Gracie Gold of The United States falls during her performance at the Ladies short program of the ISU World Team Trophy in Figure Skating in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

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

THINGS WE LEARNED

#SAVITA: The husband of the late Savita Halappanavar has thanked a midwife from Galway University Hospital for being honest about remarks made in relation to Ireland being a Catholic country at the inquest into his wife’s death.

The Coroner’s Court continued to hear evidence today, including details of eight retrospective entries to the 31-year-old’s hospital records.

#COMMUNION MONEY: Joan Burton and the Department of Social Protection have come under fire today for scrapping the grants paid to families with children celebrating their First Holy Communion.

#TOYOTA RECALL: Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda recalled 3.4 million cars because of airbag problems. Up to 40,000 of the vehicles will be recalled from Ireland.

#FUNERAL: The Irish government will be sending a representative to Margaret Thatcher’s funeral next Wednesday. With the Taoiseach and Tánaiste both unavailable, it had to pick from Cabinet ranks. Find out who the chosen one is here.

#JOBSWATCH: Drinks firm Diageo is to close its Waterford brewery by the end of this year, resulting in 21 job losses.

#TOO MUCH: The former head of the IMF mission to Ireland has admitted that the austerity-only policy implemented here was a mistake.

THINGS WE LOVED

Sometimes the rain brings nice things. (Image sent in by reader Eamon McGlade who says, “The rainbow is actually ending on the Dell building – cloud computing!”)

• These seven Irish stories that did warm the cockles of our hearts.
• Margaret Thatcher was not a woman to jump on request. Have you seen this archive footage of her being asked to -literally – do just that?
• The clever lads and ladies at Teehan+Lax labs have used Google Streetview imagery to create super-speedy hyperlapse videos of deadly locations across America. Take a look:

(Credit: Teehan+Lax Labs)

THINGS WE SHARED

From reader Donnchadh MacCobb: one of the largest Tall Ships in the world arrived into Dublin today. The Polish sail training vessel, the Dar Mlodziezy is a whopping 108 metres long. It will be in the capital until Saturday and is well worth a closer look. It is tied up on Sir John Rogerson’s WQuay. (Image: Donnchadh MacCobb, Adventure Training Ireland)

• ‘Dom’s laptop is in Iran’ is, honestly, the best Internet post we’ve read this week.
• Nathaniel Kleitman was known as the “father of modern sleep research” because of his fascinating studies, such as whether he could abide by a 28-hour-day (he couldn’t). The New Yorker’s excellent profile looks at the science of sleeplessness and asks, ‘Why are we all so tired?’
• So, loads of you probably find Ed Sheeran a bit insufferable. That is someone else’s quote, not ours. But this lego video of Lego House is a little bit good.

(YouTube: TheWarnerSound)

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