Former referee Mark Halsey has been berated by Graham Poll for “betraying” his fellow officials — and accused of wearing a Bolton kit with his own squad number to training sessions.

The GAA will next month embark on a six-week blitz of the 32 counties to educate Gaelic football referees on the forthcoming black card rule.

Teething problems were always likely when La Liga’s big two began the season with new coaches, but even by La Liga standards Barcelona’s Gerardo Martino and Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti have had eventful first 100 days in charge.

Man City 3 Everton 1

Glenealy, bidding for a fourth Wicklow SHC title in-a-row, were taken to extra-time by Carnew before carving out a narrow 2-16 to 1-15 victory in their semi-final replay at Aughrim yesterday.

Wexford TD Mick Wallace has spoken of how he and Dublin North TD Clare Daly paid a visit to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly 14 months.

All eyes will be on Thomond Park this evening when Leinster face Munster in the blue riband event of Irish rugby. But with referee Romain Poite in the middle is it likely to be a contest of 15 against 15 for the full 80 minutes?

Around 7pm last Saturday night, Darach Honan was on the flat of his back on a field in Dublin, looking up at the sky, or what he could see of it above the Croke Park floodlights.

THE whistleblower’s lot can be lonely. Remember Sheena McMahon? She was a young mother, who, in the mid-1990s, told of madness in sections of the gardaí in Donegal.

Corofin 1-12 Milltown 1-09

Ballymartle 2-12 Blackrock 0-17

Youghal 1-18 Tracton 1-16

In the postprandial glow of an intoxicating All-Ireland final, Liam Sheedy’s tongue loosened. “We seen professional guys on Friday night trying to kick a ball around the Aviva…”

WE ARE driving to Páirc Uí Rinn to see a lad we know play in a Cork under-21’s football final.

A packed courtroom yesterday erupted into laughter after ‘Guantanamo Granny’ — 79-year-old anti-war activist Margaretta Darcy — blew a whistle and declared: “I am a whistleblower”.

As Mayo manager James Horan anticipated, Joe McQuillan has been appointed to referee Sunday week’s All-Ireland football final.

“They are enthusiasmus,” protested Giovanni Trapattoni before the start, falling back on his favourite word, one more time.

In truth, the obituaries could have been written once the whistle went in Astana. The sombre atmosphere before kick-off in Vienna was unmistakable and the defeat was, in reality, merely an additional detail.

JIMMY Barry-Murphy was his usual composed self at the final whistle in Croke Park tonight.

At the start of the hurling season, this reporter met Conor O’Sullivan for a chat and the talk turned to DVDs he’d seen (the Sars man thought Argo a better flick than Skyfall, for instance).