A planning accolade awarded to Derry is deserved recognition for efforts to regenerate and reunify the city, the organisers have said.

Stepping out of Central Station, Belfast, at about 7pm on the Saturday before last, I saw, at the end of the street, a murmuration of starlings wheeling about the sky.

The idea of reviving the Irish language as the first language of the Irish nation was always delusional, writes Victoria White.

Did you see it? Are we all temporarily blinded from stealing sneaky glances at the sun even though we weren’t supposed too?

A ferry business move from one far-flung island corner of Ireland to the other brings the country’s most southerly pub and restaurant up for sale, on a hugely-popular tourist island, with a €250,000 asking price.

David Kenefick delivered on his goal of improving on his rookie year in the gruelling Solitaire du Figaro single-handed event yesterday when he crossed the finishing of the final stage of the event in 20th place.

The sound of grinding teeth could almost be heard along the west coast over the past 24 hours as the fleet in the Round Ireland Race battled light winds that has upturned the standings in the 704-mile event.

A small island off the north coast of Ireland has emerged as an unlikely potential supplier of edible seaweed to Japan – a country whose own stocks have been hit by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

WE’VE gone crazy for seaweed in recent times; I’ve woken up to phenomenal variety of sea vegetables around our coast.

Viking warriors are set to come to Ireland next year, but according to the Danish ambassador they will be on their best behaviour this time.

A stone mason was being questioned tonight about the suspicious deaths of three former girlfriends in a rural town in Northern Ireland.

LAST month, I visited Rathlin Island, off the Antrim coast.

The first finishers in the 704-mile Round Ireland Race could reach the Wicklow Sailing Club finishing-line as early as this evening, provided winds on the Irish Sea remain steady.

The All-Ireland Club championship is a far more even competition than its inter-county counterpart.

A world renowned surfer is planning a marathon challenge with a difference - paddling from the north coast of Ireland to Scotland.

BOBBY Ahern, Kinsale, Co. Cork won the Dr. A.E.J. Went 2011 Engraved Plaque for his 1.93 kg. Gilthead Bream caught at Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork on 3rd September last.

EXPLORATION firm, Providence Resources has increased its equity stake in the Barryroe well, off the Cork coast in the Celtic Sea, to 80%.

PROVIDENCE Resour-ces chief executive Tony O’Reilly Jnr has said that “the time has come” for Ireland’s hydrocarbon potential to be realised.

TRY, try and try again goes the legend of Robert the Bruce, the persistence of a spider in his hideout cave at Rathlin Island persuading the Scottish lord to go back and have one last lash at gaining the throne, which of course he succeeded in doing.

THERE’S an interesting paper on eider ducks in the current edition of Irish Birds.

A man whose body was recovered from the sea off the Co Antrim coast had lived on Rathlin Island.

A body has been recovered by rescue teams searching for a man believed to have fallen overboard from his boat.

A major search operation has been launched this evening after a boat was spotted drifting with no one in it.

A passenger train was hit by a falling tree in high winds near Belfast today.

SATURDAY

THE planned development of an addiction treatment centre on a remote part of the rugged Rathlin Island, off the coast of Co Antrim, will be a case of bringing it all back home to her father’s birthplace for one of Ireland’s top performers.

THE decision by Enniscorthy Town Council to approve the erection of a memorial in the town to commemorate the Edentubber Martyrs is a courageous one which I support.

WHAT’S the betting that former Government minster, now bookmaker and broadcaster, Ivan Yates completes a cross-border radio link, for family and old times sake?

A new policy by the North's Executive to protect the way of life on Rathlin Island while promoting its viability and sustainability was unveiled today.

An electricity ’super grid’ could extend the potential for renewable energy from green sources right across Europe, it was claimed today.

Three people have been rescued in the North after their boat got into difficulty in a harbour in Co. Antrim.

Two divers have been rescued off the Co Antrim coast.

Ireland missed an opportunity after failing to invest properly in wind energy, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said today.

The stranded Portrush lifeboat was pulled off the rocks on Rathlin Island today.

Salvage experts were today set to launch a bid to recover a stranded lifeboat from rocks off the Antrim coast.

A RNLI lifeboat driven on to rocks on an island off the North's coast during a rescue attempt in raging seas has suffered serious and extensive damage of its hull, it was confirmed today.

Storm force winds and high waves have forced an end to another attempt to refloat the Portrush Lifeboat stranded on rocks off Rathlin Island in Co Antrim.

Rough seas and warnings of 70mph gales later this afternoon has delayed new attempts to re-float the Portrush Lifeboat which is stranded on rocks at Rathlin Island

Attempts to free stranded lifeboat the ’Katie Hannan’ which is stuck on rocks on Rathlin Island have been called off tonight.

The Portrush RNLI all-weather lifeboat was left stranded on rocks at Rathlin Island off the North’s coast last night after attempting to rescue three people whose boat was perilously close to rocks.