ALL BUSINESS - North Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are on a five-day business trip to the US that will culminate in a meeting with President Bush on Friday. While the trip's focus is on investment - Paisley and McGuinness rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday - the visit is also viewed as a dramatic sign of political progress in the North.

1911 CENSUS - Dublin census returns from 1911 can now be accessed online at www.census.nationalarchives.ie. Users can search the digital equivalent of 4,000 reels of microfilm and 3.5 million images. Project organizers hope to have census returns for the rest of Ireland, including details of the 1901 census, online in 2008.

CLANCY FESTIVAL - Liam Clancy, the only surviving member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, last week was in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, to help announce the first Clancy Brothers' Music Festival June 13 - 15, 2008. The Clancy Brothers, with their rousing renditions of drinking and rebel songs, became stars in the US and were in the vanguard of the 1960s folk revival.

COURSING - Coursing has long been a part of Irish rural life and involves greyhounds chasing live hares. A BelfastUniversity study assessing the levels of hare mortality during coursing in Ireland, analyzed records and video footage collected over 20 years and claims that hare coursing presents no threat to the Irish hare population. Since compulsory muzzling of greyhounds was introduced in 1993, mortality dropped from 16% to 4%. For information, visit the Irish Coursing Club website at www.irishcoursingclub.ie.  

POLICE ESCORT - When Cardinal Seán Brady last week returned to Armagh in Northern Ireland after being made a cardinal by Pope Benedict, he was given an escort by the PSNI, Northern Ireland's Police Force. It was the first time the north's police force has provided an escort to a Catholic Cardinal since Ireland was partitioned in 1921.

COLLINS LETTER - A letter written by Michael Collins to Thomas Ashe was sold recently at auction for $384,000. Dated April 1917, the letter contains some caustic comments about Eamon de Valera and Arthur Griffith. Ashe was a 1916 Rebellion leader who died on hunger strike in September 1917 due to complications caused by force-feeding in prison. For information, visit www.rootsweb.com.

BLOODY SUNDAY - The British judicial inquiry into the killing of 13 civilians and wounding of 14 others by British paratroopers in Derry in January 1972 is now expected to issue its final report around mid-2008. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry started in 2000 and heard evidence from 922 witnesses and took statements from a further 1,563.

JELLYFISH KILL - A salmon farm in Glenarm Bay, Co Antrim, was recently wiped out by billions of tiny jellyfishthat destroyed over 100,000 salmon worth $2.9 million. During the attack, the jellyfish covered an area up to 10 square miles to a depth of 36 feet.

ARGENTINE PRIDE - Admiral William Brown, founder of the Argentine Navy, was born in Foxford, Co Mayo, in 1777, and 2007 was the 150th anniversary of his death. To mark the occasion, a statue of Brown was unveiled in Foxford in a ceremony attended by representatives of the Argentine Embassy and the Argentine Navy. Argentina itself has over 500 Brown statues, with several towns and over 1,000 streets also named for him. 

SQUIRREL PROBLEM - Non-native grey squirrels in Ireland may be given contraceptives to prevent them breeding and wiping out the last remaining 40,000 red squirrels. Red squirrels live in harmony with woodland and native wildlife, while greys damage trees, depriving wildlife of food and raiding birds' nests. The grey squirrel was introduced into Ireland in 1911 in Co. Longford and is now to be found in most Irish counties. However, they have not yet crossed the Shannon.

FOREIGN STUDENTS - Almost 12,000 students from 114 countries other than Ireland were studying at Irish universities and colleges during the last academic year. The largest groups were 2,416 from the US, 1,134 from Malaysia and 1,129 from Britain.

IRISH ECHO - To read every word of New York's weekly Irish newspaper, the Irish Echo, go to IrishEcho.com.

IRISH CHARITY - Almost 1,400 people, mostly from Ireland, traveled to South Africa last month to build 203 houses in impoverished FreedomPark, near Cape Town. Each house has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, running water, electricity, and sanitation. The 1,380 volunteers were with the Niall Mellon Township Trust which was launched initially as an Irish project, but in 2007 volunteers participated from the UK, Europe, and America. Every penny donated goes straight to the charity as all administration costs are borne by Irish entrepreneur Niall Mellon.  For more information, visit www.irishtownship.com.

COLORFUL 1913 - The first ever color photographs taken in Ireland were taken on a two month journey through Ireland by two French ladies in 1913 and included shots of Connemara, Galway city, Athlone, Glendalough, Drogheda and the Boyne Valley. For the first time ever, the 50 photos are now on display in Ireland at the National Library in Dublin and each picture is captioned with extracts from the women's travel diary. For information, vist www.nli.ie.

POTÍN - In 1770, there were 2,000 working Potín (Irish moonshine) stills in Ireland producing about two million gallons annually. There was nothing illegal about Potín until the early 1800s when the British government decided to impose an excise duty and the Potín-makers decided they didn't want to pay it.

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