After seeing housing costs jump by more than 50% in the past five years, officials in Barcelona are moving to introduce Spain’s most aggressive rent controls.

Spanish Wine Week is just finished but I couldn’t help giving over another column to the region’s wines.

This week I’m focusing on Garnacha/Grenache, arguably the most important grape in France and Spain yet also a grape that is less known than it should be given that it only occasionally appears on wine labels.

As I write this the weather has turned remarkably mild so I’ve abandoned my original topic of winter warming wines in favour of good value wines suitable for parties — parties can happen in good and bad weather after all. Christmas seems to start earlier and get more expensive every year so in the coming weeks I’ll try to keep value as much in mind as much as quality.

Mount Juliet’s Gavin Moynihan remained on course to regain his card as Tramore’s Robin Dawson and Ardglass’ Cormac Sharvin kept their hopes alive with sub-70 scores in the third round of the European Tour Qualifying School Final Stage in Spain.

I wrote last week about the fact that Ireland is by far the most expensive place to buy wine in the EU with over 50% of a wine that costs €10 going to the government.

Easter is almost upon us and many of us will be preparing traditional roast lamb.

Gavin Moynihan didn’t want to watch.

Gavin Moynihan is challenging for overall victory, but Derry’s Ruaidhri McGee still has a chance of winning his European Tour card after he sensationally rattled in seven birdies in his last eight holes to make the cut at the nerve-shredding Qualifying School in Spain.

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has described the imprisonment of several of his former Cabinet members in a probe over the region's push for independence as "a serious mistake".

Ireland has been used as a transit base to smuggle at least 6,000 Ukrainians into Britain over the past two years, according to Spanish police who have smashed a gang which supplied them with fake Polish passports.

Headfort’s Brian Casey is the only Irishman inside the qualifying places after a disastrous third day for the green army at the Second Stage of the Qualifying School in Spain.

West Waterford’s Gary Hurley fired five birdies in an opening 68 to get his qualifying bid off to a positive start in the 72-hole European Tour Qualifying School Second Stage in Spain.

Only a couple of weeks to Budget 2015 and still time to contact Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, to encourage him to give small wine importers and wine shops a break by reducing our criminally high wine taxes.

Michael McGeady maintained his run of consistency yesterday to sweep into the final qualifying school of the European Tour and to move closer to a full Tour card.

Ruaidhrí McGee and Kevin Phelan are one step away from securing a European Tour card after both qualified from second stage events in Spain.

Donegal’s Ruaidhri McGee is on the verge of progressing through to the final European Tour Qualifying School event next weekend after another superb round at Las Colinas in Spain.

Mark Murphy’s Q School dreams were shattered yesterday after he sustained a nasty injury competing at the Las Colinas course.

Fourteen Irish golfers begin the second stage of the European Tour qualifying school at four venues throughout Spain today.

THREE people arrested in Spain in connection with the kidnap of a five-year- old boy in Pakistan will appear in court today.

A STRING of beaches have been closed in Spain after a shark attacked a schoolgirl.

SPAIN’S worst drought in decades has forced the city of Barcelona to begin shipping in drinking water in an unprecedented effort to avoid restrictions before the holiday season.

A ship loaded with drinking water has docked in Barcelona as part of an unprecedented emergency plan to alleviate a drought triggered by rock-bottom rainfall.

RYANAIR is hoping to open up to four new hubs across Europe by summer of next year.

BIOLOGISTS caught a 2m shark that had become a tourist attraction by making daily incursions into knee-high water on a Spanish beach, wrestling it with their bare hands and dragging it ashore.

Eidur Gudjohnsen’s father and agent insists he has had no contact with Manchester United regarding a move to Old Trafford and claims his son is keen to prove himself at Barcelona.

Spanish fishermen blocked ports and fish markets in several parts of Spain for a second consecutive day today, keeping up protests against fuel prices.

A SUSPECTED al-Qaida cell leader was convicted yesterday of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the September 11 attacks in the United States, concluding Europe’s biggest trial of alleged members of the terrorist group.

A suspected al-Qaida cell leader was today convicted of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the September 11 attacks in the United States and sentenced to 15 years in jail by a Spanish court, while two other suspects were acquitted.

A prime suspect in last year’s train bombings in Madrid took the stand today at the trial of 24 suspected al-Qaida members and denied he had anything but a business relationship with their accused leader, who allegedly helped plot the September 11 attacks in the US

Five Spanish holiday beaches on the Costa Dorada were evacuated today after a bomb warning was received, possibly from Basque terrorists, authorities said.

A CONTROVERSIAL Spanish judge yesterday opened the way to put Osama bin Laden on trial for the September 11 terror attacks.

A controversial Spanish judge today opened the way to put Osama bin Laden on trial for the September 11 terror attacks.

At least 19 Spanish pensioners were killed today and another 14 injured after a bus crash near the southern city of Huelva.