Forget the existential challenge of watching a 2018 game in 2017, and disregard the bone-chilling rain, writes Michael Moynihan

Our 12.5% corporate tax rate is no longer the big clincher it once was as rivals shrink their rates and the US attempts to lure back multinationals with tax incentives, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Beyond the Christmas pudding, every intercounty hurling team now faces a fresh season and fresh challenges. What new year resolutions do they need to make?

Croke Park will surely be filled with a very different type of atmosphere next Sunday afternoon than the peaceful holiness brought by Pope Francis last weekend.

The player

It was Declan Hannon who said it, sitting in the victors’ banquet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in front of him: ‘We’ve all marched behind the band out the back garden when we were four, five, six years of age.’

The colour starts south of the border.

tSé mo laoch mo ghile mear

It is unfair to blame the Pope for the historical treatment of children in all Western societies, writes Victoria White

Fresh from the Department of No Further Ado, the end of season hurling awards. Often copied but never equalled, the jury (Michael Moynihan, alone) has reported in.

I’m so pleased for Limerick.

From precision preparation to puckout strategies, John Kiely’s Limerick has got virtually everything right this summer - but Galway will win, writes Tony Browne.

The minister for health, Simon Harris, published a strategy document — a 10-year plan to reform the health service — last week. 

There’s something about the 1930s that sets it apart in the history of hurling, writes Paul Rouse

When first asked to write a column for this paper, the esteemed sports editor gave me three guidelines: Write clearly; be informative; and stay impartial, writes Jack Anderson 

Sport is about results.

Football’s back! Which, incidentally, is something you only say if you enjoy deliberately trolling League of Ireland fans.

I was in a bar down the road from Fitzgerald Stadium before the Kerry-Kildare game last Saturday. The volume on the TV was turned up as the Irish women’s hockey team began their second penalty shoot-out of the tournament for a place in the final of the World Cup.