-placed than most to look back and forward...

A scheme which will directly support the development of modern dairy enterprises on farms has been unveiled.

A €50m grant scheme has been launched to help dairy farmers expand and modernise their operations — a move which could help position Ireland as the fastest growing dairy producer on the planet over the next decade.

Rangers 1 Motherwell 3

The man can take himself out of the fight but can he ever take the fight out of himself? 

Munster Schools Senior Cup semi-final

A €500,000 fundraising drive is under way to save and restore a landmark church and priory in the heart of Cork City.

That scream…

Son scares life out of his mammy by coming early for Christmas

The venerable Festival Opera has another impressive programme for 2014, says Jo Kerrigan.

As the 64,246 paying spectators made their way to Croke Park that blustery day nearly half a century ago, there was not one burning question of the day but two.

Speaking at the History of Hurling one-day seminar held at The Schoolhouse venue at Muckross House in Killarney last Saturday, one of the most stylish forwards of his era reflected on a 19-year senior inter-county career.

Fianna Fáil woes in Kerry continue, with a fourth former councillor quitting the party.

They might share a common cause but this weekend, the Denver Gaels and Seattle Gaels GAA clubs are split by a common desire for Super Bowl success.

A grudge held for 25 years by a hurler over being denied a place in a North Cork final which led to him attacking a man last year was described by a judge as a moment of madness in an otherwise blemish-free life.

The 62nd Opera Festival, in Wexford, was true to form in unearthing rarely heard works.

A grudge which festered for 25 years in a hurler who was denied a place in a North Cork final for Kildorrery boiled over on the sideline of a recent match when he punched the man he blamed and shouldered his wife.

Cork folk in Duhallow are usually gearing up for the All-Ireland football final, but the rise of hurling in the division is no accident.

An underlying and undetected mental health epidemic is causing young at-risk people to turn to alcohol, drugs and, possibly, suicide.

This copy of the ninth printing of the first edition of Joyce’s Ulysses published by Shakespeare & Co, Paris, 1927, is among the lots at Cork Auction Rooms tomorrow at noon.

When Luke Dempsey thinks back to the crazy few weeks he was in the running for the Meath job it makes him smile.

Twenty-two-year-old Limerick Institute of Technology student, Kevin O’Connor has been selected as the March/April nominee for the Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Young Rally Driver of the Year award.

The gloss has been taken off Meath's Leinster SFC win over Wicklow with the news that captain Seamus Kenny will miss the rest of the Championship.

Sick patients were put at risk by the State’s failure to hold Tallaght Hospital to account, the health watchdog has found.

An Irishman shot dead in Florida has been laid to rest in his native Templemore, with the parish priest stating that “a bright light had gone out” with the passing of Tom Walsh.

Meath boss Seamus McEnaney has vowed to fight for his job after suffering a shock relegation to Division 3.

Meath 1-8 Louth 2-14, Pairc Tailteann

An Irish man has been shot dead at a restaurant in which he was working in Florida.

The family of an Irishman shot dead in the US at the weekend say they are hoping to bring his body back to his native town for burial.

Galway 1-12 Meath 1-11

Kildare 0-18 Meath 2-11

Ardscoil Rís, inspired by a powerful pack, qualified for the Munster Junior Cup semi-final when coming from behind to outscore Rockwell by two tries to one in a disappointing game at Dooradoyle yesterday.

World Rally S2000 Championship leader Craig Breen (Ford Fiesta S2000) seeks to consolidate his position in Rally Sweden, which gets under way in earnest this morning.

Seamus McEnaney got one over his former charges as Meath had a winning start to the Allianz Football League Division 2 at the expense of his native Monaghan at Navan on Saturday night.

AS THE counties square off again on Sunday, Joe Sheridan believes the tensions between Meath and Louth stemming from the acrimonious 2010 Leinster final have dissipated.

IT may not have been the Manchester derby but Meath and Wexford managed to shake off the inevitable January cobwebs and inject an unexpected amount of entertainment into an O’Byrne Cup game of little importance at Pairc Tailteann yesterday.

THE continuing dispute between Motorsport Ireland and the breakaway group – Kart Ireland — took another twist this week after the governing body opted out of a planned meeting of both parties with the track owners due to take place yesterday.

TWO young drivers, Monaghan’s, Sam Moffett and Dubliner, Aaron Smith, won the top awards in Irish Motorsport yesterday and a bursary of €50,000 each.