Cadets at Virginia Military Institute pray before a foreign policy speech by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today. (Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED

#BUDGET 2013: Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said he is hopeful that a deal restructuring the government’s promissory note for Anglo Irish Bank may be reached in the coming weeks ahead of December’s Budget.

#ABUSE: Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby has said that a newspaper report that he was aware of a priest being moved to a new parish over child sex abuse allegations is untrue.

#ANGLO: Three former executives at Anglo Irish Bank – former CEO Seán Fitzpatrick, former finance director Willie McAteer, and former MD of Irish operations Patrick Whelan – have appeared in court today charged in connection with their role in giving loans to the Maple 10 in July 2008 in a bid to rally Anglo’s flailing share price. Here’s a video of Seán Fitzpatrick leaving the court today.

#REFERENDUM: Polling stations for the children’s rights referendum on 10 November will open from 9am instead of the usual 7am – a move the government says will save more than €600,000.

#NOBEL PRIZE: Two medical researchers, one from Britain and one from Japan, have won this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine for their work in cell programming, which may help to replace tissue for people with certain diseases.

#NOT SO MAGIC: The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has warned people not to eat mushrooms growing in the wild.

THINGS WE LOVED

• Irish graphic designer Meagan Hyland has created this series of posters with a different film for each letter of the alphabet and it’s the most impressive thing we’ve seen all day. See if you can guess the films before looking at the names. No cheating now.
• This completely out-of-context photo of Mitt Romney made us laugh:

(Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

• Brendan Grace and James Reilly – together at last. Evening Herald journalist Kevin Doyle tweeted this photograph earlier, saying “I swear we didn’t do this on purpose…”

(Via @KevDoyle_Herald)

THINGS WE SHARED

• What should I do if I left my shirt in a plate of lasagne? Don’t panic: Buzzfeed has the 17 best questions people have asked strangers on the internet.
• We can’t even guess how long this took to plan. The marching band from the Ohio State University put on this nerdily awesome video game-themed performance during halftime at a match on Saturday night. We particularly like their impression of Tetris:

Vide: handmrow gobucks/YouTube)

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