On a recent trip to Northern Ireland, I was blown away by the explosion of artisan food and drink producers.

Tractor tyres, lobster pots and plastic bottles have been cleaned off the beaches of Northern Ireland's most famous coastline.

Angling can make you a happier, healthier person. Helen O’Callaghan looks at the benefits of getting into a river and reconnecting with nature

Last Monday, as I left the house for a late night walk, a hundred or more woodlice were climbing the walls outside my front door. 

In the darkening evening, I passed a skeletal wood in which the only tree that still wore its crown was a solitary Scots Pine; how it found its way there, amidst beeches and sycamores, I couldn’t guess.

I WENT down to the village shop the other day to buy mousetraps but they had sold out.

THERE’S good news on the wildlife front; BirdWatch Ireland has announced that terns nested very successfully on the east coast this summer. The numbers breeding ‘are at an all-time high’, says tern expert Dr Steve Newton.

Ten sailors have been injured after a regatta in the North was hit by a squall.

Up to 80 dinghys have capsized on Strangford Lough in Co Down.

Ox Belfast, 1 Oxford St, Belfast; +44 28 9031 4121; oxbelfast.com

Strangford Lough sailor Robbie Gilmore held his series long form at the ISA Youth Nationals on Lough Derg yesterday to win the Laser Radial class despite a late run from the defending champion.

Carlow’s Finn Lynch delivered the best Irish result in the competition’s 41 years when he won silver at the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in Dublin Bay yesterday.

Ireland’s second ever medal at the Youth Sailing World Championships could be won this afternoon on home waters when Ben Lynch races in the Laser Radial Boys’ class at midday.

Patrick Crosbie and Grattan Roberts sealed their place in the Irish Sailing Association squad for this Summer’s ISAF Youth World Championships, sponsored by Four Star Pizza, after they placed best of the home fleet in the 420 class national championship at the weekend.

An engineer on a cargo ship is feared drowned after going missing in the Irish Sea.

The red carpet has been rolled out as Northern Ireland welcomed home Oscar-winning director Terry George.

The red carpet has been rolled out as Down welcomed home Oscar-winning director Terry George.

A farmer’s son found murdered on a rural country road was blasted repeatedly with a shotgun, it emerged tonight.

A man found shot dead in a car in the North may have been the victim of a fall-out among criminals, it emerged today.

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.

ANGLERS are being asked to take part in a project which aims to piece together the life story of the fascinating sea trout, a fish about which not that much is known.

Two men and two children were rescued from Strangford Lough in Co Down today after their dinghy capsized.

A man has been rescued from Strangford Lough in Co. Down this morning after his boat began taking in water.

IT’S changing-of-the-guard time on the Dublin coast this month.

Two people have been rescued from Strangford Lough in Co Down after their vessel became stranded overnight.

The North’s potential to produce green energy from offshore wind and tidal power took an important step forward today.

An innovative tidal power turbine in the North has been damaged, its owner said today.

The first electricity obtained from tidal power in the world has been put on to the national grid in the North, managers of the project said today.

A 35-year-old man is dead following a drowning accident in Strangford Lough in Co Down.

Testing on a potentially groundbreaking new technology in power generation is getting underway today in Strangford Lough.

Three young people have been rescued from Strangford Lough in Co Down.

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

The British National Trust has warned that rising sea levels and stormy weather may damage the Giant's Causeway in Co Antrim.

More than 20 kayakers are recovering after being rescued when they got into difficulty in Strangford Lough in the North this afternoon.

A husband and wife are recovering after they were rescued by a lifeboat from Strangford Lough in the North last night.

Children were accused today of deliberately starting a forest fire in a forest park.

THE Wild Geese left Ireland to enlist in foreign armies after the wars of the 1690s.

FROM comments about the Nuala O’Loan report one would think that collusion between the RUC and murderers was a particularly British phenomenon in which the police essentially gave a licence to an informant to murder people and engage in criminal activity as part of his supposed cover.

A search was resuming of Strangford Lough today after reports of a body in the water.

A businessman who ploughed up part of an internationally protected nature reserve in Northern Ireland was fined £3,000 (€4,379) today.

Research into the next generation of “green” electricity generation is to be carried out in the North, it was announced today.

A businessman whose tractors ripped up an internationally-protected nature reserve declared tonight: “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

An internationally-protected nature reserve in the North has been seriously damaged by men using the area to prepare for a ploughing contest.