I HAVE just returned from a very wet and windy trip to southern Spain. The weather was so unexpectedly grey that we found ourselves indoors more than we intended. There was an up-side, we used the time to visit some wonderfully aromatic sherry bodegas, if I closed my eyes I felt as if I were sinking into a trifle.

Having previously completed his own scouting mission to the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar, Mick McCarthy had already given us the heads-up on the little ground’s unique location, squeezed in, he said, between the Rock and the airport.

More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for a two-year-old boy who fell into a narrow and deep well.

Sergio Garcia has continued his love affair with Real Club Valderrama.

If Ireland’s players required a warning against complacency ahead of this Saturday’s NatWest 6 Nations opener in Paris, then forwards coach Simon Easterby is happy to provide a reminder of the dire consequences that greeted such thoughts on this weekend a year ago.

James Cronin was the lucky recipient of a trip to Spain yesterday after an injury to Munster team-mate Dave Kilcoyne ruled him out of Ireland’s Six Nations warm-weather training camp.

Ireland’s women have been dealt a reasonably favourable pool in the women’s World Cup next July with their date with India looking to be the crucial one if they are to make the knock-out phases.

Emergency services in southern Spain are fighting a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of 400 residents from seven towns in the province of Seville.

Update 2.15pm: A German writer detained in Spain on a Turkish warrant has been released from jail, according to a German news agency.

A baby dolphin, which was stranded by itself near a packed beach off the coast of southern Spain, has died after tourists surrounded it to take selfies with it.

William Crozier may have been born in Scotland, but the late artist spent many happy years in West Cork. Tina Darb O’Sullivan previews a major exhibition of his work in Skibbereen

Spanish authorities are hopeful that dropping temperatures and favourable winds will help firefighters battling to extinguish a major forest fire on the fringes of one of Europe's most celebrated conservation wetlands.

It was great to go home to Waterford for a couple of days before heading to Spain for this week’s Nations Cup. I came home for my Grandad’s year Mass and to see my family before a busy couple of weeks on the golf course.

Junior Minister John Halligan is due to be married to his long-term partner in Cork next week.

An Irish adventurer dubbed the ‘lawnmower man’ has become the first person to fly from Ireland to Africa by paramotor.

Gardaí have pledged further joint operations with foreign police after hailing the seizures and arrest made in yesterday’s co-ordinated raids as very significant.

From unknown actor to best-selling novelist, Jessie Burton is still coming to terms with fame, she tells Hannah Stephenson

Londoner Joanne Connor may sell her holiday home in southern Spain as a falling currency drives up the cost in pounds of her household bills and mortgage payments following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

An experimental solar-powered plane has landed in Spain, completing an unprecedented, three-day flight across the Atlantic in the latest leg of its globe-circling journey.

There was a time not so long ago when Hyundai’s marketing thrust here in Ireland was based on the premise that the Korean marque was ‘Ireland’s fastest growing car brand’ and a very neat little tag line it was, adding weight and substance to otherwise bland advertising.

In this week’s Q&A, Kehlan talks with Conor Hyde from Hyde Whiskey. Hyde Whiskey recently won Best Irish Whiskey in the World at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirit Awards. Conor talks about what takes to win such an award and the journey they’ve been on to get where they are now.

Our vineyards could be producing vintage wines but we won’t be able to grow a spud. Sean O’Riordan talks to climate change experts about the difficulties facing future generations

Thousands of householders will have to abandon coastal communities as sea levels rise, with Irish scientists now working on a “managed retreat” rather than a chaotic stream of climate refugees fleeing inland.

The Monte Toledo oil tanker covered the uneventful voyage from Iran to Europe with a haul of one million barrels of crude in just 17 days, but its journey has been four years in the making.

Ray Ryan recalls an incident 50 years ago when a suspicious device was found washed up on a beach in Ballycotton. Had the Cold War’s reach finally found its way to Ireland?

Reports that a dissident group claimed responsibility for last Friday’s military-style assault at a Dublin hotel have been greeted with a mixture of uncertainty, scepticism, and concern.

The audacity of the assassins who murdered David Byrne, 32, a member of an Irish-led crime cartel based in southern Spain, in a northside Dublin hotel during a weigh-in for a boxing match last week, was as breathtaking as it was challenging. It also raises fears about the likelihood of a resurgence in gangland tit-for-tat murders.

Gardaí predict that a powerful criminal outfit will seek revenge for the gangland murder of Gary Hutch in southern Spain on Thursday.

France awards Legion d’honneur as father denies gunman is terrorist.

The father of a young British woman killed after hitting a bridge while bungee jumping in Spain has described her as “sweet, caring, bubbly and focused”.

A Spanish mobile booking company with two Irishmen at the helm has been accepted into one of the most prestigious accelerator programmes in the US, just months after landing a major new investment.

Broadcaster and psychoanalyst, Michael Murphy, will bring his evening of reflection: ‘Stories, Poetry and Dreams to the Triskel, Christchurch next week and ahead of the event, Colette Sheridan talks to him about his work, his books and his outlo.

A Briton has been arrested in Spain for allegedly killing a German man he caught filming his young daughter with an iPad.