Fee-charging schools have warned that further cuts to their funding in next month’s budget will cost the taxpayer money.

It was another day soundtracked by Irish celebrations at the Cheltenham Festival in the Cotswolds yesterday but one coveted title was wrested back from the raiders by the natives.

Euphoric scenes on the streets of John Joe Nevin’s hometown of Mullingar were marred by allegations of discrimination against Travellers yesterday.

A gambler would surely have been given long odds for a fashion stakes double so it was hats off yesterday to Margaret Connolly from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, who was judged best dressed lady at Cheltenham, having emerged equally triumphant in a similar competition at Leopardstown less than a month ago.

It’s been a grim week for the Irish at Cheltenham so far but not for Margaret Connolly who yesterday came up trumps with a most unexpected double on Ladies’ Day.

FOUNDED in 1268, the Franciscan Abbey at Multyfarnham had a long and somewhat bloody history, but managed to survive the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Penal Laws and the Famine, to continue into the 21st century as a school and training college.

A man has drowned in a boating accident in Co Westmeath.

A boy, aged 13, has died after being crushed in a freak building site accident on Sunday afternoon.

IT APPEARS as if The AAI are likely to agree to Martin McCarthy’s who asked expressed the desire request to be entered in both the short and long course races at the world cross-country championships in Lausanne at the end of the month.