Over a period of five days, ten students at Coláiste Dhulaigh in Dublin created a life-size living willow sculpture in their school garden as part of a  JCSP cross curricular art and literacy project. Amazing. (Image: Coláiste Dhulaigh)

HERE ARE THE things we learned, loved and shared today as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#ULSTER BANK: The British government is reportedly considering asking Ireland to buy Ulster Bank, in a move that would see the UK Treasury give up ownership in exchange for the British loans currently held by Nama. Ulster Bank is currently owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, which itself is majority owned by the British taxpayer following a series of recapitalisations in 2008 and 2009.

#TV LICENCE: Almost 11,500 people have appeared in court last year over non-payment of their TV licence. The number of people taken to court for not paying the €160 television licence fee has doubled since 2008.

#COLORADO: The main suspect in last year’s shootings at a Colorado cinema has entered a plea of not guilty, by reason of insanity. James Holmes is accused of shooting dead 12 people and wounding 70 more in a theatre in Aurora, at a midnight premiere screening of the Batman film ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ last July.

#PISTORIUS: South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius was back in court this morning for a pre-trial hearing, the first time he has returned to court since being released on bail over the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The case has been adjourned until 19 August following agreement between the prosecution and the defence.

#FLOODS: Floodwaters that have killed at least 10 people across Europe have peaked in Prague and are now heading towards Germany, according to officials. The floods have deluged the Czech capital’s historic centre, shuttering businesses and forcing a chaotic nighttime evacuation of the city’s zoo.

#TURKEY: After five days of anti-protests in Turkey, two people are dead and an all-out strike has been called by public sector workers to protest against the police crackdown on demonstrators. The Turkey’s Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions said the police crackdown showed the Islamist-rooted government’s “enmity to democracy”. Explainer: What is going on in Turkey?

Indians wait at a bus stop in front of an advertisement for the city of Delhi in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

THINGS WE LOVED:

• Can you name the 101 best written TV series? Well, you don’t have to – you can just read this.
• Was your dad in a band? Maybe he was and you just don’t know it; check out this archive of vintage band and the dads that made them…
• An American teenager says she was recently barred from her senior prom… because her ‘breasts were too big’.

THINGS WE SHARED:

• The photographer behind the massively popular Humans of New York website, Brandon Stanton chatted to some of the visitors at BookExpo America – and taken some of his trademark photographs, of course.
• Their insights are valuable, but they are fractious and frequently wrong: so should we trust the economists?

If you have a co-worker who gets on your wick, try to hide it a little better than these ladies – particularly if you work in broadcasting.

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