EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a roundup of the day’s main news – plus any bits and pieces you may have missed…

• Good news for Dublin commuters: free WiFi is to be installed on DART and Dublin rail services “by the summer”, Irish Rail has confirmed. Free wireless internet access is also due to be introduced on Luas trams this year, while Dublin Bus is planning to carry out a pilot scheme on 10 buses this year.
• A new law may make it compulsory to include a father’s name on a child’s birth certificate, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed. Sohail Butt of the Families, Fathers and Friends group said the proposal was welcomed but it would only address “a tiny aspect of the problems with family law”.
• Educations cuts could mean the end of rural Ireland as we know it, the deputy mayor of Co Cork Cllr Declan Hurley warned today ahead of a community meeting to fight increases in pupil-teacher ratios. Hurley said that rural institutions such as post offices, local shops and garda stations were also under threat – adding that such facilities were “the backbone of our society”.
• 75 new jobs have today been announced at Dublin IT companies: OpenJaw Technologies will create 45 jobs in the next two years in Glasnevin, while Sysnet in Carrickmines will add another 30.
• The cost of Ireland’s bailout borrowings is set to rise in the coming months, after the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the European Union’s financial rescue vehicle – which provides cash to the Irish government – to an AA+ rating.
• The decision to pay an adviser to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney almost €40,000 a year above the recommended Government salary cap has been slated as “utter hypocrisy” by Fianna Fáil public expenditure spokesperson Seán Fleming. The maximum salary set out for a special adviser under Department of Finance guidelines is €92,672 – but exception can be made on special application.
• The trial of an Egyptian tycoon who posted a picture to Twitter which “insulted religion” has been postponed. Naguib Sawiris posted an image showing Mickey and Minnie Mouse wearing Islamic clothing – an apparent joke at how it might look if conservatives won power in the first post-Mubarak elections.
• A woman in the United States has received a jail sentence for hiring professional assassin Essam Eid – the same man who was involved in a similar ‘Lying Eyes’ case in Ireland. Marissa Mark pleaded guilty to hiring Eid to kill a woman who was dating her ex-boyfriend; she received a six-year sentence – the same as Irishwoman Sharon Collins for a similar charges.
• You may have seen the giant banner of Abdulhadi Al Khawaja on St Stpehn’s Green – but do you know why a three-storey-high banner of him is hanging from a building in the centre of Dublin? Eoin Lynch explains in TheJournal.ie today.

Salmon fishermen mark the first day of the Scottish Salmon season on the river Tay in Perthshire. (David Cheskin/PA Wire)

• The European Central Bank played a more active role in the bond markets last week than it had done in almost two months – intervening to buy billions of euro worth of bonds of eurozone member states. Data supplied by the ECB this morning showed that the bank had spent €3.766 billion buying the bonds last week, bringing its total portfolio of eurozone shares to €217 billion.
• Pneumonia sufferer Alexis Rodriguez told reporters that he “almost had an asthma attack” after opening a $44 million bill from a New York hospital. Now, we know that hospital bills in the States can be pretty unbelievable but thankfully this was a mistake.
• Rap-mogul Jay-Z has vowed to never again use the word “bitch” in his lyrics following the birth of his daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. In a poem he promised that “the degradation has passed”. Aww how… sweet?
• The reopening of the Light House Cinema in Smithfield, Dublin is to be made official tomorrow. The cinema was closed down last April – a move Local TD Joe Costello said last year would turn the Smithfield area into “a ghost town” - and a Facebook campaign was launched in a bid to save it.
• The national broadcaster has released details of new productions expected to air this spring – including €1.5m dramatisation of what happened ‘below deck’ on the Titanic, and a two-part programme called ‘Undercover Bisphop’ that will ask searching questions about the role of the Catholic Church.

Kudos to the makers of this promotional for Friends’ School Lisburn, which has clocked up more than 100,000 hits at the time of writing. More than 1,000 people – staff and pupils – were involved “highlighting the sense of community” within the school… and the opening music is the theme tune from ‘Friends’ – geddit?

Uploaded by FSLisburn

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