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/ 24 September 2006
Although American Stewart Cink won the first point in the last-day singles, holders Europe were cruising to Ryder Cup victory at the K Club on Sunday. Colin Montgomerie beat David Toms one up in the top match to maintain his remarkable eight-match unbeaten singles record in the biennial competition and stretch Europe’s lead to 11-7.
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/ 23 September 2006
Europe, inspired by an irrepressible Sergio Garcia and a hole-in-one from Paul Casey, charged into a 10-6 lead over the United States on Saturday. Garcia made it four wins from four matches this week and a remarkable eight out of eight in his foursomes career when he and Luke Donald eased past Phil Mickelson and David Toms 2 & 1 at the K Club.
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/ 23 September 2006
World number one Tiger Woods lost his second successive match as holders Europe grabbed a 7,5-3,5 lead after three of the four morning fourballs of the Ryder Cup on Saturday. Woods was well below his best on Friday and again sprayed the ball all over the K Club course on the second day as he and Jim Furyk were beaten 3 & 2 by wildcards Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.
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/ 22 September 2006
Tiger Woods again struggled to transfer his imperious tournament form into the team test of the Ryder Cup on Friday, but this time managed to emerge with a point from the opening fourballs match. In the previous three Ryder Cups the world number one had lost in opening pairs play but stopped the rot on Friday when he partnered Jim Furyk.
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/ 21 September 2006
He’s made all the right noises and done all the proper things — all that’s left now for Tiger Woods is to deliver when it matters most at the Ryder Cup. The world’s foremost golfer clearly wants to erase the one blemish he has on his peerless track record and he has decided that now is the time and the K-Club outside Dublin is the place to do it.
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/ 20 September 2006
A disgruntled Tiger Woods has lashed out at a pornographic website for publishing false links to his Swedish wife Elin, a former model. ”It’s unacceptable and I don’t want it to detract from this event,” the American world number one told a news conference on Wednesday in the build-up to this week’s Ryder Cup at the K Club in County Kildare.
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/ 20 September 2006
Fears that the 36th Ryder Cup could be disrupted by bad weather mounted on Wednesday when gale force winds forced organisers to close the K Club course to spectators and non-essential staff. Both the European and United States teams were forced to remain in their locker rooms as practice rounds scheduled for the morning were postponed.
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/ 19 September 2006
Ian Woosnam gave a first hint of his Ryder Cup thinking on Tuesday morning at the K-Club when he sent out his six pairings for the first fourballs practice session. Woosnam teamed up veteran Colin Montgomerie with Englishman David Howell in his first group, allying the Scot’s huge experience in the competition with the Englishman’s fine recent form.
Two Irishmen who stole a fishing trawler after missing their ferry had to be rescued off the British coast where they were going in circles because they did not know how to sail. After hours at sea, the men called what they thought was the Irish coastguard for help.
Intel unveiled a plant on Thursday that manufactures the semiconductor company’s newest 65-nanometer chips, an industry-leading technology that allows computers to work faster using less energy. The plant, which began production three months ago, joins similar facilities in the United States in making Intel’s most efficient microprocessor.
Charles Haughey, who served three terms as Ireland’s prime minister, died on Tuesday at his home in Dublin after a long battle with cancer, the government said. He was 80. ”It is a very sad occasion, and marks the passing of an era,” said Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
Rural Ireland is fighting the growing trend for tourists to spend long weekends in Dublin with a plan to woo visitors to the Emerald Isle’s hidden gems. "There is a European trend for mini-breaks of three or four days. In our country, this favours the cities, like Dublin, Cork or Galway," said Damian O’Brien, in charge of developing cultural tourism in Ireland.
John McGahern, widely praised as Ireland’s greatest living novelist, who specialised in semi-autobiographical portraits of rural life, died on Thursday in a Dublin hospital after a long battle with cancer, his family and friends said. He was 71. McGahern published six novels, four collections of short stories and, last year, his non-fiction Memoir.
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/ 22 December 2005
Four years after Ireland adopted the euro, up to 60 people a day are still turning up at the central bank in Dublin to offload their old punts — many with some peculiar explanations. ”There are still a lot of people finding hoards of old money, but the amounts are getting smaller,” a central bank spokesperson said on Thursday.
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/ 4 December 2005
George Best’s son Calum thanked the ”amazing” people of Northern Ireland, returning the warmth shown to his football legend father during an emotionally-charged funeral for the province’s sporting idol. The 24-year-old said he had been greatly moved and strengthened by the tens of thousands of mourners who packed the rain-soaked streets of Belfast.
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/ 20 November 2005
Australia coach Eddie Jones said that some harsh words spoken at half-time had sparked his side into a revival that saw them end a run of seven straight defeats by beating Ireland 30-14 in Dublin on Saturday. Jones, for whom the pressure on his job will now be slightly lessened, said that he, captain George Gregan and the vice-captains had had words with the rest of the team after going into the break 6-3 down.
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/ 18 November 2005
Roy Keane was sacked by Manchester United after being barred from playing for the club’s reserves on Thursday evening, according to reports emanating from his home town of Cork after the official announcement of his departure from the club. United issued a statement on Friday claiming that Keane was leaving by mutual consent.
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/ 17 November 2005
New Zealand were chosen by the International Rugby Board as hosts for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in Dublin on Thursday. New Zealand edged out Japan after South Africa was voted out in the first round. The result was never expected as SA, along with Japan, had been considered clear favourites to go head-to-head in the final round for the right to stage the rugby showpiece.
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/ 17 November 2005
International rugby officials have a choice between traditional strongholds and a new Asian frontier when they select the host country on Thursday for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. South Africa, New Zealand and Japan are the candidates to stage the sport’s seventh world championship.
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/ 16 November 2005
Rugby will be faced with a stark choice on Thursday when the vote takes place for the 2011 World Cup host. Does it try to breach new boundaries in choosing Japan or does it stay with the establishment — as it has done since the inaugural tournament in 1987 — and elect either South Africa or New Zealand as host nation?
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/ 7 November 2005
Ireland’s obsession with the cellphone has sunk to new depths with a growing number of people now taking them with them to the grave, according to undertakers on Monday. Ireland has a tradition of people being buried with some of their most treasured possessions alongside them in the coffin.
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/ 21 September 2005
With the excitement mounting ahead of Ireland’s Gaelic football final this weekend, one man has enlisted some extra supporters to back his favourite team — the animals on his farm. He has painted 30 ducks, 10 sheep, two cows, three goats and several geese in Kerry’s green-and-gold colours.
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/ 8 September 2005
A brilliant goal by Thierry Henry gave 1998 World Cup winners France a vital 1-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Wednesday in their 2006 World Cup qualifier and left the Irish with a mountain to climb. Henry’s goal gave France their first-ever World Cup qualifier victory in the Irish capital.
It is the unluckiest city in Ireland. While everywhere else was riding the economic boom, poor old Limerick, dubbed ”stab city” by a local judge, was best known for drugs, guns and murderous gangland family feuds. Then Frank McCourt came along with his memoir Angela’s Ashes, for ever associating the place with consumptive children sent hungry to bed dreaming of a crust of bread.
The legendary luck of the Irish was true for once when a local lottery player scooped a record jackpot of more than €115-million (R916-million), the Irish national lottery said on Saturday. The jackpot had not been won since May and had been rolled over nine times before Friday night’s draw.
Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, which has produced a long line of geniuses from Sean O’Casey to Brian Friel, does not put on an annual Christmas pantomine. But if it did produce a raucous show of punch-ups, mishaps and double entendre, nothing could match the excruciating farce that continues to unfold backstage.
The Netherlands claimed the final qualifying place at the 2007 Cricket World Cup on Monday as they trounced the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 145 runs in the International Cricket Council Trophy fifth-place play-off. Bermuda, Canada, hosts Ireland and Scotland have already qualified from this tournament.
An Irish fisherman hooked more than he bargained for when a suspiciously heavy catch turned out to be a large package of cannabis, part of a submerged haul worth €400 000 (R3,1-million). Police said on Tuesday they are investigating the origin of the drugs haul.
Five Belfast sisters campaigning against the Irish Republican Army’s killing of their brother traveled on Tuesday to Brussels to lobby European Union leaders for help. The McCartney sisters say the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party are covering up their members’ involvement in the January 30 attack on their brother, Robert.
Leaders of the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) political wing head to St Patrick’s Day events in the United States this week battered by a furore over IRA crime, shut out of talks in Washington and banned from its annual fund-raising drive among Irish-Americans. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been omitted from official events hosted by US President George Bush.
Three years after Ireland adopted the euro, up to 130 people a day are still turning up at Central Bank headquarters in Dublin to turn their old Irish punts into the single European currency. ”There is still about 310-million punts’ [R2,9-billion] worth of old money outstanding,” a Central Bank spokesperson said.
A judicial inquiry reported on Thursday that members of the Garda — Ireland’s police force — planted hoax Irish Republican Army weapons and bomb-making equipment in county Donegal in the northwest of the country during 1993 and 1994 in an effort to boost their chances of promotion.