“Don’t be afraid” were the last the poet ever used, sending them in a text message to his wife Marie from his hospital bed, just minutes before his death on Friday.

Family and friends of Nobel Laureate poet Seamus Heaney have gathered with his contemporaries and dignitaries to pay last respects to one Ireland’s literary greats.

A master poet and family man, a Nobel laureate and friend, a guest of royalty and farmer’s son, Seamus Heaney had a life which was a smooth blend of the ordinary and extraordinary.

The world-famous poet, Seamus Heaney who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, passed away today at 74 years of age.

Wet to the skin, cold to the bone, and saddle sore — the rain-drenched cyclists who rode The Glen to Glen Bike last Saturday will always remember the Downings GAA club in Donegal with fond affection.

As a rule, I don’t believe in harbouring regrets, but it’s a damned hard rule to follow.

I was told the story about the day Eddy Young (RIP) decided he was going to stop playing football around 25 years ago and it has remained lodged in my mind ever since.

So, I’m back at the keyboard and looking forward to another Championship season both on and off the field.

Kicking the ball.

ONE of the top IRA prisoners in the Maze during the hunger strike wanted John Hume to act as an intermediary to end the protest, state papers have revealed.

A woman was arrested today by detectives investigating the murder of a policeman who was blown up by dissident republicans earlier this year.

Detectives in the North are continuing to question five men over the murder of policeman Ronan Kerr, who was blown up by dissident republicans earlier this year.

FIVE men have been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of Catholic policeman Ronan Kerr who was blown up by dissident republicans in the North earlier this year.

Five men were arrested today by detectives investigating the murder of a policeman who was blown up by dissident republicans in the North earlier this year.

UNTIL this year, I had always believed that there were only two ways for a club to win a Championship.

A man was questioned today about the murder of a policeman in the North almost 30 years ago.

A POLICE investigation into a Catholic priest suspected of being involved in the 1972 Claudy bombing was stopped after senior officers conspired with the government and Church to protect him, a shock report has revealed.

The Claudy bombings of July 31, 1972, in which nine innocent people – five Catholics and four Protestants – were killed in Co Derry are now history, but they have an immediacy with the publication yesterday of the report of the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson.

A police investigation into a Catholic priest suspected over the 1972 Claudy bomb outrage was stopped after senior officers conspired with the British government and Catholic Church to protect him, a shock new report revealed today.

Two former security service members have been warned of an aborted murder bid against them by dissident republicans, it was revealed today.

A number of republicans in the North have been told their details are in the hands of unionist paramilitaries, it was claimed today.

A recently-formed hardline republican terror group in the North is becoming more dangerously active, security chiefs in were warned today.

A Sinn Féin Assemblyman quit today amid heightening tensions inside the party over policing.

A Sinn Féin Assembly member tonight became the second member of its Stormont team to step down after only serving one term.

A south Derry man was jailed for six years at Coventry Crown Court today for his part in a fuel-laundering scam.

A 30-year-old man was arrested today by police investigating a bomb find linked to dissident republicans in the North.

Sinn Féin demands for a devolved Northern government to run policing and justice are decorative, an SDLP rival claimed today.

Republicans were blamed today for attacking Orange Halls in south Derry.

Charles J Haughey’s political career stuttered at first with an embarrassing defeat in a by-election in the 1950s.

A man was arrested today in England for questioning about a murder in the North eight years ago.

WHEN the time came to end his eventful political career, Charles J Haughey quoted Shakespeare’s Othello: “I have done the state some service, and they know it. No more of that. I pray you.”

Patsy McGlone has been selected as the SDLP candidate for Mid Ulster in the forthcoming general election.

A bomb attack which damaged a van in Co Derry was not connected to the loyalist feud, police said today.

Preparations are underway for this year's Glasgowbury event in Draperstown, Co Derry.

The British government will be forced to have a Bloody Sunday-style public inquiry into the 1972 Claudy bombings, Democratic Unionist leader the Rev Ian Paisley predicted today.

Demands are being stepped up today for a judicial inquiry into astonishing police claims that the Government and the Catholic Church shielded a priest suspected of orchestrating a bombing outrage in Northern Ireland which killed nine people.

The British Government and the Catholic Church were involved in an astonishing cover-up to shield a priest suspected of heading-up the IRA team responsible for one of Northern Ireland’s worst ever bomb atrocities, police claimed today.

Jubilant scenes erupted today as thousands of Armagh fans gathered to greet their team after the historic All-Ireland football final victory.

Police in Northern Ireland were today investigating claims that Sinn Fein election posters in the Mid-Ulster area had been booby-trapped - just as party workers were taking them down following polling.