IT was third time lucky for the footballers of Kerry as they finally overcame their neighbours and old rivals Cork to secure a place in the All-Ireland senior football final.

THE PGA Championship week could hardly have opened on a brighter note for Lee Westwood.

ARDFINNAN produced a tremendous display of passion, pride and no little football at Cashel to take the Tipperary SFC title for the first time in 31 years.

BLESS them Father for they have sinned. The boys in blue have blown the whistle on the Office of Public Works (OPW) after it took it upon itself to act as religious police.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell must be the first politician ever in the history of the State to have issued an apology with a shelf life shorter than the lifespan of a mayfly, and that’s usually a single day.

A FIRST-EVER Cork county senior hurling semi-final appearance for Cloyne this Sunday is ironic — given that Christy Ring, the man with the most senior county championships ever in Cork (ever was, ever will be), was a native.

Diarmuid O'Flynn meets Liam Doyle, the Clare wing-back, and Michael Cleary a sharp-shooting wing-forward for Tipperary.

Limerick 4-24 Kerry 0-2

IN 1989, Buck Shelford’s World Cup-winning All Blacks rolled into town and our rugby lives changed forever.

PAUL O’CONNOR is out of the St Brendan’s side for Easter Monday’s Corn Uí Mhuirí final replay against CSN.

TOUGH new measures going though the Dáil cannot be used to punish AIB for overcharging its customers €20 million on their foreign exchange transactions.

Borders 15 Ulster 19

THERE was one moment less than ten minutes from the end of the affair in Croke Park yesterday when even the great stadium appeared to take a deep breath.

Scotland 1 Romania 2

SEAMUS MOYNIHAN and Declan O’Sullivan are confident of being fit for Kerry’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final on August 14.

WITH Tana Umaga sitting out Saturday’s game, all Irish eyes are now likely to focus on Keven Mealamu, but the All Black hooker is relishing the prospect of running out at Lansdowne Road to what will probably be a hostile reception.

ASK an actor about the difference between a Monday night audience and a Saturday night audience.

THOUSANDS of anti-war protesters cheered last night as an effigy of President George W Bush was toppled as part of a huge demonstration against his controversial visit to Britain.

The football landscape, like its political counterpart, is changing rapidly in Iraq since the fall of Saddam earlier this year. Erik Kirschbaum reports from Baghdad.