First Sunday in September and Kilkenny’s hurlers win the All-Ireland. Nothing to see here, move along, as you were.

Andy Lee believes if he holds onto his belt, that a fight with middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin is inevitable.

A man is due in court in Kilkenny this morning charged in connection with the seizure of over half a million euro worth of cocaine.

A man is due in court this morning after a major drugs and firearms seizure in Dublin.

An eight-strong Ireland team has been named for the 2014 European Union Men’s Elite Championships in Bulgaria which starts on Friday.

A woman in her late 60's has died after her car hit a railway bridge near Paulstown in Co Kilkenny.

Even among all the Olympians and multiple champions one man stood out at this year’s Elite Boxing Championships in the National Stadium — Wexford’s Adam Nolan.

A full programme in the National Stadium last night, 17 semi-final bouts in the penultimate weekend of the 2013 National Elite Championships.

You don’t have to spend a sleigh-load of money to visit a Christmas market. Continental-style chalets are popping up all over Ireland. Pól Ó Conghaile picks some of the best

The David Wachman trained Aloof, whose two previous career successes were achieved on Dundalk’s polytrack surface, proved a shock 12/1 winner of the Denny Cordell-Lavarack & Lanwades Stud Fillies Stakes in Gowran Park yesterday.

Missunited is the nap choice to land a fascinating Slan Abhaile Race at the final stage of the Listowel festival this afternoon.

Adam Nolan maintained the momentum at the ExCel last night when he outpointed Carlos Sanchez (Ecuador) 14-8 to get his Olympic experience off to a perfect start.

Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes is through to his second Olympic Games and vowed to come back with a medal of “a better colour”, after defeating Stefan Caslarov (Romania) 17-9 in yesterday’s quarter-finals on a memorable day at the qualifiers in Trabzon where welterweight Adam Nolan and heavyweight Tommy McCarthy also kept their hopes alive with big wins.

Joe Ward retained his title and may have ended the career of one of Irish boxing’s legends when he out-pointed Kenny Egan by a massive score of 29-10 to retain his light heavyweight title at the Elite Senior Championships fought before a full house at the National Stadium last night.

KENNY EGAN kept his Olympic dream alive with an emphatic victory over fellow Dubliner Michael Frayne (St. Mary’s) in the Elite Boxing Championship quarter-finals at the National Stadium on Saturday night.

KATIE TAYLOR hammered home her third win in three days yesterday to progress to tomorrow’s semi-finals at the 8th European Women’s Championships in Rotterdam.

THE Irish boxers head into the second and final week of the world boxing championships in Baku with nine members of the 10-man team still standing and the prospect of Olympic qualification looming midweek.

HAPPY couple Gráinne Howley and Matthew Donnellan had an extra special wedding day at the weekend after the Golden Pages provided €30,000 to cover their nuptials.

WHEN the high octane meeting of the IABA’s Boxing Council ended on Saturday at the National Stadium one was left wondering how the paranoia had been allowed to fester during the previous week’s tournament in Dublin.

THE Boxing Council of the IABA will meet at 11am today to select a team for the World Championships while the boxers settle into their training camp in Assisi alongside Olympic hopefuls from Italy, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.

THIS may have been a box-off to select the team for the world championships and the first opportunity to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games but none of the recent medallists were in sight when the tournament got under way last night at the National Stadium.

IRELAND’S Elite boxing team will be taking home at least two bronze medals from the European Championships following quarter-final wins for former and current AIBA World Youth champions Joe Ward and Ray Moylette in Ankara, Turkey yesterday.

MAGICAL MEMOIR can prove the bet of the weekend in the www.gowranpark.ie Hurdle at the Kilkenny track tomorrow.

THE Irish boxing team will leave for the European Championships in Ankara this weekend with just two medallists from last year’s record-breaking haul of five making the trip.

WORLD Youth champion Joe Ward, Darren O’Neill, John Joe Nevin and Con Sheehan all advanced to today’s finals at the Feliks Stamm Multi-Nations tournament following semi-final wins yesterday.

ROSS HICKEY, who won a national senior title at lightweight back in 2008, launched his campaign at light-welter at last night’s national elite championships at the National Stadium with victory over Crumlin’s Stephen Carroll.

DARREN O’NEILL has dreamed about boxing in the Olympics for a long time and his dream turned to frustration in 2008 when he watched Kenneth Egan being awarded his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Gardaí are at the scene of a serious road accident in Co Carlow that happened at around 7.30am this morning.

The man who was killed in a road crash in Co Mayo yesterday has been named as 61-year-old Peter Meenan from Ballyhaunis.

IRELAND’S boxing team at the European senior championships in Moscow have already secured three bronze medals – at least – after the first quarter-final session in which Olympic silver medallist, Kenneth Egan, middleweight Darren O’Neill and Donegal debutant, Tyrone McCullough, all recorded big wins.

IRELAND will have four boxers fighting for medals at the European senior boxing championships in Moscow today after another sensational day at the Ice Palace.

JOHN JOE JOYCE (St Michael’s, Athy) was celebrating his move up to welterweight with another national title at the National Stadium last night but the defending champion, Willie McLaughlin (Illies GG, Donegal), was scratching his head on the wrong side of a 12-9 verdict.

TWO years ago Kenneth Egan was at a crossroads in his boxing career after a disappointing performance at the world championships in Chicago while qualification for the Olympics still eluded him.

GARDA Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said yesterday officers were taking seriously a claim by dissident republicans they were involved in the murder of Cork criminal Gerard Staunton.

JOHN JOE NEVIN and Katie Taylor completed a fantastic season by claiming the top awards at the IABA Annual Awards ceremony at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin last night.

THE boxing world and Irish sport was in shock last night by the news of the tragic death of Olympic bronze medallist, Darren Sutherland.

THERE will be three Irish boxers in action in the quarter-finals of the world championships in Milan this afternoon after Darren O’Neill and Declan Geraghty exited the tournament last night.

JOHN JOE NEVIN, Darren O’Neill and Eric Donovan all won their contests on what was an brilliant day for Irish boxers at the world championships in Milan yesterday.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association have confirmed an 11-man squad for next month's 2009 AIBA World Senior Championships in Milan, Italy.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE set up what promises to be an enthralling quarter-final with the Olympic champion, Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine), with a resounding 12-3 victory over Englishman Joe Murray at the European Senior Boxing Championships in Liverpool yesterday.

DARREN O’NEILL has stepped up his preparations as he bids for a place in the Irish team for the European boxing championships following the news that the trials will start on October 3.

KENNETH EGAN will meet Xiaoping Zhang of China in the light heavyweight boxing final tomorrow (8.50am), when he hopes to emulate fellow Dubliner, Michael Carruth, by winning the Olympic gold medal.