The first Operation Transformation 2018 leader has been revealed as 52-year-old Mary Diamond from Kiltimagh in Co Mayo, writes Breda Graham.

Colin Sheridan on Ireland’s footballing philosophy. The Beautiful Game it ain’t.

Gorse fires can occur naturally, but there is a strong suspicion that many, if not the majority, are as a result of arson designed to clear land for grazing.

Children of gardaí have been approached on a football pitch and told their father is a “scumbag” for policing a protest after being identified via social media, a Garda conference has heard.

Long-serving Kerry football kitman and Austin Stack Park groundsman Vincent Linnane has passed away.

The footballers of Shannon Rangers were already running behind schedule when they landed onto the Boherbee Road outside Austin Stack Park. The main entrance, though, was barely visible among the thousands of supporters attempting to make their way into the stadium. The men from North Kerry were stranded.

Mayo Convention: Mike Connelly was elected chairman of Mayo GAA Board at yesterday’s Convention.

Two men who thought they were siphoning home heating oil from a tank at the childhood home of pop mogul Louis Walsh got away instead with fuel which certainly has the X-factor — aviation gasoline for a helicopter.

A 28-year-old woman who died after tumbling down her stairs while wearing new flip-flops has given the gift of life to five people.

A Co. Mayo voter had a ‘golden moment’ today when was reunited with a precious Claddagh ring which fell into a ballot box as she was voting on Friday.

A Chinese man who delivered food and supplies to cannabis grow houses around the country has avoided jail on the understanding that he will be deported.

There was mixed news on the jobs front yesterday with 220 jobs created by two Dublin-based firms, but 80 jobs lost in Mayo.

TO THE passing eye, the IRD building in Kiltimagh is forgettable, but in reality it has a few stories to tell, of an eagerly anticipated future and of a dream that has been and gone.

Up to 5,800 cannabis plants worth about €4.6m have been seized during a series of raids.

Gardaí have arrested eight men and seized cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €4.6m in a series of coordinated searches at six locations around the country.

The husband of former tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, will be buried in Donegal tomorrow.

The X-Factor judge Louis Walsh’s entertainment firm more than quadrupled its pre-tax profits last year to €1.268m.

One of the highest number of enforcement orders in 10 years was dished out to cafés and restaurants last month, figures show.

A much-loved Gaelic bard ruthlessly decapitated by late night revellers was re-united with his missing head yesterday following an appeal to the public for help in tracing it.

Already shaping up to be a good contest between the Subaru S11 quartet of Dunlop regulars Kevin Barrett and Niall Maguire and newcomers, Thomas Fitzmaurice and Brian O’Mahony, the Dunlop National Rally Championship continues on Sunday with the Claremorris based McWilliam Park Hotel/Fleet Transport Magazine Mayo Rally.

Mayo manager James Horan has dismissed reports that suggested that former captain Trevor Mortimer was out of the running for a place in his Championship squad.

THE Mayo senior football team will be captained by former All Star Alan Dillon for this season’s championship campaign.

A 24-year-old man has been jailed for six years by a judge at the Central Criminal Court for the manslaughter of his sister's partner, after a stabbing in Co. Mayo in August, 2009.

A Mayo man who killed his sister’s partner in a laneway brawl will have to wait until the New Year to learn of his sentence.

A 24-year-old man has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of his sister’s partner, after a stabbing in Co. Mayo last year.

The judge in the trial of a 24-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his sister’s partner has warned the jury to treat with care the testimony of witnesses who were "exceedingly intoxicated", on the night of the killing.

Closing speeches have been heard in the trial of a 24 year-old man accused of murdering his sister’s partner in Co. Mayo last year.

A 24 year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his sister’s partner in Co Mayo last year told gardai, when he was charged with murder: "I didn’t kill him. If I did kill him I didn’t mean it."

A 24-year-old man on trial for the murder of his sister’s partner told gardaí he only stabbed him twice in self-defence but did not kill him the Central Criminal Court heard today.

The Deputy State pathologist said today that a 24-year-old father of two, who was stabbed 11 times during an altercation, died from significant blood loss caused by multiple penetrating stab wounds to the heart, lungs and neck.

A 24-year-old father of two who was fatally stabbed 11 times had a violent steak and was very angry on the night he was killed the Central Criminal Court heard today.

A third jury has been sworn in at the Central Criminal Court today for the trial of a 24-year-old man charged with murdering his sister's partner in Co Mayo more than a year ago.

The trial opened today of a 24-year-old man accused of murdering his sister’s partner over a year ago in Co Mayo.

The jury has been discharged ahead of the opening of the trial of a 24-year-old man charged with murdering a father of two in Mayo last year.

A Mayo man is to go on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today for the murder of a man in Kiltimagh last year.

A man accused of murdering a 24-year-old father of two in Mayo just over a year ago is due to go on trial at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday.

TIMING. Somewhere along the line Micheál O Sé got it right. He’s developed the knack these past few years of landing in places where football success invariably ensues.

COMING up to Christmas lots of newly published cookbooks arrived on my desk. There were so many that I simply couldn’t manage to mull over each one.

Not so many years ago people in Limerick were annoyed over the way the number of stabbings in the city were being highlighted, but these days there have been stabbings in just about anywhere in the country. There were fatal stabbings in Dublin and Blarney over the weekend, as well as two separate stabbings in Tralee.

The young man stabbed to death in Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, last week has been laid to rest this morning.

IN the nine days since Mayo-based Garda Daryl Mullen suffered a life-threatening knife attack there have been three knife-related deaths and a series of other lethal but thankfully non-fatal attacks around the country.

A horrific murder/suicide that left two people dead and two others seriously injured may have been sparked by jealousy over a woman, it emerged tonight.

Local politicians are calling for more gardaí in Mayo following a series of knife attacks in recent days.