Yesterday was a sad day for Irish golf with the revelation from Rory McIlroy that he is considering representing Team GB in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

A man is recovering in hospital after being repeatedly stabbed in the North.

Vantage points were at top premium in Co Kerry as thousands of golf fans lined the fairways to cheer the homegrown heroes who have turned the island into one of the game’s more unlikely superpowers.

Police launched a murder inquiry today after a teenager was stabbed to death in a seaside town in the North.

MAURICE O’MEARA, named manager of the year at the Irish Golf Tour Operators Association (IGTOA) annual awards, is confident the ‘3’ Irish Open will return to Killarney next year.

BRITAIN’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last night pledged the North’s fragile political stability would not be put at risk by London’s massive spending cuts.

Executive decisions on how to bear the looming £2bn (€2.34bn) spending cuts will be the most difficult in living memory, Sammy Wilson will warn today.

THE GAA yesterday confirmed the new playing rules for all games at club and county level.

The Aviva Stadium may be just weeks away from completion, but the GAA seems determined to keep their headquarters, Croke Park, open for the hosting of rugby and soccer international matches.

History has been made at GAA Congress within the past hour, as the Gaelic Players Association has been given official recognition by the GAA.

Delegates to GAA Congress have voted on the remainder of the experimental playing rules this morning at Newcastle, Co Down.

VETERAN GAA administrator Seamas O’Brien of Waterford says clubs are losing their authority in the association, which he describes as a “very dangerous development”.

THE club official sponsoring the motion to make gum shields mandatory for underage players at Congress believes the introduction of the measure would curb the rising dental costs being incurred by claims made to the GAA.

THE club official responsible for the proposal to introduce match-specific bans at this weekend’s Congress believes there is nothing to gain by postponing the motion for a further 12 months.

THE GAA’s top administrator, Páraic Duffy, has declared his full backing for the provincial championships – as well as the All-Ireland qualifier series which has done so much to undermine them.

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has warned that inter-county teams will have to cut spending as he launched his annual report this morning.

The GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship may face its eighth change in 13 years if delegates at next month's GAA Congress in Newcastle, Co Down decide to overturn a vote taken at Special Congress last October.

THE ceasefire may have been announced last year but tangible evidence that the stand-off between the GAA and GPA is finally over arrived in Croke Park yesterday with news of the two bodies’ first joint venture.

One of the North’s longest serving MPs, Eddie McGrady of the nationalist SDLP, revealed he is standing down at the general election.

LEADING GAA officials have questioned the escalating costs involved with intercounty teams.

Stormont Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie was today elected as the new leader of the SDLP.

The SDLP will select a new party leader today after Mark Durkan stepped down following eight years in the post.

Mark Durkan steps down as the leader of the SDLP today after a decade at the helm.

A WATERFORD GAA club will submit a motion to Congress calling on Croke Park to host two non-GAA events on an annual basis from 2011 onwards in an effort to alleviate the financial burdens at grassroots level.

Westmeath GAA has been boosted with the news that the 2011 GAA Congress is set to take place in Mullingar it has been confirmed.

A proposal to proceed with the interim provisions of the GAA's agreement with the Gaelic Players' Association was approved by 39 votes to five earlier today.

GAA President Christy Cooney has outlined the reasons behind the decision to hold a Special Congress on October 10 at Croke Park.

The GAA has announced that it will hold a special congress on October 10 at Croke Park, with one of the motions on the agenda set to examine the structure of the senior hurling Championship.

Two men were arrested today during an attempted cash-in-transit robbery.

IF the twitter of the robin or the thrush’s song has been more vocal of late, that may not be so surprising.

Emergency services battling to contain flooding across the North are today braced for more downpours.

A 19-year-old man died in a car crash late last night on the Castlewellan Road near Newcastle, Co Down.

A report into Special Branch officers' involvement with a loyalist paramilitary gang by the North's Police Ombudsman will make uncomfortable reading, Northern Secretary Peter Hain admitted today.

A Northern Ireland man died from hospital-acquired infection including the MRSA superbug, a jury found today.

More than 1,000 witness statements have been taken during the investigation into the horrific murder of north Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin, it was confirmed today.

Police in the North may name and shame paramilitary groups whose members are involved in racist attacks, it emerged today.

YOUTHS who collided with a mother and her three children during a cross-Border stolen car rampage could easily have killed someone, police said yesterday.

An ex-soldier held for questioning about the murder of a baby girl at an Army camp in the North 40 years ago has been released.

The British government was warned today it faced widespread industrial action by public servants in Northern Ireland in resistence to reform initiatives.

A man appeared in court today charged with attempting to murder two people with a samurai sword in a seaside amusement arcade.

A man was charged with attempted murder tonight following a samurai sword attack at a seaside amusement arcade.

A man was slashed with a Samurai sword inside a seaside amusement arcade, police said today.

Gunmen who wounded four people in an early morning shooting in a seaside town in Northern Ireland carried out a reckless attack with little regard for local people, it was claimed today.

Four people were injured in a shooting attack in Northern Ireland, police said today.