The preparations of St Francis College, Rochestown for Saturday’s Croke Cup (All-Ireland PPS SAHC) quarter-final clash with holders St Kieran’s College of Kilkenny haven’t been conventional, to say the least.

Thinking of turning professional?

Bank of Ireland is to close nine branches across Northern Ireland in the coming months, but also plans to invest £10m (€12m) in revamping its remaining business in the North.

While the pre-theatre dinner is a great boon to the restaurateurs, The Menu confesses to finding such dining to be overly rushed so is much taken with the Ballyvolane House solution, whereby the theatre comes to the diners.

THE busy South Cork guild at Innishannon got the past year off to an altruistic start with two whist card drives which raised proceeds for the Bandon Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber and Rehab.

In the North, a man will come Newry Magistrates Court later this morning charged in connection with the killing of a Ukranian man in Co. Down last weekend.

Police in the North, investigating the murder of a Ukrainian man in Co Down last weekend, have charged a 28-year-old man.

Two men have been arrested in Dublin in connection with the murder of a Ukrainian man in Co Down last weekend.

Detectives investigating the murder of a man from Ukraine have charged a woman with assisting offenders.

Police in the North are still questioning a woman in connection with the murder of a man from Ukraine.

Police in the North have launched a murder inquiry after a man blasted in the chest with a shotgun died in hospital.

A man is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the chest in Co Down.

South Down MP Margaret Ritchie is to demand talks with police after Protestant youths were blamed for what was initially described as a dissident republican armed checkpoint.

A PSNI air crew who escaped major injury when their helicopter flipped upside down on landing are lucky to be alive, a senior officer said tonight.

Air accident investigators have arrived at the scene of a helicopter crash that killed three people who were flying from the North to England, police confirmed tonight.

There are fears tonight that up to four people may have been killed in a helicopter crash in the North

An extra 1,000 police are needed to combat the North's growing terror threat, rank and file officers warned today.

The family of a boy who died after he was hit by a speedboat in the North tonight said they were devastated.

A police station guard in the North had a miraculous escape today after a car bomb partially exploded as he drove to work through a busy residential area.

Attacks launched by dissident republicans are in danger of causing another atrocity on the scale of the Omagh bombing, the North’s police chief signalled today.

The Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has said the people responsible for three seperate bomb attacks in the last seven days will not derail the peace process.

Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson ruled out talks with dissident republicans today amid fears of a heightening threat by terrorists opposed to the peace process.

An independent republican councillor whose police officer niece was the target of a suspected car bomb attack in the North tonight refused to condemn the incident.

A light aircraft spluttered and stalled seconds before it nosedived to the ground, killing three people in the North, an inquest heard today.

Almost 50 new jobs are on the way to Co Down.

Eight men were today appearing in court in Belfast in connection with a £2m (€2.3m) drugs seizure.

A major drugs haul seized in the North and England is now estimated to be worth more than £2m (€2.3m), police said today.

The mountainous landscape where a light aircraft crashed with the loss of three lives in south Down must be the subject of a safety probe, the Assembly heard today.

The pilot of the light aircraft which crashed in Co Down last night has been named locally as Hugh McKnight, a 53-year-old retired police officer.

Three men killed in a plane crash were trying to land just miles from their homes, it emerged today.

At least three people were killed in plane crash in the North tonight, police said.

A fishing trawler which got into difficulty in the Irish Sea is being escorted into Kilkeel Harbour in Co Down this afternoon.

Search teams who launched a major operation to find a missing 53-year-old have discovered a man’s body.

Four policemen in the North killed in an horrific road crash died trying to make their community a safer place, mourners at three of their funerals heard today.

Police in the North today issued a fresh appeal for witnesses to an horrific crash in which four officers died.

A new state-of-the-art lifeboat is to be stationed at Red Bay on the Co Antrim coast, the RNLI announced today.

A taxi driver who came upon the aftermath of the road accident in which four PSNI officers died over the weekend has spoken of his efforts to save them.

Investigations are continuing today into the cause of the road crash that claimed the lives of four young PSNI officers in Co Down over the weekend.

Four police officers were killed today in a road accident in the North.

Police in the North have questioned five men this week following an operation targeting the sale of illegally laundered fuel.

Three sailors were rescued today after their vessel started taking on water in rough seas 12 miles off the coast.

Four people have died during overnight road accidents on both sides of the border.

A glass company in Co Down is set to lay off around 60 workers due to a downturn in demand for its products

Danielle McVeigh saw her challenge at the NCAA Women's Championship halted by high winds yesterday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.