Love was clearly in the air at Ashford Castle in Mayo last weekend as Rory McIlroy wed his American fiancée Erica Stoll.

Chernobyl crusaders Adi Roche and Ali Hewson are taking several core donors who helped sustain their charity during the recession on a fact-finding mission to the nuclear disaster-affected region today.

Big matches often fail to live up to their billing, but Real Madrid and Barcelona produced a belter on Sunday night that genuinely deserved the title of El Clasico.

Dundalk 0 Cork City 3: Here at Oriel Park, on a balmy evening on the brink of the summer break, was a tantalising meeting between this season’s unstoppable force and the last three seasons’ immovable object.

Regardless of who wins the election today, the real winner in all of this has been the

Darragh Foley doesn’t hold particularly fond memories of his last championship meeting with the Dubs.

Former Louth manager Paddy Carr believes referee Brendan Gorman “lost control of everything towards the end” of the county’s remarkable qualifier defeat to Meath in 2002.

The case of Gerard Butler, who helped contain an incident that was never recorded, is the second in weeks on whistleblower treatment in the Prison Service, writes Michael Clifford

The hustings would be ‘like playing Galatasaray,’ reckoned Kerry TD Brendan Griffin. But the two leadership candidates addressed the fiery final meeting in Cork with low-key, measured addresses, writes Lise Hand

This morning, many United fans will be experiencing a facial expression they had almost forgotten they could enjoy. Step towards the mirror, lads, and feast upon The Smug Grin.

Miraculously, it has arrived, the watershed to transform our media landscape. Every gaffer in Irish sport is turning into Rafa Benitez, writes Larry Ryan.

OK, let’s put our cards on the table. We like Minis and dearly love some of them, but we do have certain reservations about the brand. Some of them are cutesy, some girly, some mad and some manly. However, none are cheap.

Twenty-one years ago Larry O’Gorman was Hurler of the Year. Now, he reflects on a life in the game, how precious his All-Ireland medal is, the second father Liam Griffin became, how hard it was to finally put down his hurley, and his central role in Wexford’s band of brothers

Simon McCrory is the captain of the Antrim hurling team, favourites to claim a 16th Ulster title in a row tomorrow against Armagh. McCrory works for the county board as a Hurling Development Officer in Belfast.

For Cork, this Munster minor quarter-final had dwarfed to a futile exercise long before the finish.

Fianna Fáil lashed out at the “shameful errors” of gardaí over the phantom breath tests and false traffic convictions scandals, but stopped short of calling for the resignation of Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

Ireland’s comprehensive 21-5 defeat to France at a rain-soaked UCD Bowl saw Tom Tierney’s side fail to qualify for the Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-finals last night.