AT the start last night, the talk was all about those who chose to stay away, from James McCarthy and Marc Wilson to the boycotting Northern Ireland fans to the many thousands of locals who found they had better things to be doing on a sunny evening in early summer than coming to the Aviva Stadium.

DANNY WELBECK scored a dramatic late equaliser to spare England a controversial but deserved defeat in their European U21 Championship opener against Spain.

HE’S been there too long to take anything for granted.

CHAMPIONS Roscommon eased to another Connacht final after crushing lacklustre Leitrim in this one- sided affair at Páirc Sean Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon yesterday.

CIT produced a marvellous second half to see off Imokilly in round three of the Cork SHC at Páirc Uí Rinn last night and in the process served notice that, at full strength, they could have a huge say in the destination of this year’s title.

A FEW weeks ago we had the US president here, Barack Obama, and he left us with a new catch-cry — Is Féidir Linn.

THIS opening round of the Garveys Kerry senior football championship at Caherciveen yesterday proved to be much closer than generally anticipated, despite the underdogs being limited by the loss of eight players.

LIMERICK boss Donal O’Grady has expressed ‘major concern’ at comments made by Waterford selector Pat Bennett relating to refereeing performances ahead of tomorrow’s Munster SHC semi-final between the counties.

Jonathan deBurca Butler gets a whistle-stop taste of a confident, vibrant, lived-in city with the ‘swagger of a matador ‘, before moving on to devour delightful Toledo, Seville and Cordoba

RESPECT, decency and kindness must be at the heart of any service provided to vulnerable people, Minister of State for Older People, Kathleen Lynch said yesterday.

WE have a great capacity to be outraged, to be angry and sad about terrible wrongs committed in our society. But we get over it quickly.

THE abuse of Ireland’s hidden citizens will continue to be repeated unless long-overdue whistle-blower legislation is immediately introduced.

THIS was the kind of night that could just give the meaningless end of season friendly a good name, as an Irish side which spent most of the 90 minutes defending as if for its very life, somehow ended up recording a memorable, if almost inexplicable, 2-0 win against Italy.

MARTIN SLUDDEN will have to wait to take charge of his first senior inter-county championship game since last July’s controversial Leinster final after the GAA announced a change to the referee arrangements for next Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final between Cavan and Donegal with Sligo whistler Marty Duffy now set to officiate the match.

ULSTER secretary Danny Murphy believes the new GAA playing rules committee must consider abolishing the square ball rule in open play for the betterment of Gaelic games and the benefit of referees following Sunday’s controversy.

IF Mark Twain truly believed that golf is a good walk spoiled, he obviously never set foot on the Old Head of Kinsale, a course in southwest Ireland cut from apromontory jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.

MONAGHAN boss Eamonn McEneaney is looking forward to the All-Ireland Qualifiers with a confidence that his young side can develop and mature along the way, and possibly enjoy an extended run this summer.

BEN O’CONNOR has made major contributions to Newtown hurling over the years but his latest at Mallow on Saturday night in the county senior championship was massive.