Apart from headliners, Primal Scream, Jake Bugg, Walking On Cars, La Galaxie and Kate Nash here’s who not to miss:

Few people know a thing about it but the brains behind the inaugural European Championships, starting this morning and continuing over the next 10 days in Glasgow and Berlin, plan to change all that.

The Hurling League final will be delayed by a week.

They stayed in their lanes, didn’t get disqualified, and at an event that threatened to descend into farce at one point, there’s something to be said for that.

Ciara Mageean will bid to become the first Irish woman to break two minutes for 800m when she lines out at the Morton Games in Dublin this evening.

Flagged as a great Irish middle-distance hope since winning silver at the World Youth Championships in 2009, Ciara Mageean has been hampered by severe injury. But the Portaferry native made good on her talent last July, with a 1,500m bronze medal at the European Championships in Amsterdam.

Irish athletics faces some challenges after a difficult European Indoor Championships in Belgrade but there were some green shoots with Ciara Neville gaining valuable experience at her first senior championship.

Bandon’s Phil Healy gets Irish interest underway at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade today and she, like the rest of the Irish team, will need to be at her best to advance past the first round.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.

Ciara Neville (Emerald) kept her cool to clinch gold after a poor start in the women’s 60m while Phil Healy (Bandon) secured the European standard for the 400m on a weekend full of back stories and close finishes at the Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships in Abbotstown, Dublin.

Ciara Neville’s life in the fast lane seemed to be running on fumes long before the Castletroy teenager had even gotten into top gear but a hard edge and support now sees her on the cusp of her first senior international championship.

Ciara Mageean couldn’t hide her disappointment after a fifth place finish in the women’s 1500m in 4:12.46 on an exciting night of athletics at the Athlone International Grand Prix. Athletics

Mark English will be the first Irish athlete to take to the track in the Olympic Stadium this afternoon, the 23-year-old getting his campaign under way in the sixth heat of the men’s 800m at 2:55pm Irish time.

Five years ago, Ciara Mageean had the world at her feet, her rivals in the rear-view mirror, and a bright future looming on the horizon.

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) v Kilmallock (Limerick)

Among the many newsletters I subscribe to — The New Taxidermy, The Modern Man’s Guide to Panache — is The New Yorker’s daily offering, which never fails to uplift, educate, and spell out the pressing concerns of the Manhattan middle class, writes Michael Moynihan.

Kilmallock broke a six-year hoodoo for Munster club hurling champions this afternoon when they easily overcame Portaferry of Down by 2-19 to 0-12 at Cusack Park in Mullingar.

AIB All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final: Kilmallock v Portaferry: This afternoon, Kilmallock, Limerick and Munster champions, take on Ulster kingpins Portaferry in the All-Ireland club hurling semi-final.

Portaferry manager Sean Young says Thurles is "absolutely not" a neutral venue for their All-Ireland club SHC semi-final against Kilmallock next month — but insists it won’t matter much to his players.

Down star Paul Braniff has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling and says the Hurling 2020 committee’s proposal to take the Christy Ring Cup final out of Croke Park does nothing for the game’s promotion.

Kilmallock boss Ger O’Loughlin said the Munster Club had been his aim with the Limerick side all year.

Belfast has avoided the serious flooding that many feared after a tidal surge came and went without breaching defences.

But for a mix-up, Sycerika McMahon could be in line to make a final at the swimming world championships in Barcelona next week.

Bord na Mona Kehoe Shield Final

James McCartan has been reappointed as Down senior football manager for 2013.

THE SWIMMER: Sycerika McMahon, 17

The trip to Laois and Offaly in three weeks will mark a historic first appearance for Ballincollig in Féile na nÓg, the national football festival for U14 players.

Her name means ‘Flame’ in Indian and Sycerika McMahon’s star is certainly burning bright after a week in which the teenager bagged Olympic qualification and a European silver medal.

TONY WATENE’S love affair with Gaelic Games began in an unconventional fashion.

THE busy South Cork guild at Innishannon got the past year off to an altruistic start with two whist card drives which raised proceeds for the Bandon Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber and Rehab.

A sailor has disappeared in the Irish Sea, the coastguard agency said this afternoon.

Down 2-11 Limerick 1-25, Portaferry

Down 2-11 Carlow 0-14, Portaferry

A 66-year-old man has been arrested today by police investigating the suspicious death of a 73-year-old woman in Co Down.

Police are treating the death of a 73-year-old woman in Co Down as suspicious.

CIARA MAGEEAN reaches a new level tonight in the New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Centre in New York.

HAD the Dublin footballers won last year’s All-Ireland title then virtually every county squad in the country would have been training this morning at 6.30am.

CIARA MAGEEAN will maintain her amazing momentum when she embarks on a busy indoor schedule that includes the Woodies DIY Irish senior championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on February 19-29.

A peregrine falcon was fatally injured by a shotgun blast in the latest in a series of attacks on birds of prey in the North, it emerged today.

There was plenty of county final action in Gaelic football and hurling yesterday, with nine finals down for decision - including six football deciders.

LAST year, Ciara Mageean (Assumption, Ballinahinch) took her career to a new level when she broke Sonia O’Sullivan’s long standing national junior 800m record at the Irish schools track and field championships.

Down 1-11 Laois 0-20

Ireland's Ciara Mageean won a silver medal in today's 800 metres final at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Sudtirol, Italy.

IRISH ATHLETICS legend Sonia O’Sullivan is set for an Olympic return – but not on the track.