Turf Club engaged in firefight in Pyromaniac case

The four traditional Irish Classics are done and dusted, Galway looms large on the horizon. Next week is one of two in the year when racing affairs spill over from the sports section to colonise the news pages of Ireland's press.

For Cheltenham in March, the accent is on the Irish 'invasion', the annual Anglo-Irish jumps joust, a heady atmosphere in which, it is assumed, Irish punters rally behind the raiders in a spirit of hopeful patriotism rather than rational analysis. Next week at Galway the colour writers will concentrate on sideshow aspects, sightings of politicians, the style of the ladies, references to the 'craic' and to the night before in the crowded pubs and streets of Ireland's most vibrant city, inpermanent fiesta through a summer of cultural festivals.

Writers will recall the days when the Galway skies were black with helicopters, and the movers and shakers of Irish business and industry rubbed shoulders with the politicians in what ultimately became associated with the worst excesses of the Celtic Tiger era.