Dublin City Council today announced details of the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival.The festival takes place at venues around the capital from Feb 8-22 February marking the Year of the Snake. Full details at www.cny.ie. Pictured at the Hugh Lane Gallery are Oscar Haoyang Sun (7) and Sharu Li (6). (Picture: Jason Clarke Photography.)

HERE ARE THE things we learned, loved and shared today.

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#GARDA DEATH: A state funeral has taken place in Co Louth as Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was laid to rest in Dundalk. Friends, family and thousands of Garda colleagues turned out to bid farewell to the Garda, who was shot dead during a raid on a credit union on Friday night. Attendees heard priest Fr Michael Cusack criticise cuts to frontline Garda services. The league of Credit Unions has offered a €50,000 reward to anyone who has information that could lead to a prosecution.

#HORSE BURGERS: Two major supermarket chains have said they will no longer be using meat products from the Silvercrest Foods plant in Co Monaghan after the horse meat scandal. Tesco and the Co-operative said they no longer had trust in the products they would be provided. In a statement of its own, Silvercrest owner ABP Food Group apologised for 'letting its customers down'.

#HOSPITALS: A HIQA report has uncovered poor hand-washing procedures in many Irish hospitals - which could pose a risk to patient safety because of the hygiene risks.

#PROMISSORY NOTES: Finance minister Michael Noonan has not given up on getting a deal to avoid the €3.06 billion repayment of the promissory notes in March. Noonan told the Dáil he still believed Ireland would get a "good deal" before March 31, and affirmed that Ireland would not default on the repayment if no deal was reached.

#WATER CHARGES: We still don't know exactly how much we might be charged for domestic water usage - but we now know that the meters will be read digitally by cars as they pass by properties.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• Both the fact that a 34-year-old man insists on playing the Spice Girls' 'Viva Forever' very loudly seven days a week, and the fact that he was evicted for doing so. Admirable dedication, disadmirable discharge.
• This video from the funny people of The Poke, which nicely illustrates why you should generally never take a video of yourself working out.
• The vertigo-resistant mind of South Korean self-portrait doyenne Jun Ahn.

A Garda takes a moment to reflect during the funeral of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe at St Joseph's Redemptorist Church, Dundalk. Julien Behal/PA Wire

THINGS WE SHARED:

• This 360-degree view of the room that Julian Assange uses as an office and apartment while he's holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Drag your mouse to move around the room.
• This interesting take on the perils of Twitter nowadays by early adopter Matt Lewis. The social sharing tool was once a vision, he writes. Now it's a prison.
• Okay, we know Gangnam Style is a bit old by now, but if you're one of the 1.25 billion people to have seen the original video, you'll surely appreciate the effort that went into this version of it:

(YouTube: garfieldwtf)

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