Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

Guests at a wedding in County Derry were treated to ‘The A-Team’ of headline acts when Ed Sheeran joined Snow Patrol to perform live for the bride and groom’s first dance.

The GAA stadia are not the only places where Tipperary are illustrating their sporting prowess this season. Success for the Premier county natives has also transcended the highways and byways of Ireland and one is on the cusp on landing Irish rallying’s National title.

In his first full season on-board the FESP liveried Ford Fiesta WRC, Clonmel’s Roy White, the current leader of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship knows there are difficult times ahead as his rivals begin to apply the pressure.

Emergency services have rescued a number of people from the River Foyle after a canoe capsized.

Cork driver Matt Griffin and his AF Corse team-mates, Briton Duncan Cameron and Italian Michele Rugolo, were out of luck in the 4 Hours of Estoril, the final round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS).

Shay Barry, who ended a long and successful riding career last year, registered his first training success when Cracked Rear View landed the bumper in Sligo last night, the www.coimtysligoraces.com Pro-Am Flat Race.

Two people have been arrested after the sudden death of a man in County Derry.

MY friend Mike Dwyer recalls meeting the late Séamus Heaney and the playwright Brian Friel at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

Martin O’Neill has revealed his pride at the journey he’s taken from Croke Park in 1958 to his latest project of leading the Republic of Ireland football team.

President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to Seamus Heaney on the news of his death saying the poet's contribution “to the republics of letters, conscience, and humanity was immense”.

A woman jailed for the murder of her policeman husband in the North more than 20 years ago has dropped her appeal against conviction, a court heard today.

Double killer Hazel Stewart’s bid to overturn her conviction for murdering her husband and ex-lover’s wife will be heard later today.

A teenage girl has died in a horse riding accident in County Derry.

Niall ‘Slippers’ Madden continued in top form when completing a 146/1 double on Definite Ridge and Namarama in Downpatrick yesterday.

Paul Carberry received a timely pre-Cheltenham boost when guiding Oscar Hill to an easy win in the Roadhouse Pun Novice Handicap Hurdle in Downpatrick yesterday, first leg of a double for trainer Gordon Elliott, completed when Carberry’s sister Nina partnered Spring Lane to an odds-on win in the bumper.

Cousin Vinny defied a 22-month absence, caused by a tendon injury, when justifying odds-on favouritism in the opening Festival Free Upgrade Offer Ends Today Hurdle at Punchestown yesterday.

In the North, Police have discovered a body outside a disused hotel in Portstewart, County Derry.

Two men in their 20s are still being questioned over the death of a woman in a single-vehicle collision in County Derry yesterday morning.

ALTHOUGH virtually ignored in the market, the Ruby Walsh ridden Sulwaan made a successful debut for Dermot Weld when proving too strong for Tavern Times and Princeton Plains in the Irish Stallion Farms Novice Hurdle in Sligo yesterday.

VETERAN trainer Cecil Ross savoured the first double of his training career when favourites Lisrenny Lady and Son Of My Heart, both ridden by Robbie Colgan, landed the opening maiden hurdles at Sligo last night.

A man in his 50s has died in a road accident in County Derry.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson has offered his condolences to the family of a soldier from the North who was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan.

AN enterprising, front-running ride by Andrew McNamara enabled Fearnwood Girl land the featured Irish Stallion Farms Novice Hurdle at Sligo yesterday.

ANDREW McNamara doubled-up on Equation and her former stable-companion Fearnwood Girl in last night’s maiden hurdle action in Sligo.

Six men are in PSNI custody in County Antrim suspected of dissident republican activity.

Tributes were today paid to Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney as he reached his 70th birthday.

Gardaí have named the woman who was killed in a road accident in Galway on Tuesday.

THE first case of swamp fever has been confirmed in Northern Ireland and a further outbreak detected in the Republic.

Three men being held over a suspected terrorism bomb-making plot tonight won the right to challenge police refusal to give assurances that their conversations with solicitors were not being secretly taped.

Martin Claffey charts the amazing career path of former Irish U21 midfielder Wayne O’Sullivan.

A CHURCH of Ireland bishop has quit after separating from his wife.

A County Derry teenager, who has been missing for the past ten days, has been found alive and well in County Cork this afternoon.

A special missing persons unit should be set up to trace the thousands of people who vanish each year, it was claimed today.

Detectives in County Derry are appealing for witnesses to the kidnapping of a 23-year-old woman from a house in the city last night.

The spokesman for a controversial group campaigning on behalf of Protestant victims of republican violence has won a court battle for official protection.

Earthmover and St Mirran have won at Cheltenham this afternoon.

ORGANISED criminal gangs, possibly with paramilitary connections, are involved in the large-scale and lucrative business of transporting waste from the Republic and illegally dumping it over the Border, authorities in the North believe.

THE news that Jack Nicklaus is set to design his second course in Ireland — on the grounds of Killeen Castle in County Meath — has renewed the debate on just how many more new multi-million euro complexes this country can take.

Nearly 200 jobs are set to go at a soft furnishings factory in Derry in the latest manufacturing blow to the North, it was confirmed today.

COULD someone explain to me why the Irish Examiner refers to a ‘County Derry?’