Tommy Barker gets with the system for this post-and-beam home on Compass Hill, above Kinsale harbour.

On the eve of Royal Ascot this year Sheikh Fahad Al Thani’s Qatar Racing did something that was quite extraordinary at Goffs’ London sale.

It is sad to see the GAA going to sell their soul to Sky Sports so they can milk Irish exiles.

Many people were waking up in fear of flooding this Christmas morning, as downpours of heavy rain continued to bring misery to parts of Britain.

British officers investigating the disappearance of April Jones have until this afternoon to question abduction suspect Mark Bridger.

DONNING his dad’s old Speedo togs, his swim hat, and wreathed in his memory, Ger Philpott will take a special plunge this weekend.

GLANCING back at the week at Cheltenham, you would have to accept there were two very big disappointments for me, Kauto Star in the Gold Cup yesterday and Master Minded in the Champion Chase.

BECAUSE EVERY reader of this column is an intelligent cosmopolitan with his or her finger on the zeitgeist, you are all no doubt aware that next week sees the release of the new movie in the multimedia phenomenon known as the Twilight series, New Moon.

THE EU is not a legal or corporate entity in its own right for it does not have legal personality.

The youngest daughter of the man accused of murdering 14-year-old Melissa Mahon has told a jury that he murdered the schoolgirl.

WILLIE MULLINS’ once-raced Carra Coranna can land the Bumper at Cork this afternoon.

JERED advertised his Smurfit Champion Hurdle credentials when outpointing Cork All Star in the Grade 3 Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle at Down Royal yesterday.

Owner Mark Bloomfield enjoyed a belated birthday present as Billion Dollar Kid scored first time out for Ron Harris in the toteswinger Brighton Rocket Handicap.

Meg Walsh's husband told gardaí a 'pack of lies' when they interviewed him about the murder of his wife, a garda witness has told a Central Criminal Court jury.

JESSICA HARRINGTON’S Give It Time, who won her maiden at Navan by 22 lengths, stepped up to Listed company in style when taking the Dawn Omega Milk EBF Mares Novice Hurdle at Limerick yesterday.

CONNA CASTLE, who lost his chance in the Galway Plate with a bad blunder at the ninth, got back on the winning trail in the Southampton Goodwill Chase at Listowel yesterday.

British Horseracing Board chairman Martin Broughton might have a few pressing business matters on his mind at the moment but he found the time to go to Huntingdon and watch Cruising River take the day’s biggest prize at odds of 25-1.

Paul Nolan is considering giving Irish Independent Arkle Trophy favourite Accordion Etoile a prep race in Ireland rather than returning to England ahead of the Cheltenham Festival.

The traditional swim in the River Lee in Cork made a comeback today thanks to the newly improved water quality.

AMID THE CHAOS, back on his favoured fast ground, can take the AIB Westport Beginners Chase at Ballinrobe this evening.

WHEN the grey uniforms appear on the streets of Rome, the citizens know the occasion is going to be a big one.

Martin Kelly

Trainer Michael O’Brien is eyeing a big-race double with Essex after the five-year-old justified favouritism in the Pierse Hurdle at Leopardstown yesterday.

A DECISION by the Office of Public Works (OPW) not to proceed with plans to alleviate flooding on one of the busiest roads in the South East has been branded “shortsighted” by a local city councillor.

HIGHLY-RATED Silk And Scarlet is a reasonably confident choice to take the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh tomorrow.

HIGHLY-RATED Silk And Scarlet is a reasonably confident choice to take the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh tomorrow.

PREPARE to be enchanted by Cregg Olympry, an early Georgian lodge dwelling on the River Blackwater in Cork, with dancer and impresario Michael Flatley a nearby river neighbour at Castle Hyde.

The floating “atomic bomb” freighter, under arrest in a Greek port with more than 600 tons of explosives on board was today reported to be Irish owned and was detained in a British harbour earlier this year.

Daredevil magician David Blaine today plunged 80ft into a pile of empty cardboard boxes and declared: ‘‘That hurt.’’

A four-year-old boy has died in Limerick Regional Hospital after falling into the River Shannon in Cloonlara in Co Clare this afternoon.