Think you know everything about the Emerald Isle? Think again! Here are 10 facts that just might throw you for a loop.

His late Dad may have made a peace of sorts with his beloved Catholic Church by admitting to Pope Benedict XVI that "I am not a perfect man," but Sen. Edward Kennedy's youngest son is beating the war drums.

Sean O'Shea: The soft side of gruff and tough Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis has been revealed. Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewings sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer in May and Weis coach of BC's arch rival was first to reach out.

An overweight Irish woman, fed up with her full figure, lost weight and then came to a New York plastic surgeon to put the finishing touches on her new self.

Five swine flu victims have died in the Irish Republic since cases of the illness emerged in May.

The family of Michael O'Dwyer, the Irishman shot dead by police in Bolivia in April, are calling for an International investigation into the death of their loved one.

Ronan Keating and the rest of the surviving members of Irish boy band Boyzone will bring Stephen Gately’s body home to Ireland, it was confirmed today.

Boyzone member Stephen Gately’s funeral will take place in Dublin on Saturday, and his famous friends are expected to fly into Ireland to pay their respects.

Spanish authorities now say a mystery heart problem killed former Boyzone star Stephen Gately. Gately, who died on vacation in Majorca at the weekend, died from pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid on the lungs.

Even Bill O'Reilly may be starting to think Glenn Beck has gone too far on swine flu. Beck has been claiming that the Obama administration has been hyping the risks of swine flu and he is threatening to hold a "swine flu party" where he and others will expose themselves to the virus to prove it is all a fake.

Irish writer Cecelia Ahern, the daughter of former Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, thought she was pregnant with twins until recently.

Lindsay Lohan's father Michael is set on doing a Sopranos-type intervention on his troubled daughter for her alleged addiction to prescription drugs. The Sopranos series from Fundraiser for stricken Kerry Family

A fundraiser will be held for the son and granddaughter of a Co. Kerry couple living in Massachusetts at the Kerry Hall in Yonkers on Saturday, October 18. Tena and Jimmy Maunsell have five children, all living beside them in Medford, Massachusetts. The Maunsells, who have worked hard through the years to provide for their children, have a daughter who was born with cystic fibrosis and is currently rejecting a double lung transplant she received many years ago.

Michael Lohan has revealed that he fears prescription drugs are killing his daughter. Lindsay Lohan’s semi-estranged father blames her downward spiral – professionally and personally – is due to the drugs she’s on.

A Donegal storeowner and cigarette company Philip Morris are filing suit against the Irish government at the High Court on Tuesday against the administration's ban on cigarette displays in stores.

News from the 32: Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

An Irish tourist has been seriously injured in a shooting accident at a Florida gun range. Gary, Flynn, 29, was shot in the throat and shoulder after a gun went off in the adjacent stall at the Saddle Creek Shooting Range in

Dublin native and Australian Rules football legend Jim Stynes has revealed that three tumors have been discovered in his brain.

Big-hearted Irish actor Colin Farrell will headline an event in Chicago this weekend to help raise money for children with Angelman Syndrome. Farrell's son James, who celebrated his sixth birthday in September, was born with Angelman Syndrome and will need lifelong care. Farrell has said he is honored to be helping out the gala event which will take place at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Easy! Just ask Gavin Friday who plays there Sunday with U2, Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Scarlett Johansson. It's all part of a charity gig to raise money to fight AIDS.

Colin Farrell’s new movie “Triage” will open this year’s Rome International Film Festival (RIFF) on October 15.

Niall Heraty is just like every other 11-year-old. He adores the Yankees, he plays a mean game of basketball, and he loves more than anything to wind his older brother, Conor, and his younger brother, Ryan, up. However, Niall, son of Julie and Vinny Heraty, natives of Westport, Co. Mayo, hasn’t had the time or energy to enjoy such activities since March. Niall has a rare cancerous tumor and is currently undergoing rigorous treatment to rid his young body of the disease.

Maureen O’Hara has had three bouts of cancer and has diabetes, but at 89 years young her smile is still bright and she keeps on keeping on, and does do with that smile that made her a silver screen siren.

President Barack Obama's Irish American ancestors were pioneers in 19th century health care reform. Film-maker and historian Gabriel Murray, who found Barack Obama’s great-grand uncle's tomb in Kikenny, Ireland, uncovered the surprise links while he was researching his new documentary, “Obama’s Irish Roots” (visit www.olympia-films.co.uk for more information).

An American tourist died after falling on Skellig Michael in County Kerry on Sunday. The 57-year-old woman fell while walking with her husband on the island.

A 21-year-old Irish woman has died from swine flu while on holiday in Spain. Richie, a hairdresser, from the Four Winds area of south Belfast, died after becoming ill on holiday. She had been diagnosed with pneumonia and swine

Some of the pigs in a 5,000-porker Northern Ireland pig farm have been coughing. You'll never guess what the diagnosis is. Yes, it's swine flu, and health authorities are trying to figure how they became the latest animal victims of the famous virus named after them.

Irish man Vince Keane from Ballyhaunis County Mayo is helping U.S. President Barack Obama to try and overhaul the health care system in the

Given that his music career is on the downturn, Jim Corr, he of the photogenic Irish sibling band The Corrs, has clearly got a lot of time on his hands. Actually, you might say that Jim has moved from his native County Louth to Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Rose McGowan has revealed that part of her elbow had to be taken out after she suffered from nerve damage after performing stunts for her upcoming film “Red Sonja.”

She may have a bold, in-your-face sense of humor, but Irish-American comedian Kathy Griffin wasn’t always so confident. When Griffin began her career in L.A., she was extremely insecure about her body, and went to great extremes to obtain the thin, perfectly sculpted Hollywood look.

Misha Barton says it was a bungled wisdom tooth procedure that caused her to be admitted into a psychiatric hospital last month.

"Most Holy Father I asked President Obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me, and I am so deeply grateful to him. I hope this letter finds you in good health."

Richard Egan, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland and billionaire businessman, killed himself with a shotgun blast at his Boston residence on Friday. He was 73 and the founder of EMC, a multimillion dollar corporation.

Cahir O'Doherty: While Ted Kennedy’s passing is being mourned by the nation, there’s real anxiety in the gay and lesbian community about who — and whether — anyone of his stature will come along to replace him. Real heroes are hard to find.

So Rush Limbaugh is patting himself on the back because Ted Kennedy died as he predicted before health care legislation will be passed. Now he is predicting that Kennedy's death will be used to pass health care reform. Maybe he needs another Vicodin — or ten — to calm down.

Dublin is set for a wheel good time today after cycling ace Lance Armstrong invited Irish fans to join him on a cycle ride in Dublin's Phoenix Park. Armstrong, 37, posted a message on his Twitter page today saying he would be setting off from the traffic circle at Fountain Road and Chesterfield Avenue at 5.30 p.m. Irish time.

A massive row has blown up over health care in Britain after a London hospital flatly denied a life-saving liver transplant to a young man from Northern Ireland. Gareth Anderson, 19, from Newtownards in County Down, suffered acute liver failure two weeks ago after a weekend drinking binge.

The second person to die from swine flu in Ireland was an Allied Irish Bank (AIB) employee who had no underlying medical condition before catching the H1N1 virus.

The recently discovered mass grave of Irish railroad workers in Pennsylvania — at first believed to have been victims of a cholera outbreak — has taken a far-darker turn: Investigators at the site, known as Duffy's Cut, told IrishCentral that at least two of the skulls they have unearthed were found to have had blunt-force trauma inflicted on them at the time of death.

Reports have surfaced that Colin Farrell is expecting his second child with girlfriend Alicja Bachleda-Curus. The 26-year-old Polish actress, who co-stars with Farrell in the upcoming Neil Jordan-directed Irish film “Ondine,” was photographed at an airport sporting a large baby bump.

Irish women recently named Colin Farrell as their top choice for father of their children, and now, thanks to an L.A. sperm bank, they just might get that. California Cryobank is offering up “celebrity sperm” – sort of.

Tributes have poured in from Ireland after the passing of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of JFK and founder of the Special Olympics movement.

The stark reality of what faces Ireland was felt this week with the closure of a Gaelic language school in Donegal as several students were exposed to the swine flu virus and Ireland's first swine flu fatality.

Former Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald has been quarantined in a swine flu scare in France. FitzGerald is one of about 20 Irish people who have been quarantined at a French chateau as authorities try to clamp down on the swine flu virus.

A young Irish woman died on Friday from human swine flu at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin. The woman, who is from the west of Ireland, is said to have had an underlying medical condition, which attributed to her death.

The bodies of 57 Irish immigrants who were left for dead in an unmarked mass grave outside Philadelphia may finally be buried in Ireland. “We hope to find every piece of these men's history, recover it and return them home," said Lutheran pastor Frank Watson working on the mass grave known as Duffy's Cut. Watson has been working with his brother William and a team of archeologists at Duffy's Cut in Malvern, PA, to try and discover what happened to the men in 1832.

Irish American Senator Christopher Dodd, 65, has been diagnosed with cancer. Dodd, (D-CT) has been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and will have surgery in early August. However, the senator was upbeat and said his prognosis is good and that he plans to run again next year for a possible sixth

News / Ireland on major alert as second person dies from swine flu / Click here News / Ireland bracing for 1m cases / Click here How H1N1 spreads Coughs and sneezes or by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching the nose or mouth. Symptoms Symptoms are similar to those of seasonal flu, and may include any or all of the following fever sneezes sore throat coughs headache muscle or joint

The town of Carrick-on-Shannon was left reeling in shock after the suicide of a retired detectvie at the local station on Saturday.