Jutting up against the misery of Cork’s defeat on Saturday was a glimmer of hope for Rebel exiles watching from afar in pubs at unforgivable hours, some serving drink much too early and some not serving at all.

YO La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan has no idea how he got here.

Evidence has been found that could help explain the motives of the lone gunman behind one of the worst mass school shootings in American history, police said today.

The massacre of 26 children and adults at an elementary school in the US state of Connecticut elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old described as brilliant but remote, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims, some as young as five.

Two bodies have been recovered so far after a small plane collided with a tour helicopter over the Hudson River near Manhattan today.

A small plane has collided with a helicopter over the Hudson River near Manhattan, the coastguard said today.