EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories that you need to know before you head home for the day.
1. #PEACE PROCESS: Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will meet Queen Elizabeth II and shake hands with her when she visits Belfast next week, Sinn Féin has confirmed. The historic meeting will take place a lunch organised by a cross-community charity on Wednesday. Gerry Adams has described the meeting as a “significant initiative involving major political and symbolic challenges for Irish republicans”.
2. #GREMLINS: Major technical problems are continuing at Ulster Bank this evening with customers unable to access funds due to a lengthy delay in processing payments to customer accounts. The bank says it has identified the root cause of the issue and has promised that the problem will be solved by Monday. It has also apologised for the ongoing issue and said it will refund customers who have incurred fees or charges as a result of the problem.
3. #STIMULUS: The four biggest Eurozone countries have agreed to lobby for a €130 billion stimulus plan at next week’s summit of EU leaders in an effort to kickstart the European economy. The leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy agreed the plan in Rome today, with Italian premier Mario Monti telling a news conference that the steps taken to fix the crisis so far have not been sufficient.
4. #FIRE: The funeral of six children killed in a house fire in Derby in England has taken place today, six weeks after the fatal blaze. More than 200 people attended the funeral service this morning for the Philpott children, who were aged between 5 and 13 years old. The children’s parents, who have been charged with their murder, did not attend the mass.
5. #ALL OVER: Westlife are set to play two sellout concerts at Croke Park tonight and tomorrow as their 14 years together come to an end. To celebrate/commiserate this, we’ve put together this gallery of Westlife through the years. Enjoy.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say