While Shrita Parker was posing for photos at the launch of Basketball Ireland’s new season in Tallaght on Wednesday there was a mass shooting in her home town of Virginia Beach.

A statement from his family said that he had suffered a spinal cord neck injury.

As an introduction to our islands, this heritage week programme has a selection of lovely islands and a wide range of activities to entice you.

Rory McIlroy’s dream of winning the Open Championship on home soil is effectively over after he slumped to an opening 79 at Royal Portrush.

It's not only the streets, the back roads and the boreens of Schull which will be teeming with sporting activity this day next week – so too will be the churning waters of the harbour.

On Tuesday at the 101st PGA Championship, Brooks Koepka served Miyazaki beef imported from Japan, roasted Long Island duck and branzino filet for the main course at his PGA champions dinner.

Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan arrives in West Cork tomorrow as an estimated 7,000 film buffs are expected to flood into the scenic harbour town of Schull for the Fastnet Film Festival.

So many golfers have tried to take on Bethpage Black and been overwhelmed that in the early 1980s the park placed a famous sign behind the first tee that reads: “Warning: The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.”

After breaking through with Lost On You, singer LP has already sold out her Irish gig, writes Ellie O’Byrne.

Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan is West Cork-bound in a few weeks’ time for one of the country’s most unique film festivals.

Hollywood's Saoirse Ronan is West Cork-bound in a few weeks' time for one of the country's most unique film festivals.

Note to parents: allowing your child to eat an entire tube of Pringles before setting sail in ‘rough swells’ is never going to end well.

The charming village of Portmagee, Co Kerry, is known as the gateway to the Skellig islands and it hosts tens of thousands of people annually who take the 45-minute boat trip to the Unesco world heritage site.

At 76, Paul Simon may have just retired from touring, but he still burns with anger at the way the Trump camp is treating the environment, writes Andrew Arthur.

The lifeboat crew tried to free her with a rope, but that wasn't successful.

On Wednesday, Rory McIlroy spoke of how much fun he had prepping for the 118th US Open at courses such as National Golf Links of America, Friar’s Head Golf Club, and Garden City Golf Club.

When Rory McIlroy blew the lead and his chance to win his first major title at the 2011 Masters, he was so heartbroken that he ended up sobbing into the phone to his mother, convinced he’d let his one chance to win a major slip through his hands.

It’s a fair bet there hasn’t been a man wielding a sword in the parish hall in Schull in a while — but sure enough, there was yesterday.

Planning permission will be sought, this week, to redevelop a landmark building in a West Cork village, creating a home for an internationally successful film festival as final preparations are put in place for the event’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

David Puttnam, Jim Sheridan, and Lenny Abrahamson will be among the guests at this year’s 10th Fastnet Film Festival which will feature more than 400 screenings.

CELEBRATING a 40-year anniversary in a business is a great reason to celebrate, but in the case of chef, restaurateur and bar owner, Finín O’Sullivan, he’s using the occasion as a chance to retire, and bow out gracefully, having seen the East Cork town of Midleton come of age during his tenure at the famed Main Street premises.

Dan MacCarthy discusses Carthy’s Islands in Roaringwater Bay

A massive winter storm, dubbed a bomb cyclone, swept from the US East Coast on Thursday, dumping snow along the coast and bringing strong winds that will usher in possibly record-breaking cold.

US news host Charlie Rose is the latest public figure to be felled by sexual misconduct allegations.

The drivers of two commuter trains that slammed into New York City-area stations in separate incidents were both suffering from severe sleep apnoea, US investigators have found.

The victories keep piling up for Justin Thomas, and all that does is make him want more.

Fuel forecourt retailer Applegreen has said Ireland and Britain remain its key focus despite acquiring 42 new petrol stations and Burger King outlets in the US, a move that significantly ramps up its US operations.

THE winner of the 2014 European Book Prize, Hannah’s Dress might easily have been titled Pascale’s Address, as French writer and journalist Pascale Hugues observes a century of German history through the prism of the Berlin street where she has lived for 25 years.

The pilot of the blimp which crashed and burst into flames near the site of the US Open at Erin Hills had been involved in two previous emergency landings.

A whif of nostalgia, leather, and the odd plume of petrol were in the air when Jane McNamara attended the inaugural Cork International Car Show in the first weekend of April.

Two gang members who are in the US illegally held three teenage girls against their will in Houston, Texas, and killed one of them in a satanic ritual, authorities have said.

With the release of T2 Trainspotting later this week, Declan Burke selects a list of films he believes are superior to their literary source.

As 'Jackie' opens in cinemas, Ed Power looks at her love of and visits to Ireland.

Natalie Portman tells Helen Barlow about her Oscar-tipped role as Jackie Kennedy in the days after JFK was killed.

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

Oliver Stone’s new film aims to show the human side of CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden, writes Helen Barlow