Yeah, it’s a llama and a goat in the middle of Temple Bar. What of it? Sisters Heather (5) and Caroline Coffey (7) help launch the Family programme of Temple Bar Tradfest, which begins on Tuesday. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

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

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#PUBLIC PAY: Enda Kenny has said the prospect of cutting public pay cannot be ruled out, if negotiations on a follow-up deal to the Croke Park Agreement end without success. Kenny said annual increments were also on the table in order to ensure the government saved an extra €1 billion from the public sector by 2015.

#PROMISSORY NOTES: Meanwhile, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said he expects a deal on the IBRC promissory notes to be reached by the end of March – before the next €3.06 billion repayment is due. Gilmore said he ‘hoped and expected’ talks with the ECB to be concluded within the next ten weeks.

#DONEGAL: Two Gardaí were hospitalised when their squad car was rammed by men trying to escape after Gardaí interrupted an attempted robbery. The two were treated in Letterkenny General Hospital but both have since been discharged. Three juvenile men were arrested, and two are due before court tomorrow.

#UNITED STATES: Four More Years began today in a very literal way, as both Barack Obama and Joe Biden took their oaths of office for another term as President and Vice-President of the United States respectively. Both took oaths in austere ceremonies today, ahead of a more formal public event tomorrow (and here’s why).

#SAVITA: The solicitor representing the husband of Savita Halappanavar has revealed that he and Praveen Halappanavar made a conscious decision to release details of Savita’s death in stages. Gerard O’Donnell told the Law Society Gazette that this was to ensure more consistent media coverage.

#HEINEKEN CUP: Sometimes 20 points just isn’t enough. Leinster’s bonus point win at Exeter last night wasn’t enough to win them a spot in the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup – Munster managed five tries in their demolition of Racing Metro to bump their bitter rivals out of their spot. Both sides are now heading for London: Munster will now face Harlequins in the quarter-final while Leinster’s Amlin Challenge Cup campaign will bring them away to Wasps.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• The attitude of this library to the Lance Armstrong fallout.
• The total nonchalance of this dog on skis. Stuff gets done.
• Some of the comments left in response to our caption competition earlier, when we asked you to put a caption to this photo of Enda Kenny meeting Daniel Day-Lewis. Hat-tip to Vincent Dolan for this one:

DDL: So he’s known mostly for presiding over a civil war…
Taoiseach: Do we have to talk about Eamon Gilmore?

Wouldn’t we love some of that weather? Sri Lankan children play on a road in Colombo today. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

THINGS WE SHARED:

• This interesting tale from Brazil about how authorities are trying to stop illegal logging in the Amazon. Their trick? Fit every tree with a mobile phone. The phones alert authorities whenever anyone comes within a certain distance of them – giving police enough time to arrive and stop frees from being felled.
• The blog of Sophie Schmidt, daughter of former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who followed her father on a recent trip to North Korea. She says you should go if you can – just not in January.
• Finally: you might remember a video we posted a few days ago of the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, after being mangled by having its lyrics translated through every single one of the languages on Google Translate. Well, here’s the even more baffling outcome when you do it to ‘Call Me Maybe’…

(YouTube: CapitalFMNorthEast)

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