Cork, Kerry, and Roscommon are the only teams guaranteed to avoid the first round of this year’s All-Ireland senior football championship qualifiers.

Every county in Ireland needs more services and facilities and the social glue applied by boots-on-the-ground workers like the GAA’s GPOs, writes Brendan O’Brien

Heedless/headless hurling

Ballyboden St Enda’s 2-8 St Vincent’s 0-10 (Dublin SFC Final): Anybody who knows the impressive breadth and rich vitality of Ballyboden St Enda’s would never describe them as giant-killers.

It’s 2002, late summer. Alan Brogan has been everywhere all championship. His emergence onto a Dublin team swaggering through Leinster under Tommy Lyons has captivated a public drawn in further by his famous dad Bernard and the bridge it builds to the glorious ’70s.

A Dublin City Councillor wants communities to be able to close off their roads for play afternoons for children.

It is surprising that David Begg, who was on the board of the Central Bank and chair of the Audit Committee, is not being called to the banking inquiry.

Lorna Joyce’s late point salvaged a replay for Galway in this afternoon’s enthralling Tesco Ladies National Football League Division 1 final at Parnell Park.

Ladies Gaelic Football Association chief executive Helen O’Rourke has described the furore surrounding Saturday’s Tesco Division 4 League final between Limerick and Offaly, when both teams were denied access to the Parnell Park dressing rooms, as a “storm in a teacup.”

Dublin have managed a measure of revenge for their All-Ireland elimination at Tipperary’s hands last summer with a comprehensive and impressive 12-point win in their opening Allianz Hurling League Division 1A game in Donnycarney.

Meath chairman Conor Tormey has slammed Dublin U21 manager Dessie Farrell and questioned the county’s explanation for refusing to accept home advantage for tomorrow week’s Leinster football final.

Niall Corcoran says he and the rest of the Dublin hurlers have pledged their disastrous 2012 season will never be repeated.

A 48-year-old man who sexually abused his step daughter at their home in Donnycarney in Dublin has been jailed for 18 months.

New Leinster Council chairman John Horan admits it was a ‘no brainer’ to move the Walsh Cup hurling final to Croke Park this evening.

A judge has ordered the arrest of a youth who mugged a heavily pregnant woman during a horrific robbery and then skipped court today.

Gardaí at Raheny are asking the public to help trace missing 16-year-old Kayleigh Murphy.

Toddler Sergio O’Connor has just returned to Ireland after undergoing major surgery to connect his digestive system in the US.

Dublin 0-17 Kildare 1-16 (aet)

A 14-month-old twin whose rare condition prevents him from eating, drinking or swallowing, underwent a potentially life-saving operation in the US yesterday.

Baby Sergio O’Connor, a twin with an award-winning smile, will travel to Boston with his parents on Monday for a life-changing operation.

President Michael D Higgins has led tributes to folk musician Barney McKenna, the last surviving member of The Dubliners, who has died, aged 72.

A SENIOR executive with an archeological firm has been awarded €90,000 after the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled that she had been constructively dismissed after the company tried to impose extra conditions on her return to work following a period of sick leave due to breast cancer.

IT has taken some time to manifest itself, but ladies football and camogie are finally being hit by the same unemployment and emigration epidemic which has had such a negative impact on their male counterparts in the GAA.

DUBLIN County Board chairman Andy Kettle has claimed Anthony Daly’s hurlers saved the GAA’s bacon following the Leinster rugby team’s qualification for the Heineken Cup final on Saturday.

SATURDAY

ANTHONY DALY has admitted Dublin’s hurlers will lose a considerable advantage by the decision to switch their forthcoming Division One home games against Tipperary and Kilkenny from Parnell Park to Croke Park.

SOMEHOW, despite everything, Kilmacud soldier on.

THE cost of renting residential property continues to drop but the rate at which prices are falling is the slowest in two years, according to the latest market analysis.

TOMORROW, Antrim’s second season in the Leinster hurling championship will commence far away from the bright lights of the main stage with a quarter-final tie against Offaly, and that suits Shane McNaughton just fine.

PREVIEW: Cork v Galway, Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL, today 5.15pm (Parnell Park)

Dublin 2-11 Monaghan 1-9

PERFORMANCES, rather than points, will be the focus for Dublin’s footballers this weekend when they follow last Sunday’s win in Killarney with another Division One tie against Derry at Parnell Park.

VICTIMS support group One in Four has accused the Vatican of making a “wholly inadequate” response to the Murphy report and failing to accept responsibility for the cover-up of sexual abuse worldwide.

THE Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has called for “radical reform” within the Church and once again urged bishops to take responsibility for their actions following the resignation yesterday of the Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray.

Bishop of Limerick Dr Donal Murray will address church-goers today as speculation intensifies that he has offered his resignation.

THE Vatican is expected to announce the resignation of the Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray today.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin tonight said he hoped justice had been served after a paedophile priest named in a damning State inquiry was jailed for sexually assaulting an altar boy.

The jury in the trial of a man alleged to be the getaway driver in a fatal shooting at a Dublin bookies, has been instructed to either find the accused guilty of murder, or fully acquit him.