A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Friday, killing at least 80 people, and injuring nearly 1,000 in Turkey and Greece. The earthquake caused the most damage in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, with a population of nearly 3 million people. So far, there have been 79 deaths reported in Turkey and more than 100 people have been rescued alive from fallen debris, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday. Responding to the destruction from the quake, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said 26 badly damaged buildings would be demolished in Izmir. “It’s not the earthquake that kills but buildings,” he said. An elderly man was pulled alive from the…

Some of the managers in this year’s top flight. Source: Inpho DUBLIN AND WEXFORD have been the surprise packages of the Allianz Hurling League so far, going unbeaten in the opening three rounds of action. Cork have responded well to their 2021 All-Ireland final hammering, winning every game so far. Their form was crowned by a nine-point defeat of Limerick last Sunday, where they had powered 14 points clear by half-time. John Kiely’s men have lost a trio of successive games, prompting questions about how seriously they are taking the competition. Henry Shefflin’s tenure in Galway has been a mixed bag so far and the same could be said of…

IT WAS AFTER her club defeated Slaughtneil in the 2020 All-Ireland camogie club semi-final that Stacey Kehoe could see a hectic schedule of events coming down the line. The concluding stages of that competition was delayed until the end of last year due to the Covid pandemic. There was also a high-profile fight to protect the All-Ireland series from being dropped that season. The affected club teams rejoiced at the decision to proceed, but for Kehoe, it would be a tight squeeze to the finish line. Her husband-to-be was waiting for her at the altar in the Ballagh Church on Friday, 17 December, and Sarsfields of Galway were waiting for…

CORK CAMOGIE HAS announced a new three-year sponsorship deal with Kearys Motor Group. Laura Treacy, Amy Lee and Amy O’Connor. Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO Cork lost last year’s All-Ireland senior final against Galway but enjoyed recent O’Duffy Cup triumphs in 2014, ’15, ’17 and ’18. Advertisement The new sponsorship deal will cover the Cork senior, intermediate, minor and U16 teams for the next three years, along with getting involved with the U16 and U14 local club championships. Cork were previously sponsored by Blackbee and have a new manager in charge for the 2022 season in Matthew Twomey, he succeeded Paudie Murray, with Clare All-Ireland winner Davy Fitzgerald coming on board in…

WICKLOW ARE SEARCHING for a new senior football manager after Colin Kelly has departed ‘due to a change in work commitments’. The announcement was made this evening by the Wicklow county board as they now embark on the search for a successor. Kelly was appointed last October, filling the vacancy created by the August departure of Davy Burke, the Kildare native who had been in charge for the previous two seasons.  Wicklow are currently bottom of Division 3 of the football league after losing to Westmeath, Antrim and Limerick, last Saturday, while they drew with Fermanagh. Advertisement Their next game is at home to Laois on 13 March, while their…

SARSFIELDS PLAYER LAURA Ward believes the integration of the Camogie Association with the GAA would be a major benefit in securing appropriate pitches for championship games. Sarsfields player Laura Ward. Source: Sam Barnes/SPORTSFILE Ward will line out for the Galway club in next Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland senior final against Oulart-the-Ballagh of Wexford in Croke Park. They will be playing in the best stadium in the country this weekend but Ward has plenty past experience of uncertainty surrounding the staging of their fixtures. “It’d be absolutely unbelievable to have everything under the one umbrella, mostly for pitches. Camogie seems to struggle to get pitches. At least if we have full power…

JAMES O’CONNOR HAS joined the Midleton set-up as coach for the 2022 season.  The Waterford native brought Ballyhale Shamrocks to the All-Ireland club decider where they lost in heartbreaking fashion to Ballygunner in Croke Park. He led them to two Kilkenny titles and a Leinster crown during his two-year spell with the Kilkenny kingpins.  Advertisement O’Connor stepped down as Ballyhale boss following that defeat and will form part of manager Steve Kane’s backroom team with Midleton. The Lismore clubman previously enjoyed success as manager of Carrigtwohill and Fr. O’Neills in the Rebel County. He’ll effectively replace former Cork captain Ben O’Connor, who departed as coach following Midleton’s Munster semi-final loss…

Ardscoil Rís, Limerick 1-18 Presentation College, Athenry 1-12 John Fallon reports from Dangan ARDSCOIL RÍS FROM Limerick finished strongly to book an All-Ireland post-primary schools senior hurling semi-final date with Good Counsel of New Ross next weekend after this hard-fought win at Dangan in Galway. The sides were level four times in the second-half but the Limerick school came good and reeled off six points without reply to advance after a good contest in front of a big crowd at the NUI Galway complex. The original clash between these two sides was abandoned last Saturday week when a Presentation College player suffered a serious head injury in an accidental collision.…

THE GAA HAVE confirmed the fixture details for five football league games that were postponed last weekend due to the stormy weather conditions. The fixtures have been pencilled in for next weekend 5-6 March, where there was a gap in the football league calendar, but means a hectic month of action is on the cards for the counties involved. Saturday’s fixtures will see Westmeath play Longford and Fermanagh take on Laois in Division 3, the quartet currently filling the positions of fourth to seventh in that division. On Sunday, Galway will aim to boost their promotion prospects in Division 2 after three successive wins when they host an Offaly team…

DESSIE FARRELL REMAINS fully confident in Dublin’s ability to arrest their slide and turn the season around following their fourth defeat on the bounce. The All-Ireland winning player and manager is enduring the most difficult period of his reign since replacing Jim Gavin at the end of 2019. Their winless start to the league arrives on the back of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final reverse to Mayo, meaning they’ve incredibly lost five competitive games in succession.  Farrell identified injuries to key players and a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal as the key reasons for Dublin’s recent poor run of results, but backed his team to respond in the right…