EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of all the day’s main news as well as the bits and pieces that you may have missed.
- Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is set to meet and shake hands with Queen Elizabeth II when she visits the North next Wednesday. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said that the meeting, which will take place behind closed doors, will cause difficulties for republicans.
- Ulster Bank has said that it has located the technical glitch which meant customers were unable to receive payments into their accounts. It’s promising to have branches open on Saturday and Sunday and says it will be fully operational by Monday.
- Leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy have agreed to lobby for a €130 billion economic stimulus plan at next week’s summit of EU leaders. Meanwhile the EIB president has said that he would like to sort out Ireland’s infrastructural problems.
- The first US church official has been convicted of a crime in relation to handling child sex abuse allegations.
- The man who went on a rampage through Cork city and at Cork Airport has been found guilty of 12 charges relating to the incident. RTÉ reports that Edmond Stapleton’s defence team had argued that he was insane on the day, but the prosecution said that he was under the influence of drugs.
- The number of Dublin Bikes is set to triple from 500 to 1,500 by Christmas according to Dublin’s Lord Mayor Andrew Montague. He made the announcement on his final official in office.
- Ireland’s first openly gay mayor was elected today at Fingal County Council today.
- The trial of U2 star Adam Clayton’s former assistant continued at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, where the bassist denied that money lodged to Karen Hawkins’ bank account was spent on him. The Irish Times reports that Clayton said that Hawkins was using his money to pay her bills. It’s alleged she took almost €3 million.
- A performance group who displayed their mini drones at an event in the Science Gallery in Dublin last night were held and questioned under shedule 7 of the terrorist act in the UK when they arrived at a London airport earlier, because of the equipment they were carrying.
- Have you seen the patronising science video of the day yet? Here you go.
- The Isle of Wight festival? More like the Isle of Wet festival. The event has fallen foul of the bad weather with acres of mud, traffic problems and sinking tents. These lads are making the most of it though:

Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
- Westlife are taking to the stage (and the stools) at Croke Park this evening for the first of two farewell concerts. Try to hold it together as you peruse this gallery of their 14 years together.
- Remember this horrible video from yesterday’s Daily Fix, which depicted a group of middle school children in New York taunting a bus monitor? The good news is that the fundraising page set up for Karen H Klein is now up to $530,000 and local residents have been speaking their mind:









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