NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Frank O'Flahery of Gurranabraher and his dog Dripsey and Donal Scanlon of Carrignavar with Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Colm Kelleker at the new 'City Trees' on St Patrick's St.

• HSE chief Paul Reid welcomed calls for the publication of a roadmap on how maternity restrictions will be eased, saying it would be “valuable”
• Residential property prices increased by almost 7% nationwide in the year to June
• Irish people have donated more than one million Covid-19 vaccines to people in some of the world’s poorest countries
• The HSE’s Covid-19 registration portal opened for parents and guardians to register children aged between 12 and 15.

WORLD

A joint military exercise by Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on the Harb-Maidon military training ground, 20km from the border to Afghanistan. 10 August. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#9/11 WITHDRAWAL: Taliban militants seized the Afghanistan provincial capital of Ghazni as they marched towards the capital Kabul.

#ROYAL FAMILY: Britain’s most senior police officer said detectives will re-examine allegations against Prince Andrew due to the US civil suit against him for alleged sexual abuse.

PARTING SHOT

Most people will have seen this Alan Partridge-like sketch of Ireland AM presenter Tommy Bowe put his talented foot in it when reacting to the fact that their next guest had 10 siblings.

Proper David Brent stuff from Tommy Bowe here pic.twitter.com/V1KmiEeHDL

— Rudi Kinsella (@RudiKinsella) August 11, 2021

The guest in question, author and one-of-the-good-ones-on-Twitter Séamus O’Reilly took the moment in his stride, however:

“I’d like to assure everyone sending me this that I DID catch this beautiful moment during my interview this morning. I’d also like to reassure Tommy that there are zero hard feelings as my entire family and I think it’s absolutely hilarious.”

He even shared this moment from his book, where someone’s reaction to the same two striking life events was even more spectacular:

Just to reassure @TommyBowe further, a reminder that this ranks fairly low on the list of reactions I've received to the size of my massive family. As with this example from my book, I've found almost all of them extremely funny indeed. pic.twitter.com/i84vFYypmB

— The Author, Séamas O'Reilly, retweeting praise (@shockproofbeats) August 11, 2021