Irish

Notre Dame All-America nose tackle Chris Zorich limped in pain yesterday from a knee injury that will keep him out of the Irish lineup for an indefinite period.The national championship hopes of Notre Dame, which moved up a notch in this week's Associated Press poll to No. 2 behind Virginia, may very well ride on how long the Irish defensive star will be missing.Irish coach Lou Holtz said on his television show Zorich may be lost for the season but team doctors said any long-term prognosis is uncertain at this point.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer can face Indiana today free from worries over his arrest last week on charges of public intoxication and disorderly conduct."

DUBLIN - As I drove my son to school yesterday, everybody was talking about the revelation that a trader at Allfirst had allegedly defrauded the company of $750 million, possibly more. Talking is one of the things you do when you're afraid. That fear exists here because Allfirst is owned by Allied Irish Banks PLC, and AIB branches are as ubiquitous here as Blockbuster Video stores are there. AIB is simply everywhere. And most of the money my wife and I have in the world is lodged in AIB vaults.

Reading Time: Two Minutes.Fodder for you Notre Dame bashers; yes, we know you're out there. The Fightin' Irish, we are informed by a computer said to be fair and impartial, possess only the 48th toughest schedule among the hundred or so Division I teams. The plain fact is the 11-game slate shouldn't be classified even that high. Check out this "travail:" Army, Navy and Air Force, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Boston College, Texas, Washington, Ohio State and Southern Cal.CAPTAIN BLIGH II: Football coach Dennis Erickson, never known as a stickler for things being done "according to Hoyle," particularly when he handled teams at Miami and Washington State, surprised many with the hefty fines ($1,000)

Freshman Robert Church took a pass in front of the net from Scott Perri with just 22 seconds left in overtime and scored the game-winner as host Drexel upset No. 4 Notre Dame, 7-6, Tuesday in Philadelphia. The Dragons (4-1) won their fourth straight and ended a 20-game regular-season winning streak for the Fighting Irish (3-1). The game was tight throughout with neither team leading by more than a goal. Notre Dame moved ahead 6-5 with 4:37 to play when Max Pfeifer scored his fourth goal of the game, but Drexel tied the score at 6-6 with 2:09 left to force overtime.

The genius of Irish artisans spanning three centuries -- at once sprightly, refined and heroic -- highlights "Irish Decorative Arts from the National Museum of Ireland," on display at the Walters Art Gallery through Oct. 28.The majority of the show's 82 pieces date from the 17th through the 19th centuries, a period in which Ireland's political fortunes waxed and waned as its government was gradually and implacably subsumed by the British crown. Nevertheless, Irish craftsmen of the era were at their zenith, producing many distinctive pieces of silver, ceramics, wooden furnishings, lace and glassware.

Just in case you want to keep track of which campaig promises Bill Clinton has kept and which he has not, the score card currently reads:Gays in the military: largely kept.Haitians getting to America: broken.Special envoy to Northern Ireland: still waiting.Special envoy to Northern Ireland? Where did that one come from? Has Northern Ireland been in the news lately?No, it has not. But Bill Clinton is never going to be allowed to forget his campaign promise on Northern Ireland and for one very good reason:Americans of Irish descent number about 44 million persons, making it our second-largest ethnic group.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- With 17 seconds left, a swarm of Boston College students stormed the field. They carried the school colors and a second mass attacked the goal posts."

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish government has decided to press for ending Ireland's constitutional ban on divorce in a national referendum later this year, officials have announced.If the government campaign succeeds, it will mean that overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland, the only European Union country that prohibits divorce, would permit it. Removing the ban would also make it possible for the thousands of Irish who have obtained foreign divorces to remarry in this country.Officials and proponents of allowing divorce, while careful not to predict victory in the referendum, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of November, said that several serious obstacles to their campaign had been overcome in recent days.

A Long Long Way By Sebastian Barry. Viking. 287 pages. $24.95. He was born in the dying days." That is how Irish novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry introduces Willie Dunne, the hero of his latest work of fiction, A Long Long Way, and it does not take long to discover just how bloody the life and times of Barry's Dublin-born character will prove. The year of Willie's birth is 1896. That means he will turn 18 in 1914, just in time to enlist in the British army and become prime fodder for the global conflagration of World War I. It also means that by the time he turns 20, in 1916, the Irish Nationalist Party's increasingly militant call for Home Rule will have become the dominant voice in Dublin.