PAISLEY RETIRES - The Rev Ian Paisley will also resign in May as Northern Ireland's First Minister and as DUP party leader. He served one year as head of the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive and is expected to be succeeded by Peter Robinson as new First Minister and DUP leader.

STABLE & PROSPEROUS - Ireland has been ranked as the 7th most stable and prosperous country in the world. The analysis of 235 countries and territories puts Ireland joint seventh with Liechtenstein, the Netherlands and the UK with the US 22nd. The rating system takes into account each nation's political structures, social and economic trends, military and security risks and external relations

GENEALOGICAL RECORDS - A total of 10,974,679 Parish records from all over Ireland are now searchable online on the Irish Family History Foundation website. The Foundation is the coordinating body for a network of government approved genealogical research centers and they claim to have computerized almost 40 million Irish Ancestral records, primarily Church births (baptisms), marriages and deaths. Browsing the index is free, but access to a detailed individual record costs about $8.

NI UNEMPLOYMENT - In the 10 years since the Belfast Agreement, the number of unemployed Catholics in Northern Ireland has gone down from 12% to less than 6%. Although Catholics are still more likely to be unemployed than Protestants, since 1997 the number of Catholics in the workforce has risen by 3% while Protestant numbers fell by about 5%.

RAIDIÓ X - A new Irish language radio station aimed at young people is broadcasting online at www.raidiox.com. The station is being run on a voluntary basis with the backing of Conradh na Gaeilge.

EYE TOOTH - A Mayo man, blinded in an accident in 2005, had his sight restored using his son's tooth. The eye socket was rebuilt, part of the tooth inserted and a lens inserted in a hole drilled in the tooth. It entailed replacing a damaged cornea with a live tooth root and attaching an optical cylinder. See The Irish Independent.

KENNY'S BOOKS - The death took place on March 25 of Maureen Kenny, who with her husband Des opened Kenny's Bookshop in Galway in 1940. Their bookselling business began as a private lending library but over the years earned an international reputation by specializing in rare and antiquarian publications. In 1994, Kennys was the second bookseller in the world to begin selling on-line.

WHISKEY ANNIVERSARY - 2008 is being celebrated as the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the "world's oldest distillery" at Bushmills in Co. Antrim. The whiskey trade in Ireland has existed for over a thousand years. However, it was in 1608 that King James I granted a license for whiskey to be made "within the countie of Colrane, otherwise called O Cahane's country", making Bushmills the first "legal" distillery. At one time there were 1,228 legal distilleries in Ireland, but today only three survive: Middleton, Bushmills, and Cooley, the only Irish-owned distillery. Middleton's Jameson is the largest selling Irish whiskey in the world. Visit Irish Whiskey Distelleries.

KofC SAINT - Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, has been declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI, furthering his process toward canonization. McGivney was born in Connecticut in 1852 to Irish-born immigrant parents. Worried about the financial stability of immigrant families in his parish in New Haven, he founded the KofC in 1882 to provide financial assistance to family members left behind after the death of the breadwinner.

BARKING DEER - The Chinese muntjac, a species of deer about the size of a fox that barks like a dog, has been illegally introduced into in Ireland. It has now established itself in the wild and authorities fear it will cause enormous damage to habitat and crops and will be impossible to control.

DIAMOND DAN - Northern Ireland's Orange Order will call their new cartoon superhero "Diamond Dan, the Orangeman", rejecting suggestions like Sash Gordon and the Boyne Wonder. Losing about 1,000 members annually, the Order hopes the mascot will help attract young members and counteract the institution's reputation for bigotry. For background information on the Loyal Orders, visit the University of Ulster.

POLITICAL TAKES - Northern Ireland's former First Minister David Trimble has belittled Hillary Clinton's claim that she played a key role in Northern Ireland's peace process. However, several people involved on the Nationalist side, including Trimble's fellow Nobel Laureate John Hume, expressed words of support for her. This month is the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement and an anniversary celebration to mark the occasion will be held in Belfast.

IRISH POWER - Samantha Power, the Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prizewinner who resigned last month as a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama following controversial comments about Hillary Clinton, was born in Dublin. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, she moved to the US at the age of nine.

FIXED EASTER - A Galway business organization wants to break a 1,683-year-old tradition and have Easter Sunday on a fixed date each year, ideally the second Sunday in April. The Amicable Society, formed in Galway in 1791, believes that a fixed Easter date would allow schools to plan holidays better and provide a boost to the tourism industry. In 1975, Pope Paul VI, in co-ordination with the World Council of Churches, proposed that Easter 1977 be celebrated on the second Sunday of April, but his proposal was opposed by the Orthodox churches and was never adopted.

IRISH VETERANS - The Irish Veterans Memorial Project works to remember all Irish-born men and women who served in the US military and ancillary services since 1900. If you, or someone you know is an Irish-born Veteran, email details to dectwth@eircom.net.  

IRISH ROYALTY? - A Trinity College Dublin study finds that 1 in 12 Irishmen (and many Scotsmen) share the same Y chromosome, suggesting they are all descended from a 5th-century Irish King called Niall of the Nine Hostages whose descendants ruled Ireland until the 11th century. To test your DNA link, visit Family Tree DNA or join an Irish DNA mail list.

BS STONE - About 400,000 tourists kiss the Blarney Stone each year, but a new book claims the present stone only came into use in 1888 because it is more accessible and safer than the true stone which is much more difficult to reach. The Blarney Stone is reputed to be a piece of the Stone of Scone or 'Stone of Destiny', on which the kings of Scotland were crowned.

BURREN HERITAGE - The Irish Government is actively pursuing efforts to make The Burren in Co. Clare a world heritage site. There are presently only three world heritage sites in Ireland - Newgrange in Co Meath, the Giant's Causeway in Co. Antrim, and the island monastic settlement on Skellig Michael off the coast of Kerry. It is hoped that Clonmacnoise in Co Offaly will attain world heritage status next year.

EUROVISION TURKEY - Dustin, the Irish puppet-turkey being wheeled around the stage on a banged-up shopping cart, has been installed as 10/1 favorite to win the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest which will take place in Belgrade on the 24th of May. To see and hear Dustin, visit Dustin on YouTube.