The staging of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch is having “a transformative effect” on the seaside resort of Lahinch.

A new pub enjoys cool vibes and tasty drinks with a difference — there’s no alcohol. Jonathan deBurca Butler samples the atmosphere at the innovative Dublin establishment.

The sight of thousands of Mayo young supporters on the field at MacHale Park after yesterday’s win over Monaghan was a timely reminder of just how popular the county’s footballers have become in recent years.

A free-roam virtual reality experience said to be the first of its kind in Ireland, is to open in March offering players the opportunity to fend off zombie hordes, among other games.

Quotes to remember from the year in football...

Holy water from a tiny well in Clare was transported across the Atlantic Ocean in the cockpit of an Aer Lingus flight on Sunday, to help a sick child in America.

GOALS win games and Emmet Óg’s four majors were the difference as the Monaghan and Ulster champions booked their place in next month’s All-Ireland intermediate club final.

St Francis College, Rochestown 1-13 Coláiste Chríost Rí 0-14

Castlehaven and Duhallow must do it all over again after extra-time failed to separate them in an epic semi-final replay played in Páirc Uí Rinn last night. Duhallow had looked to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when Knocknagree’s Anthony O’Connor goaled in the 82nd minute to give his side a 2-15 to 1-17 lead.

In any good whodunnit, the search for the smoking gun becomes the focal point.

Former Mayo forward John Casey is praying his county beat Galway on Sunday — but isn’t sure a third straight Connacht SFC defeat to their neighbours would effectively mean the end of their championship.

A Wexford firm is complementing gin’s growth by producing premium tonic water, writes Trish Dromey

McGrath Cup

Nottingham Forest 4 Arsenal 2: Arsene Wenger admitted he was hurting after Arsenal surrendered their grip on the FA Cup with defeat to Nottingham Forest.

A novel treatment for heart failure — one of nine drugs caught up in a dispute over funding earlier this year — is available from today to Irish patients under the State’s reimbursement scheme.

A 60-year-old man was accused of sexually assaulting four women in separate incidents in the Douglas area of Cork and gardaí wanted a bail condition that he would have no physical contact with “females”.

The Department of Education has said the decision to close schools for a second day today was taken on child safety grounds as school authorities were only beginning to check the buildings to see what, if any damage, they sustained thanks to yesterday’s unprecedented storms.

Limerick Golf Club face Galway in today’s AIG Senior Cup final aiming to bridge the 15-year gap to their last victory in Irish club golf’s blue riband competition.

Lee Keegan and Eoghan O’Gara could join Donie Vaughan on the sidelines for the first round of next year’s Allianz League.

Strange days. The RTÉ panel, not exactly a trio of giggly teenage girls at the best of times, are being sexist. Male-on-male sexist, that is.

Strange days. The RTÉ panel, not exactly a trio of giggly teenage girls at the best of times, are being sexist. Male-on-male sexist, that is.

Dublin, by the skin of their teeth, dragged themselves over the line and ensured their place in history as one of the all-time great GAA teams.

John Fogarty considers the selection issues facing the Kerry and Mayo management teams ahead of Sunday’s All -Ireland SFC semi-final.

The Leaving Certificate results were delivered yesterday. Much debate and fanfare mixed with smiles and tears were shared, no doubt, across the country.

Michael Harrington franked his All-Ireland intermediate credentials with an impressive win over Christy Mullins in the Cancer Research benefit at Shannonvale on Saturday.

Eleven years after delivering a Footballer of the Year season almost out of nowhere and destroying Mayo in an All-Ireland final, the same question is being asked about Kieran Donaghy — who do Mayo have that is capable of marking him?

Stephen Rochford and his team got everything right yesterday. It was my first time witnessing Mayo get all their tactics and tactical battles correct, writes John Divilly.

Mayo 4-19 Roscommon 0-9: And then there were four. Not three, mind, but four.

THIS is the story of a narcissistic man who has suffered a midlife crisis which drove him to kill his wife, Val.

Post mortems are due to be carried out today on the bodies of two men who died in a house fire in Kildare yesterday.

Update 6.12pm: One of the men was named locally as William Vaughan, 76, who was known as Charlie and owned the house, and the other man was John Paul Flood, 33.

Mayo's up and down summer continues as a determined second-half showing at Ennis progressed Stephen Rochford’s side into the fourth round of qualifiers.

Des Breen looks at the remarkable story of how black women, firmly ensconced in segregationist America, played such a pivotal role in the US space programme, a counterpoint to long-running stereotypes

Wedding bells will chime for Paddy Barnes next month, meaning the three-time Olympian will rest until September after the final bell rang on his first professional title success last Saturday night.

Residents living in the seaside resort of “Lehinch” are poised to put the A back into the resort’s name in a move that could cost the tax-payer at least €10,000 to implement.

The compelling story of this season’s National League took another dramatic twist in Castlebar yesterday when the Cavan footballers ended a 13-year wait for a win in the top division.

Mayo 1-21 IT Sligo 1-15: Late points from three players ‘on trial’ with Mayo this month carried the beaten All-Ireland finalists to their first win of the new season in Ballina yesterday.

A petition has been set up as residents and businesses along the Cork and Kerry boundary battle to save a village post office with a family link stretching back 85 years.

I write these words from France while covering the presidential primary fight between Sarkozy, Fillon and Juppé, and am reminded of the local maxim “jamais deux sans trois” — “never two without the third”.